Apple launching credit card in US

nomoneytoday

The actual card material and GS backing is possible.
The cashback levels are unlikely in the EU as the merchant rates over here are much lower, so there is less margin to share with their customers (unless it's subsidised somehow)

callum9999

sambaird wrote: »

I don't know why you would think that Apple won't launch something similar over here. You do realise that their partner on the card is Goldman Sachs right? They first started doing retail stuff in the US in late 2016 and in the UK in 2018 (Marcus savings accounts). It would make logical sense for GS to scale the card to the UK at some stage.

Because I have a rudimentary knowledge of the UK credit card market and so know there is no way this would ever be viable... The fact that Goldman Sachs have a savings account available here is completely irrelevant.

sausage_time

callum9999 wrote: »

Because I have a rudimentary knowledge of the UK credit card market and so know there is no way this would ever be viable... The fact that Goldman Sachs have a savings account available here is completely irrelevant.

Cashback level aside, I really don't see why not.

zenabratcher

Looks flashy - another way to get in to debt :rotfl:

SnowTiger

I wondered what percentage of the UK population had an iPhone. I guessed about 20%.

According to Statista iPhone's market share was 43% in the first quarter of 2018.

And according to DeviceAtlas iOS' market share was 56%, against Android's 42%.

The figure tends to vary between sources from about 30% market share up to over 50% market share.

Methodology plays a part. Not all iOS or Android devices are mobile phones. And some statistics seem to be based on web page impressions, which might simply indicate that iOS users surf the InterWeb more than Android users.

Standard 2% cashback would be impossible to achieve in the UK.

I wonder what advantage there is in using the fancy new metallic card over using Apple Pay with an alternative underlying card.

I guess it comes down to which is more impressive to flash when paying at Lidl: would you tap with your iPhone or your fancy metallic Apple credit card?

SnowTiger

zenabratcher wrote: »

Looks flashy - another way to get in to debt :rotfl:

It is noticeable that many of the SOA's (Statement Of Affairs) posted here, by people who are up to their eyeballs in debt, contain at least one £50/month entry for a mobile phone. iPhone I guess.

Chino

SnowTiger wrote: »

would you tap with your iPhone or your fancy metallic Apple credit card?

Tapping with the physical card doesn't seem to be an option; there's no contactless symbol on Apple's images of the card.

sausage_time

I noticed that too. And FT article notes the card only gives 1% cashback - you need to use contactless on the phone to get 2%

callum9999

sausage_time wrote: »

Cashback level aside, I really don't see why not.

Cashback level is the only noteworthy feature of it.

Other cards already let you use Apple Pay, have no FX fee and come in metal (for those who care about that kind of thing).

If Apple launch here, I'd wager there will be cashback only on Apple purchases (probably 1%), normal foreign transaction fees and there's a decent chance it will be plastic (or a charge for a metal card).

SnowTiger

Chino wrote: »

Tapping with the physical card doesn't seem to be an option; there's no contactless symbol on Apple's images of the card.

That's what makes the card so beautiful. :rotfl:

I'd guess a card can be contactless even if it doesn't have a contactless symbol on it.

Perhaps it's time to drop the contactless symbol and add an alternative symbol to cards that aren't contactless.