“Apple Inc and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. are preparing to launch a new joint credit card, a move that would deepen the technology giant’s push into its customers’ wallets and mark the Wall Street firm’s first foray into plastic,” Tripp Mickle and Liz Hoffman report for The Wall Street Journal.
“The planned card would carry the Apple Pay brand and could launch early next year, people familiar with the matter said,” Mickle and Hoffman report. “Apple will replace its longstanding rewards-card partnership with Barclays PLC, the people said. The partnership will extend into other services including Goldman offering in-store loans to Apple customers buying iPhones and other gadgets, an effort The Wall Street Journal reported on in February.”
“Goldman has the potential to raise Apple Pay’s profile, tying the mobile payment service to plastic touted in advertising and pushed by cashiers at Apple stores. Apple also stands to boost its revenue by collecting a bounty from Goldman for each new cardholder, the people said. These payments, which are common in store-brand cards, can exceed $100 per account. With the Barclays card, Apple declined to collect bounties and instead put that money toward interest-free financing of devices,” Mickle and Hoffman report. For Goldman, the card could help its nascent retail-banking operation, launched in 2016, add new customers who may be sold other banking products. It also deepens the firm’s ties to Apple, a company its bankers have advised in deals and fundraisings for years.””
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Smells like money!
More Services revenue for Apple is certainly a Good Thing™ for AAPL shareholders.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Fred Mertz,” “Dan K.,” and “L.P.” for the heads up.]
A “bounty from Goldman for each new cardholder” sounds exactly like the Wells Fargo account scams. “add new customers who may be sold other banking products” with or without the customer’s permission.
A credit card with none of the Apple Pay security is definitely the wrong way to go.
I love Apple Pay, but I’ll pass on the insecure credit card.
Nonsense! How can you make the leap from this to setting up accounts without the customers permission!? Also, we don’t know if there will actually be physical cards. Maybe it’s just a credit facility tied to your Apple Pay account?
It sounds nothing like that. It sounds like a commission for bringing them a customer. Apple Pay uses credit cards for its secure method… so what’s the big deal? Are you just willfully ignorant?
Am I the only one that thinks this is stupid? Apple develops a card-less way to pay and now wants to go back?
Yet more distraction from a company that created new (digital) products that no one really had as they were so different (better) but now its recreating what everyone has and who are trying to move away from.
If I were not an agnostic I would say there is a special place in hell for Goldman Sachs.
If there were a god, the earth would open and swallow their HQ up whole.
Remember in the 90s when GM created GMAC (their financial arm (now Ally financial)) . . . basically General Motors was making more money through GMAC (car loans, financing, etc.) rather than making cars . . . Apple, similarly is running into this situation in which they have large quantities of “Money” and they’re doing all of these financial tricks to manage the money.
my thoughts exactly, i dont like Apple going to bed with Godlmans sack full of shit as partner
Not just GM- GE as well. During Neutron Jack’s go-go days GE was making bank financing what they sold and that was where their profits came from.
GE was and is still dealing with becoming dependent upon financing. A GE Bankruptcy is still quite a high possibility despite having been bailed out with TARP money.
GE used to dabble in Sub-Prime Home Loans and despite the fact it has shuttered the unit is still subject to lawsuits that run into amounts greater than their assets.
GE during this time also filed to keep the company pension funds funded and now has a $30 Billion + Pension liability.
After the TARP bailout, GE has been selling the furniture trying to stave off the wolf at the door. GE Appliances is now owned by Haier- maker of cheap Chinese appliances.
While we are on the subject of financing – check your portfolio for exposure to sub-prime auto loans. If you get out you will thank me in a couple of years. It is ugly.
Apple does not need a partner to issue a credit card and they should no use sachs