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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

#191

Post by rob74 »

mkii wrote: post #138
ceejayoz wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, there's a /r/AppleCard on Reddit and it was full of examples of reps just making shit up. Completely false information pulled out of their asses.

People are worried over AGI, but I claim it's already here depending on which human population you compare against.

If you compare artificial intelligence with natural stupidity (or rather natural I-don't-give-a-shit), this is bound to happen. Both give wrong answers, but the answers made up by LLMs at least sound more convincing...

Re: Apple pulls plug on Goldman credit-card partnership

#192

Post by victorbjorklund »

zarzavat wrote: post #180
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.

Amex’s business proposition to sellers is “we charge high fees but a lot of rich people have Amex so you (the seller) should suck it up and accept us anyway” Sure that works if you’re selling perfume or handbags, but if you’re a family restaurant then rich people and regular people eat the same quantity of food, your margins are low, why accept it? Moreover Amex is pretty rare outside of certain markets. If only fore…

One thing that never made sense to me is that im sure 99% of all the rich people who have amex also got at least another card. If you dont take amex wont those people just use another card.

Re: Apple pulls plug on Goldman credit-card partnership

#193

Post by mocheeze »

DaiPlusPlus wrote: post #183
astura wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Surely the grand total of Costco’s US credit-card fees can’t amount to more than a percentage-of-a-percentage of all credit-card spending in the country? ...otherwise WalMart and other major retailers (Amazon?) would have partnered with a single credit-card network to benefit too

Walmart and Kroger have had their own disputes with Visa (for one example) and (at least Kroger) started blocking some of their cards at select chains in order to negotiate a better deal. Costco has super tight margins. The the point that when their execs are talking about the price of goods they don't say, "[Item] is $70." No, they say, "[Item] is 69.99." Their culture is about every last penny of the margin. Their money comes from memberships.

Re: Apple pulls plug on Goldman credit-card partnership

#194

Post by jwr »

xyst wrote: post #116
giobox wrote: post #8

Seemingly both sides have wanted out of this deal, earlier in the year there was another WSJ report with Goldman wanting to end it as well: > https://www.wsj.com/articles/goldman-is-looking-for-a-way-ou... The earlier story from June suggested Amex might take it over.

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.

> On the consumer side, I tend to see Amex as not widely accepted. Especially drops when traveling.

As a B2B SaaS owner, I don't accept Amex, because they make me jump through extra hoops. I process all cards through Braintree, but Amex requires an extra agreement directly with them, and they make the process of signing those agreements really difficult and obnoxious. I have better things to do with my time.

I did a quick search, here's a partial list of what was required:

· Please provide a scanned copy of Passports for authorized signers and Beneficial Owners.

· Please provide a scanned copy of Certificate of incorporation

· Please Provide a Completed Multi Currency form, Attached

· Please provide a completed and Signed Side Letter, Attached

· Please provide a completed and Signed W8 BEN form, Attached

(BTW, I am not based in the US, so "W8 BEN" reads like Klingon to me).

Re: Apple pulls plug on Goldman credit-card partnership

#195

Post by lycopodiopsida »

ulfw wrote: post #188
n_ary wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whelp, here in Germany many Starbucks and McDonalds, as well as some restaurants(middle to high end) immediately decline(or block Amex payment at counter), though if I am a bit sneaky and use Apple Pay method they can't see it and sometimes actually work. The issue with other cards here(Germany) is, everything is fake credit, i.e. my Visa/MasterCard is just "Debit" and immediately books paid amount from my bank and s…

What you describe for your particular Amex card isn't a real credit card either. That's a charge card. Germany doesn't do real credit cards much (if at all?)

It does, he could get one from Hanseatic Bank for free, DKB had a proper credit card for years (now with s fee). They are mostly fee-ridden, since germans don’t like them very much (cultural thing?) and they are offered as an extra.

Re: Apple pulls plug on Goldman credit-card partnership

#196

Post by jesterson »

ceejayoz wrote: post #82
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, there's a /r/AppleCard on Reddit and it was full of examples of reps just making shit up. Completely false information pulled out of their asses.

isn't it the case with every company out there? I had the same style reps with every financial institution including AMEX.

Re: Apple pulls plug on Goldman credit-card partnership

#197

Post by hagy »

symlinkk wrote: post #165
etrautmann wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The default settlement account, Vanguard Federal Money Market Fund, has incredibly low credit risk because its assets are short-term US Federal gov debt and Federal Reserve repurchase agreements. [1] Neither of those entities have substantial default risk. Further, the global financial chaos of significant defaults from either of those entities would likely render FDIC insurance ineffective because too many banks would fail simultaneously due to their assets in those classes.

[1] https://investor.vanguard.com/investment-products/mutual-fun...

Re: Apple pulls plug on Goldman credit-card partnership

#198

Post by em500 »

morpheuskafka wrote: post #190
buildbot wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I think the opposite is true, people think Apple is the lender and have no idea who GS Bank is even thought it’s literally in huge type on the card. If you look at r/AppleCard people are constantly complaining about “Apple” doing something they don’t like with their account.

Their entire marketing shtick is that you're getting an Apple Card, rather than any random MasterCard or GS card. Just look at this page https://www.apple.com/apple-card/, if they brand it so prominently as their own, they should also own the problems.

Re: Apple pulls plug on Goldman credit-card partnership

#199

Post by justincormack »

petemir wrote: post #61
lxgr wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What would that change? Amex acceptance in the US is basically ubiquitous, and how would a new type of Amex change things abroad?

If the Amex partnership includes global (or at least, European) expansion (which seems more plausible than with GS), it may generate extra pressure on vendors to accept it. iPhone market share is quite high in Europe(~35%), and I’d guess mostly comes from high spending sectors (e.g. 56% in Swirzerland, 50% in UK). I would try to attract their business.

The Apple card was only available in USA. So market share abroad is not really relevant. Card margins are much lower elsewhere so its not such an attractive product.
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