Are you interested in the Apple Credit Card?

[JaredVannett]

By now, you've probably heard about the upcoming Apple Credit Card:

https://www.apple.com/apple-card/

Here's a recap of the numbers:

1. fee free
2. 2% cashback on purchases made with Apple Pay or 3% if used in apple store
3. shiny titanium physical card - however cashback is restricted to 1% on this payment method.

Worth pointing out the physical card won't feature a contactless chip.


Naturally, iOS will provide all sorts of metrics and tools to help manage finances - a possible threat to the smaller fintechs who have made similar apps?

Regardless of critical views, I can see this being a massive success for Apple with younger generations. In this #instagram "look at what i'm eating" world, whipping out an Apple Titanium credit card at the bar can do a lot for your status.


Your thoughts?

[Luke.]

No.

[Integroo]

I think it will be a hit, cool card, appears to be good metrics etc. Cashback is fairly competitive too. I don't get 2% on my AmEx! Might get it myself.

[Nickbrapp]

2% cash back is great, 85% of my transactions at with Apple Pay, the weekly shop, bits and bobs etc the only time I don’t use it is when shops don’t accept it or the limit it too high, Which only happened in John Lewis when I bought a new TV

[hyphen]

JaredVannett said:

and whipping out an Apple Titanium credit card at the bar can do a lot for your status.


Your thoughts?

It's not an exclusive club though? Not like amex where you have to be invited + have to pay hundreds a year as a fee. Anyone can only for this one and free.

Also if card isn't contactless, and lower cashback it won't get used much. And if you pay with phone you can't tell which card was used I imagine?

So don't think status will apply.

Also no mention of balance transfers and interest free periods - that is crucial for the Instagram generation who spend early working life's consuming over their earnings and just servicing debt.

[NDA]

Yes, maybe.

I like the idea of all the metrics. I use my iPhone for pretty much everything - so a partner card would perhaps be more seamless than my current card.

It's a pity it doesn't have a contactless chip - I don't like using my phone for the underground barriers.

[nikaiyo2]

100% will get one, they look cool, why would you not want one?

[number2]

No late payment fees or penalties, only accrued interest?

It looks 'cool'. Perhaps too much so... making spending on credit look 'cool' with minimal penalty could lead a lot of younger folk into financial trouble... I'm assuming the market is 18-30 iphone/apple ecosystem consumers.

Anyway, not for me, but does look good for those that use Apple

[DonkeyApple]

hyphen said:

It's not an exclusive club though? Not like amex where you have to be invited + have to pay hundreds a year as a fee. Anyone can only for this one and free.

Also if card isn't contactless, and lower cashback it won't get used much. And if you pay with phone you can't tell which card was used I imagine?

So don't think status will apply.

Also no mention of balance transfers and interest free periods - that is crucial for the Instagram generation who spend early working life's consuming over their earnings and just servicing debt.

I think you’re looking at the exclusivity from too high a perspective. Down on the ground it will be exclusive because the average street peasant has to make do with an Android device.

I suspect that merchant fees will be high though if Apple are taking 2% off them for their customers and probably 3% for themselves which may risk Apple Pay being excluded by many merchants as they used to exclude Amex.

I suspect it will be a hit but I think more than anything it is highlighting that Apple are hitting the buffers in terms of mega growth in their core field and having to branch out into more scrappy and traditional areas to find growth

[alock]

JaredVannett said:

https://www.apple.com/apple-card/

Your thoughts?

If they are reinventing the credit card in a similar way to how that website has reinvented scrolling then they can keep it.

[bad company]

Does anyone know if they’ll be FOREX fees? That’s a killer for me.

[matrignano]

Lovely, until you read the T&Cs

Not issued by a bank
"Issued by Goldman Sachs Bank USA, Salt Lake City Branch."

Low interest rates
"Variable APRs range from 13.24% to 24.24% based on creditworthiness. Rates as of March 2019."

[NicoG]

I don't get the point of the Goldman Sachs MasterCard that appear at the bottom?
Is that the reverse side of the same card?

[xeny]

JaredVannett said:

By now, you've probably heard about the upcoming Apple Credit Card:

1. 2% cashback on purchases made with Apple Pay or 3% if used in apple store

Your thoughts?

Is that going to be the case in the UK though? I thought credit card service merchant charge were higher in the US than in the EU?

[matrignano]

NicoG said:

I don't get the point of the Goldman Sachs MasterCard that appear at the bottom?
Is that the reverse side of the same card?

Any credit card needs to have a bank, or rather a supervised legal entity with a banking license, to process payments in the back end.

That's why I find it so misleading when they say "designed by Apple, not a bank". While technically true, they still need to rely on a bank unless Apple decide to seek regulatory supervision themselves.

Not sure why they picked GS either as they aren't a big player in the payments area, as far as I'm aware.

[number2]

matrignano said:

NicoG said:

I don't get the point of the Goldman Sachs MasterCard that appear at the bottom?
Is that the reverse side of the same card?

Any credit card needs to have a bank, or rather a supervised legal entity with a banking license, to process payments in the back end.

That's why I find it so misleading when they say "designed by Apple, not a bank". While technically true, they still need to rely on a bank unless Apple decide to seek regulatory supervision themselves.

Not sure why they picked GS either as they aren't a big player in the payments area, as far as I'm aware.

Yup, bit like many other cards available in the UK - a name with a bank behind it!

Didn't GS recently launch a retail savings account that was being talked about on here?

[matrignano]

Yes, Marcus.

But payments processing is a different ball game, although I'm sure much of the technology will be shared.

[tigerkoi]

It’s a multi-angle play by Apple.

There was no deep secret that Apple were looking to get further into the payments world for years. And just as Goldman were looking to space out towards Retail (first phase with Marcus, then aim to operate as platform provider with a suitable partner), together they can fit for now. On top of that, they don’t really want to go the whole hog and gain banking licenses for multiple jurisdictions - feed off a willing partner. Mutual gain.

Apple have been known to play rough with some payments providers - when ApplePay was nascent, some banks with their own prop platforms did find out that Tim Cook might just let his feelings be known if there was any clash/competition.

Ecosystem, of course: it makes sense with the breadth of offerings - iTunes, App Store, TV+, in store purchasing etc etc, to then have that crack hit of the finance bit too. Additionally, after all these years Apple wants to square off to the Chinese. When a couple of years ago Berkshire Hathaway predicted that the likes of WeChat and Alibaba were most likely to threaten the Visas and Amexes of this world, it did make other tech companies sit up.

With your iTunes etc backed up by an AMEX or Mastercard, now they see a chance to block out some of the competition and gain a % of the payments fees for themselves.

It’s not remotely aspirational. A titanium card in of itself certainly doesn’t attract someone who has a Coutts Silk or AMEX Plat/Centurion charge card. And that field tends not to care/need for cashback or anything like that.

The card/finance play is simply about fitting in pieces to a wider jigsaw.

[Zoon]

Assuming the cashback percentage translates to the UK when launched I can see it doing quite well.
However aspiring to have a certain credit card is a bit pathetic.
After all Coutts may as well have Nat West printed on it.

[Hoofy]

JaredVannett said:

Worth pointing out the physical card won't feature a contactless chip.

Your thoughts?

So I have to type the PIN in on <£30 payments? Or leave the card in my wallet and use my phone?