Apple announces Apple Card credit card • Hacker News Board

Re: Apple announces Apple Card credit card

#601

Post by noelsusman » Mon, Mar 25, 2019, 10:42 PM UTC

ralusek wrote: post #189

throwawaysea wrote: post #172

I don't thing it is healthy to have big entities like this control fundamental services like payment processing. How long before the opaque governance of the App Store is applied to their payments offering? How long before activists start making this a new vector for deplatforming? Apple also announced a news offering ( https://www.techradar.com/news/apple-news-plus ) and I think the same concerns apply there.

Look no further than the recent issue where Patreon competitor Subscribestar had payment processors Stripe and PayPal stop processing their payments for _political_ disagreements with the purported beneficiaries of the donations through the platform. PayPal said that it was actually one of the underlying payment processors, and it was suspected to be MasterCard. That incident was the first time I've ever taken the ne…

SubscribeStar was composed almost entirely of people banned from Patreon for various reasons, including things like dropping n-bombs in videos and blocking search-and-rescue boats from saving migrants in the Mediterranean. It's not surprising that big, mainstream companies don't want to touch that with a ten foot pole.

Patreon has also banned various leftist sites for things like doxxing and posting instructions on how to commit terrorism, but that doesn't get as much attention for some reason.

Re: Apple announces Apple Card credit card

#602

Post by m3at » Mon, Mar 25, 2019, 10:45 PM UTC

This blog post [1] from 2016 seems prescient, linking Apple's stance on privacy with it's hypothesized desire to become a bank. It was a good read, hence why it jumped back to mind 3 years later.

Key point:

"Here's my theory: Apple see their long term future as including a global secure payments infrastructure that takes over the role of Visa and Mastercard's networks—and ultimately of spawning a retail banking subsidiary to provide financial services directly, backed by some of their cash stockpile. "

---------

[1] http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2016/03/follow-t...

Re: Apple announces Apple Card credit card

#603

Post by Forbo » Mon, Mar 25, 2019, 10:46 PM UTC

ehsankia wrote: post #544

bradfitz wrote: post #501

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can see what sure looks a mag stripe at 2m58s in the video at https://www.theverge.com/2019/3/25/18277417/apple-pay-credit... Disappointing.

I'm curious to know what the percentage of places are that 1. Support contactless 2. support chip 3. only support swiping. Secondly, I wonder if they can, for example, have a different number on the swipe, and have that number require extra security (such as approving each transaction on your phone).

The vast majority of gas pumps I've used are swipe only.

Re: Apple announces Apple Card credit card

#604

Post by briandear » Mon, Mar 25, 2019, 10:46 PM UTC

icelancer wrote: post #586

miguelrochefort wrote: post #563

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Americans don't realize how good they have it. A few years ago, I made a list of over 100 things that are available/possible in the US but not in Canada. It almost made me feel like Canada was a third world country. I'm sure I could find it. Here are some examples I can remember: - Amazon Prime - Amazon selection and prices - Amazon Dash - Amazon groceries - Amazon third-party selling - Free shipping in most online s…

> Americans don't realize how good they have it. Some of us do (me, for example). Travel enough and you realize what is actually awesome about America. But complaining is something Americans do exceptionally well. It is at our core. Just how it is.

And complaining about Americans is something the rest of the world does pretty well.

Re: Apple announces Apple Card credit card

#605

Post by max76 » Mon, Mar 25, 2019, 10:47 PM UTC

frenchie4111 wrote: post #580

onlyrealcuzzo wrote: post #305

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The percentage fee is 1, for rewards necessary to get people to use the card and 2, to cover fraud which is actually a MASSIVE problem and 3, to cover defaults/payment issues. The per-transaction fee existed to cover the additional cost of building out the network (literally running cables and wires to the merchants' stores) and providing card readers. The network is already built and has been paid for THOUSANDS of t…

I have heard running a "cartel" a few times in this thread. I don't understand this term. Could you explain what you mean by that?

A cartel is when a few organizations control something of economic value and act as a single entity in the market. For example, the 1973 oil crisis was caused when OPEC proclaimed an oil embargo. OPEC, controlling the oil market, acted as a group to greatly reduce the supply of oil to the United States (and other ally countries) for political purposes.

EDIT: In this case, payment processing is controlled by a few organizations. They have agreed to raise their prices at the same time, instead of free market style competition for the lowest price. They can do this because very few companies can do payment processing and it is very hard to become a payment processing company.

Re: Apple announces Apple Card credit card

#606

Post by daveheq » Mon, Mar 25, 2019, 10:47 PM UTC

Well, if the banks won't do Apple Pay right, I guess Apple will have to do it themselves.

Re: Apple announces Apple Card credit card

#607

Post by daveheq » Mon, Mar 25, 2019, 10:48 PM UTC

photonios wrote: post #449

I got all excited and then realized that almost none of the new services that were announced will offer me anything as a European. Apple Card most likely won't be coming to Europe any time soon. The streaming service is also not likely to come to Europe as it includes US-only services such as Hulu and Amazon Prime. I am aware that this is a bit of a 1st world problem, but all of these services being US-only can be re…

I've been blocked from shows "not available in the US", so it's not just a European issue. It's just a copyright thing.

Re: Apple announces Apple Card credit card

#608

Post by davidb_ » Mon, Mar 25, 2019, 10:52 PM UTC

noelsusman wrote: post #601

ralusek wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Look no further than the recent issue where Patreon competitor Subscribestar had payment processors Stripe and PayPal stop processing their payments for _political_ disagreements with the purported beneficiaries of the donations through the platform. PayPal said that it was actually one of the underlying payment processors, and it was suspected to be MasterCard. That incident was the first time I've ever taken the ne…

SubscribeStar was composed almost entirely of people banned from Patreon for various reasons, including things like dropping n-bombs in videos and blocking search-and-rescue boats from saving migrants in the Mediterranean. It's not surprising that big, mainstream companies don't want to touch that with a ten foot pole. Patreon has also banned various leftist sites for things like doxxing and posting instructions on h…

SubscribeStar servicing assholes doesn't make that level of collateral damage acceptable, though I do agree it is not surprising.

https://twitter.com/realsexycyborg/status/107369726493205299...

> I am not alt right, I am not a nazi. I've been on @SubscribeStar since @Vice terminated my @Patreon account in May. I haven't even recovered from that hit to my income. I am tired of being acceptable collateral damage in your culture wars. You sacrifice your livelihood- not mine.

Re: Apple announces Apple Card credit card

#609

Post by Marsymars » Mon, Mar 25, 2019, 10:57 PM UTC

lgleason wrote: post #259

This should be interesting to watch. Most of the big issues are moving online payments over to a 3d secure spec. 3DS is analogous to what the chip and pin did for physical credit cards when upgrading from magnetic strips. The thing is, it requires the capturing of all of the information Apple claims to not be gathering and then some....in fact, depending on the device you are using it on some of the data capture for…

> Most of the big issues are moving online payments over to a 3d secure spec.

Are they? I had to look this up to see that it's referring to the "Verified by Visa" and "MasterCard SecureCode" products. I had to sign up years ago (2007 for Visa, 2011 for Mastecard) for each of these for some online purchase, but can probably count on a single hand the number of times I've used them, and I think at this point it's been years since I've used either.

Re: Apple announces Apple Card credit card

#610

Post by jamesrom » Mon, Mar 25, 2019, 10:59 PM UTC

daveheq wrote: post #607

photonios wrote: post #449

I got all excited and then realized that almost none of the new services that were announced will offer me anything as a European. Apple Card most likely won't be coming to Europe any time soon. The streaming service is also not likely to come to Europe as it includes US-only services such as Hulu and Amazon Prime. I am aware that this is a bit of a 1st world problem, but all of these services being US-only can be re…

I've been blocked from shows "not available in the US", so it's not just a European issue. It's just a copyright thing.

More of a licensing deal thing. Someone has the rights to distribute the show, it's just that it's really not clear who/how/where to get it. That or the price is so inflated that it's really not worth it.

We have the same problem here in Australia.