Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Apple pulls plug on Goldman credit-card partnership

wsj.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 287 posts

Re: Apple pulls plug on Goldman credit-card partnership

#51

Post by toomuchtodo »

CydeWeys wrote: post #48
toomuchtodo wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I suppose it’s going to depend on how many willing partners are out there with an appetite to be beholden to Big Tech as the smaller partner with less leverage. Evolve just dumped a bunch of fintech partners over the last year (conversely, they were aggressive in who they were willing to partner with), and moving is not trivial. While Apple has deep pockets, I’m sure engineering time is better spent delighting users vs engineering around partner churning.

https://fintechbusinessweekly.substack.com/p/evolves-problem...

Re: Apple pulls plug on Goldman credit-card partnership

#52

Post by nickthegreek »

hedgehog wrote: post #39
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…

I imagine they'll replace the physical cards as the existing ones have Goldman's name on the back. The transition could otherwise be nearly invisible, the Goldman name and actual card numbers don't show up often in normal usage.

New card better have the same weight and feel! It’s what made me want to sign up if I am being perfectly honest. I mostly tap to pay but enjoy getting the card out every once in awhile.

Re: Apple pulls plug on Goldman credit-card partnership

#53

Post by ROFISH »

Sayrus wrote: post #23
wdb wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

In France, the fees required to accept Amex are still way higher than MC/VISA. They are still not widely accepted and not a lot of persons know about Amex.

The fees are higher everywhere. Their pitch is "our fees are higher, but we have higher-end customers who spend more", which roughly tracks with reality. But a hot dog stand isn't gonna have whales but an upper-end store might, so it's not surprising to see less support it.

Re: Apple pulls plug on Goldman credit-card partnership

#54

Post by sgerenser »

notatoad wrote: post #33
petemir wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hate that it works this way, but perhaps an Apple-Amex deal is what is needed for businesses to start accepting Amex. Edit: typo

lower fees is what is needed for businesses to start accepting amex. visa and mastercard are 2-3%, amex is 5-6%. there's no upside for merchants to accept transactions where they have to pay double the processing fees

The difference is not that high. In fact, my understanding is “Visa Signature” and “World Mastercard” (which are most of the premium credit cards) normally cost about the same as Amex. At worst it may be about 1% more not double.

Re: Apple pulls plug on Goldman credit-card partnership

#56

Post by bigyikes »

tristanb wrote: post #37
flwjliwjle wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I tried to use it a few times and then cancelled it. It got declined a lot and no explanation was ever given.

I've had it since it launched. I make thousands of transactions a month. I've never had a decline.

Now I wanna know how you make thousands of transactions a month. Even 1000 per month would be 30+ transactions per day?

Re: Apple pulls plug on Goldman credit-card partnership

#57

Post by bigyikes »

function_seven wrote: post #46
dimmke wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Where do you find better rewards for general purposes? I know there are plenty of better cards for travel, and I think there’s a few that are better for dining and other misc stuff, but Apple Card (w/ Apple Pay) seems to be the best in general at 2% for any purchase?

Re: Apple pulls plug on Goldman credit-card partnership

#58

Post by s0ph0n »

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…

This is the perfect opportunity for them to acquire Apple Bank https://www.applebank.com/

Re: Apple pulls plug on Goldman credit-card partnership

#59

Post by herpdyderp »

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 had some issues at launch with the service rejecting billing addresses but that was ironed out in the first month or so. Since then it's been flawless for me. Way better than all of my other banking services.

Re: Apple pulls plug on Goldman credit-card partnership

#60

Post by mi_lk »

tristanb wrote: post #37
flwjliwjle wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I tried to use it a few times and then cancelled it. It got declined a lot and no explanation was ever given.

I've had it since it launched. I make thousands of transactions a month. I've never had a decline.

Thousands? What do you buy if you don't mind sharing?
Post reply on HN