Apple’s top-selling services division
The Apple Card was intended from the outset as a supplement to Apple’s iPhone and Apple Watch payment service Apple Pay, which has also been available in Germany since 2018. Since Apple itself does not have a banking license, Goldman was sought as a partner. At the time, the money house was in the process of strengthening its private customer business, so the cooperation seemed appropriate. In the meantime, almost 7 million customers are said to have made payments via a Master Card derivative. From the outset, Apple set this up to be very customer-friendly – so there are no fee traps that are widespread in the USA. There is also between 1 and 3 percent cash back on purchases. However, interest rates were high from the start, as is typical for the US – users who pay their bills immediately were and are at an advantage.
Apple used its Apple Pay infrastructure for the Apple Card. In this way, you can apply for and activate the cards without having to wait so that you can use them immediately without contact. A titanium card that can be used as an alternative will come later in the mail. The credit card complements Apple’s already rich portfolio of services. In the meantime, 20 billion US dollars in sales are made here in the quarter. With Apple Pay, Apple earns money with every payment – but there is even more to it with your own credit card, supplemented by the interest payments from customers. The portfolio is also to be expanded to include a pay later service.
Not always without problems
The Apple Card has been controversial from the start. Does a credit card even fit into Apple’s portfolio? And should the group with a not uncontroversial money house how goldman sachs work? In the meantime there were even reports of discrimination in lending, which Apple was able to clear up. On the software side, however, there was also a lot of praise: The use of the Apple Card with an iPhone and Apple Watch, including control over the expenditure, is very easy and clear.
It remains unclear when Apple will bring its credit card to other regions. Bank partner Goldman Sachs initially let it be known that this was desired. However, it hasn’t even managed to port the product to other English-speaking countries so far – Apple’s usual internationalization strategy. Unless this happens, it is also unlikely that the EU will be tackled as a market. Recently there have also been massive growing pains in the USA, where even the responsible regulatory authorities have initiated an investigation against Goldman Sachs because, for example, repayment requests are only being processed with a delay. Large parts of the problems are said to occur in the Apple Card area.
