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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

#161

Post by TrueGeek »

nickthegreek wrote: post #52
hedgehog wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Ugh, please no! I think it’d be cooler if it was lighter and slimmer than other cards, not 4x as heavy.

Re: Apple pulls plug on Goldman credit-card partnership

#162

Post by SOLAR_FIELDS »

spike021 wrote: post #85
Ajay-p wrote: post #27

I only got the card because I wanted a neat piece of titanium. I used it a few times and then cancelled it. Was I the only one?

I rarely use it because my Chase Preferred has more offers/benefits. Mostly these days it's used for Apple payments like iCloud for the extra percent back in cash.

Ah, that is a decent use case. Seems like it would only net you a few bucks more back a year than chase points if you're, say, buying the Apple One Family plan though. I also have both the Apple card and the Chase Reserve and end up using the Chase card exclusively because it has better benefits, and can really probably only recommend the Apple one for people who rarely travel and buy a lot of Apple products. The Chase ones pay for themselves across one weeklong vacation. If you use them as daily drivers (e.g. funnel all of your expenses through them) you can usually buy several plane tickets a year on points alone

Re: Apple pulls plug on Goldman credit-card partnership

#163

Post by nemothekid »

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.

I thought the EU had regulations on credit card fees? As I understand it, the Amex isn't widely supported because Amex's fee-heavy business model wouldn't be allowed to launch.

Visa's highest tier cards (Visa Infinite cards, such as the Chase Sapphire Reserve), already have higher fees than the Amex Platinum. The difference is, Visa won't let merchants ban single cards (you have to accept ALL Visa cards), while banning Amex meaning you are banning mostly high tier cards and losing nothing on the low end.

Re: Apple pulls plug on Goldman credit-card partnership

#164

Post by symlinkk »

wsc981 wrote: post #144
xyst wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That would be cool. Amex support way better than GS that’s for sure. Would suck for retailers though. Amex fees among the highest when compared to other networks and issuing banks. On the consumer side, I tend to see Amex as not widely accepted. Especially drops when traveling.

I got an Amex card and I think it kinda sucks. Many businesses in Thailand don't accept Amex, I think due to the high fees. At some point I want to change my card (once I can get a credit card from a bank in Thailand, cause my Amex card is from The Netherlands). Would be much better if Apple would get with MasterCard. Based on my experience, no issues anywhere.

Doesn’t work in Costco. Visa works everywhere.

Re: Apple pulls plug on Goldman credit-card partnership

#165

Post by symlinkk »

etrautmann wrote: post #124
0cf8612b2e1e wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are there any alternatives to Marcus? It has felt like too good of a deal to last.

Cash just sitting untouched in my Vanguard account's default money market is earning more than my Marcus account. I had to transfer everything out of Marcus because there was no point in using it.

That isn’t FDIC insured like Marcus (or other HYSA) are.

Re: Apple pulls plug on Goldman credit-card partnership

#166

Post by astura »

symlinkk wrote: post #164
wsc981 wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I got an Amex card and I think it kinda sucks. Many businesses in Thailand don't accept Amex, I think due to the high fees. At some point I want to change my card (once I can get a credit card from a bank in Thailand, cause my Amex card is from The Netherlands). Would be much better if Apple would get with MasterCard. Based on my experience, no issues anywhere.

Doesn’t work in Costco. Visa works everywhere.

Costco only accepts whatever credit card the Costco credit card currently is. Right now that's Visa, but it used to be American Express before 2016, ironically.

Supposedly this exclusively allows them to negotiate down the fee really low.

Re: Apple pulls plug on Goldman credit-card partnership

#167

Post by dublinben »

throwaway2037 wrote: post #156
giobox wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fact the Apple card was a Mastercard and had no foreign transaction fees was largely the only reason I opened it, as I too find my Amex a pain in the ass in Europe. If it does become an Amex card, I will likely close the account.

no foreign transaction fees In an FX transaction, what is the difference between a trading fee and a wider spread? Nothing. (Why do people keep falling for this?) What you really want to see is a combined promise. For example: No fees, plus 1% or less FX spread on major currencies. (My preferred credit card promises that.) Honestly, it is very hard to pay a total of less than 1% on foreign transactions. Still, this i…

You can look up what MasterCard's conversion rate is: https://www.mastercard.us/en-us/personal/get-support/convert...

For a major currency pair, like EUR-USD or JPY-USD, you can see that it's less than a tenth of a cent off the 'real' rate.

Re: Apple pulls plug on Goldman credit-card partnership

#168

Post by [deleted] »

arcdigital wrote: post #66
notatoad wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

This is not true. Anyone in the US who has told you this is confused or getting ripped off by a predatory ISO (the companies that offer credit card processing). Numbers below are only looking at the percentage, not the flat per txn fee or the other fees like assessments, etc... Only apply to the US. Also assuming you do less than 1 million a year in card volume. First let's look at actual merchant services costs: Str…

[deleted]

Re: Apple pulls plug on Goldman credit-card partnership

#169

Post by FireBeyond »

buildbot wrote: post #72
arthurofbabylon wrote: post #44

Goldman Sachs’s customer service was surprisingly bad – I imagine that factor alone is a sufficient threat to Apple’s brand, worthy of terminating the arrangement.

Yeah I had an awful experience working with them - which is confusing to consumers I’m sure when the text chat is literally addressed to Apple through iMessage and GS just takes over from that.

Certainly for some things (credit line increases) they make it very clear in the app that you "are being sent to our partners at Goldman" in the support messages.

Re: Apple pulls plug on Goldman credit-card partnership

#170

Post by dublinben »

throwaway2037 wrote: post #158
arcdigital wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is not true. Anyone in the US who has told you this is confused or getting ripped off by a predatory ISO (the companies that offer credit card processing). Numbers below are only looking at the percentage, not the flat per txn fee or the other fees like assessments, etc... Only apply to the US. Also assuming you do less than 1 million a year in card volume. First let's look at actual merchant services costs: Str…

This reply is awesome. How do you know all of this?

MasterCard and Visa openly publish this information. I can't easily find a similar reference for AmEx, but this isn't secret.

https://www.mastercard.us/content/dam/public/mastercardcom/n...

https://usa.visa.com/content/dam/VCOM/download/merchants/vis...

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