Apple and Goldman Sachs team up on credit card with iPhone features and cash back rewards

“Apple Inc. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. plan to start issuing this spring a joint credit card paired with new iPhone features that will help users manage their money,” Tripp Mickle, Liz Hoffman, and Peter Rudegeair report for The Wall Street Journal. “The card will be rolled out to employees for testing in the next few weeks and officially launch later this year, according to people familiar with the matter. The companies hope to lure cardholders by offering them extra features on Apple’s Wallet app, which will let them set spending goals, track their rewards and manage their balances, the people said.”
“It is a major push by Apple into the financial lives of hundreds of millions of iPhone users. It is also part of Goldman’s broader strategy to appeal to rank-and-file consumers,” Mickle, Hoffman, and Rudegeair report. “Apple currently takes a small cut when iPhone users make credit-card purchases through Apple Pay. It would get a bigger slice of the swipe fees from its own card, some of the people said.”
“Goldman launched an online consumer bank, Marcus, in 2016 to offset a decline in securities trading. Apple has a loyal following among wealthy, tech-savvy young adults whom Goldman hopes to turn into Marcus customers,” Mickle, Hoffman, and Rudegeair report. “The Apple Pay card will use Mastercard Inc.’s payment network, which is the second-largest in the U.S. after Visa Inc., some of the people said. Cardholders will earn cash back of about 2% on most purchases and potentially more on Apple gadgets and services, some of the people said.”
“Engineers are working on new features for the Apple Wallet app that would encourage users to pay down their credit- card debt and manage their balances. Executives have discussed borrowing visual cues from Apple’s fitness-tracking app, where ‘rings’ close as users hit daily exercise targets, and sending users notifications about their spending habits,” Mickle, Hoffman, and Rudegeair report. “There also could be notifications based on analysis of cardholders’ spending patterns, alerting them for example if they paid more than usual for groceries one week.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Better late than never! Can’t wait to sign up (especially if they smartly offer more cash back on Apple products and services)!
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. — MacDailyNews, August 6, 2015
Apple should have begun Apple Pay by incentivizing its use to get people used to using it. It would have spread much more rapidly. Lately, they’ve been working with partners to offer some incentives, but, with the money they have at their disposal, Apple could have made, and still could make, a much bigger splash. — MacDailyNews, October 30, 2018
SEE ALSO:
Loup Ventures: There are now 383 million Apple Pay users, up 135% year-over-year – February 20, 2019
Apple Pay gains traction where it counts – October 30, 2018
Apple debuts ‘Summertime savings with Apple Pay’ with exclusive offers thru August 1st – July 20, 2018
Why Americans aren’t using their phones to make payments in stores – May 25, 2018
Would an Apple–Goldman Sachs ‘Apple Pay’ credit card be a good deal or just good branding? – May 14, 2018
Apple teams with Goldman Sachs on new ‘Apple Pay’ credit card due early next year – May 10, 2018
We spent around $20 billion using Apple Pay in 2016 – April 5, 2017
Apple Pay promised to make plastic obsolete, but wary shoppers and confused clerks hinder adoption – April 5, 2017
Retail survey: Apple Pay now being accepted at more retailers than any other mobile payments service – February 22, 2017