“Apple and Goldman Sachs want a piece of your wallet,” Maria LaMagna writes for MarketWatch. “The technology company and bank are teaming up to create a joint credit card, according to The Wall Street Journal. The companies are still deciding what the terms and benefits of the cards will be, the Journal reported.”
“Apple already offers a credit card with the company Barclaycard, that consumers can use to get ‘special financing’ on Apple products, such as no interest paid within a promotional period. This new card could work similarly, giving consumers more ways to pay for Apple products, said Brian Karimzad, vice president of research at CompareCards.com,” LaMagna writes. “But would this card be a good choice for consumers?”
“Special financing can be helpful to consumers who do pay off their full purchase by the end of the promotional period, Karimzad said. If, however, Goldman and Apple did not use the deferred interest model, Karimzad said, ‘that would be a real win for consumers,'” LaMagna writes. “Another possibility: Apple could offer additional rewards for consumers who make purchases when they link the card to Apple Pay, encouraging them to use it, Schulz said. Mobile payments have been slow to take off in the U.S., although they are growing.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: As we wrote back in August 2015:
Apple, give us a reason to use Apple Pay beyond looking like tech dorks in front of the line at the register. What’s the incentive to use Apple Pay? There is none besides looking like a flaming nerd. As if Apple doesn’t have any money. That, inexplicably, is how they approach Apple Pay. Hello, Tim? Eddy? Talk to some people who actually go to stores and shop for things, please.
Incentivize its use! Give Apple Pay users a percentage of every dollar spent via Apple Pay to spend at Apple Stores. Something. Anything! Get people used to using it first. Sheesh. It’s really not that difficult. It really isn’t.
SEE ALSO:
Apple teams with Goldman Sachs on new ‘Apple Pay’ credit card due early next year – May 10, 2018
I use Apple Pay every time I can. I like the security and speed. I have a debit card and an AMEX card. I don’t know if I would get an Apple/Goldman Sachs card. I would look at it and see if it would be a good fit for my finances.
So, Apple is basically just getting around to copying the Amazon and Chase Bank, Amazon Visa Card which has been around for about one-and-a-half years. Wow. One would have thought that all those years Apple was selling their products online and in their retail stores, they would have offered as much. Apple probably had enough money to be their own bank.
boy your and idiot!
Good one spank. Can’t top it.
If it’s just a rebranding, I will be disappointed.
Already have the barclaycard card with Apple and get a iTunes gift cards (whoopee doo)
MDN Take: “Apple, give us a reason to use Apple Pay beyond looking like tech dorks in front of the line at the register.”
Personally, that’s reason enough for me.
I totally agree with MDN’s take. No incentive or reason to use Apple Pay, EVER.
That said, if they partner with credit card companies to offer cash back, be there in a heartbeat …
I would give it a go if I were more confident my Touch ID would do the job more reliably. Hopefully it will improve and give me a chance of not having to give up and go for my card.
Good point …
Why do people criticize Apple for not being first? It would appear that taking your time to develop a product/service that works and people will actually use is the most important issue.
Compare Apples performance to any of its competitors and you will find a lot of firms wanting. Nobody generates the revenue, average selling prices (ASPs), gross margins, net income or cash flow that Apple does. The market has decided and the conclusion is that Apple’s strategy to get it right vs being first is the right one.
Let’s be fair here. Apple has been first and last (HomePod) in various markets. My only concern is that do it better than everyone else and dominate. But under Clueless Cook it is not happening …
… a PayPal/Synchrony Bank Mastercard that gives me 2% back when I use it. Unfortunately, it doesn’t when I link my monthly PayPal payment to it, which I thought it would. Would have been nice to have the cash back plus the double security.
a Chase CC card and to use Apple Pay/Apple CC, I would want an equivalent “cash-back” offer to switch. Except for cars and real estate, I don’t use financing and couldn’t care less about a iTunes Card.
If you have a Chase credit card, then you do use credit. You probably don’t have to, it’s just cultural conditioning for most people. They think it’s safer than cash, which is a strange belief given the billions in credit fraud every year.
Side note to the people who whine about the Fed: Credit is by definition allowing a middle man into the transaction, allowing the buyer to acquire something he cannot afford, by inflating the cash supply via debt creation. While much of this results in pure waste as sheeple chase fads and live beyond their means and enter downward spirals of insane payday loans, there are certainly legitimate reasons to use credit, which IHave mentioned, plus higher education and new business ventures for example. If the US constitution limited credit growth to productive pursuits, then the Fed could be less intrusive and inflation targets reduced. But apparently we cannot because the founding fathers let citizens (and their congress) have the person freedom to make their own stupid and selfish financial deals, with public and private debt totals available for everyone to see:
http://www.usdebtclock.org/
Lesson to learn: if you are not personal wealth positive within a decade or two after college and home and auto purchase, then you are either mighty unfortunate or you’re doing it wrong and need to seek financial counsel asap. Might I recommend supporting a credit union instead?
generally speaking, i support the use of credit unions over banks…
unfortunately there seems to be a trend for at least some credit unions to think and behave more like banks than the institutions they were originally set up to be.
i actually belonged to a credit union up until the moment they decided that they would pay no interest on savings accounts of less than $10,000.
not even banks pull that kind of stunt.
If you watch your account transactions. A falsified transaction is almost 100% protected. Financial and identity fraud rampant and require proactive and near obsessive ID “hygiene.” A nut violating a cash-carrier is a real threat, requiring a completely different defensive posture.
Credit is a wonderful tool, providing powerful leverage…if one has self-control and a simple plan. If it’s candy in your pocket, you’ve got problems with money and most likely with other things in life.
Unfortunately, 2000 points at PayPal and Syncrony doesn’t mean 2% like it does everywhere else in the 💳🌎. It becomes 1.6% when it takes 2500 points to redeem $20.
But if people were to come to their own incorrect assumptions and tell their friends and the internet that it gives them 2% back that’s just a fortunate coincidence for PayPal/Synchrony.
Correction: ok I did read the fine print and I was off somewhat.
2400 points = $20
“3x POINTS” = 2-1/2 % on gas/ restaurants
“2x POINTS” = 1-2/3 % on PayPal/ EBay
Everything else = 1-1/3 %
Everything else should be .0833% (with a repeating decimal!)
You need to look outside the US market guys. The USA has long been a laggard with respect to adopting new payment methods. In Europe, Asia and Australia almost all payments at stores are made with Tap & Go technology including a rapidly increasing percentage of Apple Pay.
Here in Oz, the reflex action of sales assistants has gone from holding out their hand for cash or a card to holding out or pointing towards a mobile terminal for a tap with a card or mobile device. I can’t remember the last time it got any kind of reaction when using my iPhone or Apple Watch to pay.
ApplePay is yet another capability which Apple built and rolled out but never taught us or encouraged us to use. I recently wrote about Force Touch being another example so won’t reiterate my previous post. There are countless other examples, I’m sure. In fact, I’m not sure what new function they have ever introduced that couldn’t have been explained better, much less actually taught. This is the company who counts on others to write their owner’s manuals, remember? This might be fine for tech geeks who don’t mind exploring, but it’s not fine for the other 90+ % of Apple users.
Well said. Apple today is negligent under Clueless Cook …
If only Apple would properly introduce its products in more countries. I live in Belgium. No Apple Pay yet (after how many years?).
If only Apple would do a timely introduction of the products it announces: open iMessage standard, full-blown efforts to make HomeKit and AppleTV ubiquitous.
If only Apple would pay more attention to lingering products such as Mac Mini, Mac Pro (at least by trivially updating them).
Apple adepts aren’t going to wait indefinitely for Apple to wake up and clean up its act. Don’t tell me that Apple’s attention to the iPhone (which incidentally has caused Apple to grow explosively), doesn’t leave room for R&D in the products it is currently neglecting.
Would an Apple–Goldman Sachs ‘Apple Pay’ credit card be a good deal or just good branding?
NO. Apple should not associate with criminals.
Beats acquisition was not exactly squeaky clean. Wonder if Apple donated to the presidential campaign? …
‘O, what a tangled web we weave when first we practise to deceive!’
– Walter Scott
Which of course adds to my worry about the state of Apple management. 🙁
New too …
Autocorrect correction: ME too …
Apple Pay is so easy to not only use, but also easy to set up. Way easier than trying to buy things online, which has been going on for years long before Apple Pay ever came along. If the masses can understand how to do that, what’s the problem with setting up and using Apple Pay?