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Apple pulls plug on Goldman credit-card partnership

wsj.com

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Re: Apple pulls plug on Goldman credit-card partnership

#41

Post by tristanb »

flwjliwjle wrote: post #28

Good. They should shut down the whole Apple Card program. It was awful. I had an Apple card for two months. In those two months, I had more inexplicably declined transactions than in the other twenty years with other cards combined. Every single time I called support and Goldman Sachs pointed at Apple and Apple pointed at Goldman Sachs and the problem never got resolved. They both did an astonishingly bad job.

I replied to your other comment - I've not had this experience. Its been a rarely positive fintech experience for me.

Re: Apple pulls plug on Goldman credit-card partnership

#42

Post by jrockway »

herpdyderp wrote: post #25
malwarebytess wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm more interested in the savings account integration. I've found it super convenient. Too low APR for long term savings, but the convenience is worth the difference to me for short term savings parking. I keep $30K or so in it revolving for moving money around. Not to mention the cashback deposit right to the account.

> Too low APR for long term savings What APR is your baseline for long term savings? I'm interested in where you see significantly higher APR savings accounts because the Apple Card Savings Account is 400x my previous savings account APR.

I don't have a savings account but buy CDs on a regular basis. For the next two years, I have something between 5% and 6% maturing every 3 months. Apple Card Savings is 4.15%.

So you can definitely do better than the Apple Card, but to some extent you're paying bankers to do what I do manually every 3 months. (You just pay them in "spread"; they're buying the same CDs I am, but keeping some of the profits to themselves. And letting you withdraw the money whenever you want, not just when the underlying CD matures. I get only a small amount of interest on my "what if I get fired and need to eat for 3 months until the next CD matures?" fund, sitting in my checking account.)

I never bother with actual savings accounts because in a year or two interest rates will be back down to 0.0000001% or whatever, in which case just holding the cash in my brokerage account is easier. (At least it gets swept into an overnight account that earns 0.0000015% interest! Wow!)

Re: Apple pulls plug on Goldman credit-card partnership

#43

Post by geodel »

balderdash wrote: post #7

I’m curious why Apple is moving to terminate as opposed to getting GS to buy them out of their contract?

As market get saturated with Apple devices and new sales are lower becoming finance company can keep generating growth and returns wall is street looking for.

Re: Apple pulls plug on Goldman credit-card partnership

#46

Post by function_seven »

dimmke wrote: post #34
balderdash wrote: post #7

I’m curious why Apple is moving to terminate as opposed to getting GS to buy them out of their contract?

My theory about the Apple Card: Goldman Sachs is not setup to be a direct consumer bank. This caused a lot of problems: * The ease of sign up / approval led to a lot of subprime approvals that might not have gone through with a more established lender. Not only did this cause GS to lose money on delinquent accounts, it prevented the Apple Card from ever becoming a status symbol. * Goldman Sachs developed a reputation…

I didn't know about the rep GS has gotten regarding fraud charges. My main card is a Chase one as well. Everything else is spot on. I use the Apple Card only for buying stuff from Apple (for the 3% cash back), or when I accidentally select it from my watch at the vending machine.

Rewards are much better on other cards, even if they're not as simple as cash dropped into your account on the daily.

Re: Apple pulls plug on Goldman credit-card partnership

#47

Post by yieldcrv »

giobox wrote: post #11
parl_match wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The rumor is that Apple Card will move to Amex. WSJ says 12-15 months, but AppleCard is contractually obligated to use the MC network until 2025. I can't imagine they'll close all those accounts, so likely we'll see some sort of migration leading up.

This would be a bit of a detractor for me, Amex is not as widely accepted, especially when traveling in Europe. Mastercard is accepted virtually everywhere in the EU and UK.

My experience with Amex the last 5 years is that its just as well accepted in Europe as it is in US.

Not data driven, just been to a lot of countries for extended durations.

The random restauranteur or merchant that doesnt take it is just as rare and random in both environments.

Re: Apple pulls plug on Goldman credit-card partnership

#48

Post by CydeWeys »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #6
arcdigital wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm assuming it will be just like any other time a card portfolio is sold or transferred (Costco Card: Amex -> Citi, REI Card: US Bank -> Capital One, GM Card: Capital One -> Marcus (which is Goldman, ironically I think they want to get rid of this card too), etc...). Unless Apple discontinues the card completely, they will choose a new bank, that bank will take on the existing portfolio, everyone will get new cards…

Great benefits for Apple Card users to have Apple abstract all the drudgery away. Experience is the differentiator, back office is a commodity. What’s left is to make Apple Cash a deposit account with FedNow instant payment rails access. Buy a distressed regional bank to get a charter if needed. Every iPhone user then becomes a potential banking customer (136M US iPhone users, compared to 66M JPMC household customers…

There are lots of downsides to actually becoming a bank, though. It creates many restrictions on the kinds of things you can do, and unless it's the majority of your business, it's not something you want. Better to work with banks but not be a bank yourself.

Re: Apple pulls plug on Goldman credit-card partnership

#50

Post by kmbfjr »

wdb wrote: post #14
giobox wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This would be a bit of a detractor for me, Amex is not as widely accepted, especially when traveling in Europe. Mastercard is accepted virtually everywhere in the EU and UK.

Yeah, I had an Amex card and it was pretty useless in Europe. Admittingly that was more than five years ago so maybe things have improved by now.

I have used my AMEX in The Netherlands and Belgium…once.

The foreign transaction fees are steep.

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