Apple Cash Instant Transfer Fees Are Going Up Soon

[BigMcGuire]

I use Apple Cash and Apple Card heavily.

I was always astounded how cheap it was to get an instant transfer - and it works. The moment you hit the button, the money is in your bank. I have family/friends paying me for things and if I need that money right away, I can get it.

That said, the free transfer ... is usually... <24 hours for me (so I do this most of the time). Sometimes I get the free transfers to my bank the same day... <shrug>.

 

[k1121j]

Yep, so amazed about all the fees US customers pay. Do you still need to pay a fee for withdrawing money from a bank to which you are not affiliated? Meanwhile, I can withdraw cash in Spain from my Dutch bank account for 0 Euro. Withdrawing cash from different banks without fees within a country has been free for decades.

Your perspective is interesting. So yes I can withdraw money in almost every state ( places the size of your country, we have 50 of them) without a fee. Depending on the bank and type some are in almost every state some like credit unions I are linked together.

 

[AppliedMicro]

I fully believe this is just the cost increase from when this feature was made years ago.

So where/when, according to your belief, were cost decreases from economies of scale passed on to consumers?

but at least we've got free instant transfers between all and any bank accounts in the whole EU, mandatory since last year.

No one and no law said they must be free.
Neither does it have to work with “any” and every bank account (example: savings accounts).
Or work with every payment account in practice. That said…

would be cool to have this available in the EU as well.

Thank to beneficial EU regulation, the EU has a cost-effective, secure and standardised instant payment system in place already.

There is no for expensive proprietary systems by anticompetitive companies in addition to that.

 

[H. Flower]

"convenience" fee

 

[Matt713]

So so greedy…wow.

 

[ralph_sws]

In Poland, we have a service for transferring money between phones, called BLIK. You need a bank account, and it doesn't matter what phone you use. It works on iOS and Android. Transfers are instant and free.

 

[dunos]

As a UK person I find this so odd. I can send money by instant bank transfer to any UK bank account for free. I can generate a one-time use URL, send it to my nephew by whatsapp, and he can pull a pre-set amount into his bank account instantly for free.

 

[sw1tcher]

Why do they need to be so greedy?

[ insert an image of Tim Cook on stage saying "$ervice$, $ervice$, $ervice$" in the same way Steve Ballmer said "Developers, Developers, Developers" ]

 

[CapitalIdea]

I’ve always found that initiating the transfer early in the day, preferably in the early morning, and using the free option ensures that it’s deposited into my bank account the same day. It’s a simple and convenient process.

Same, and at worst the next morning give or take. People don’t realize that this “instant transfer” is essentially a microloan and that costs money.

 

[SBlue1]

Instant Money Transfer is not free in the US? Why?

 

[sw1tcher]

It's a shame Apple can't simply have Greendot add Zelle support to Apple Cash accounts, which is both an instant transfer and no cost to the end user.

That's precisely why Apple doesn't have Greendot add Zelle support.

 

[segfaultdotorg]

One more reason to avoid iCash!

 

[NVDA]

Does anything come down in price these days? Jeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeesus wept!

Gas prices

 

[I7guy]

This is good news if you are a shareholder. Apple will put this money to good use, investing in R&D to make the best products possible.

Yes I’m excited for Apple getting more revenue. I look forward to those products built in the backs of Apple Cash users.

 

[thejadedmonkey]

It is a .2% increase on instant transfers only. Not even the ones where you just wait a couple of days. In the example here, they say it will go up by $2 if you transfer $1,000. I fully believe this is just the cost increase from when this feature was made years ago.

Cost increase for who? It's not like programmer salaries are going up.

 

[mansplains]

My bank receives standard speed Apple Cash transfers same day, around midnight, thankfully.

Now’s a good opportunity to shoutout sling.money, free instant transfers globally. No affiliate

 

[Amazing Iceman]

It is a .2% increase on instant transfers only. Not even the ones where you just wait a couple of days. In the example here, they say it will go up by $2 if you transfer $1,000. I fully believe this is just the cost increase from when this feature was made years ago.

And this is because your bank and sometimes third-parties also want a cut of the fee. It’s not just Apple getting the whole fee amount. And these transfer rates have gone up everywhere recently.

 

[BeatsByTim]

I can just use zelle and not deal with any of this nonsense.

 

[Callander]

Chase bank wants more money!

 

[LimpHamster]

Now I understand why this would never come to europe. With Revolut or other transfer apps (e.g. swish in sweden where you can send money like texts) for free, the convinience of apple cash thing would not be worth the price.

 

[mk313]

Does this take advantage of bad US banking infrastructure? In the U.K. you can send cash instantly for free between banks.

The banks here have a similar system called Zelle. Not all banks participate, but almost all of the large ones do.

 

[mk313]

Instant Money Transfer is not free in the US? Why?

It is with most large (and many smaller) banks, through the Zelle system. For whatever reason Apple Cash is not part of that same system. You can still make instant transfers they are just not free, and you can make very fast transfers (usually by next day) for free if you prefer to use Apple Cash.

 

[B4U]

Does anything come down in price these days? Jeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeesus wept!

Our wages? 🥲
Or the dignity of these companies?

 

[sw1tcher]

Starting on February 18, 2026, choosing the Instant Transfer option will cost 1.7 percent of the transaction amount, with a minimum of $0.25 and a maximum of $25.

Just realized this is almost the same as what PayPal charges for instant transfers.

PayPal is 1.75% of the transaction amount, with a minimum of $0.25 and a maximum of $25.

 

[DestructoTim]

It is a .2% increase on instant transfers only. Not even the ones where you just wait a couple of days. In the example here, they say it will go up by $2 if you transfer $1,000. I fully believe this is just the cost increase from when this feature was made years ago.

It is a percentage based fee. There should be no cost increase to Apple as their fee take rises alongside inflation.. being that they take a percentage not a flat fee.

This is the same thing that irks me about tipping culture. People claiming waiters need a higher percentage tip now, due to inflation. However that same inflation made the menu prices balloon.. meaning they are already getting more money because their tips are percentage based, not a flat hourly pay. Not too long ago, tipping was 15% generally. Now 15% has become considered rude or cheap. But back then you could get a meal for two for $30 and the same place today charges $60 for the two meals. Before they were getting $4.50 on that table. They would be getting $9 now, however they are acting like $9 is cheap and they should be getting a minimum of $12 and thinking $20 is normal.

So basically due to inflation people are moving more money between accounts so Apple is making more money as well, due to using the percentage method. This isn’t a problem for me as I never use the instant feature. But it is greedy. There was no reason to charge more, other than to profit more.

Apple is going down the path of nickel and dimming their customers and moving more and more stuff to subscriptions and stuffing ads in more places. This is to move the needle a little bit every year to please shareholders. It is not sustainable though. Eventually people will not be able to keep up with Apple’s ever increasing fleecing. They need to go back to making and selling impressive hardware and shipping stable software and forget about ever increasing revenue sources. There is no such thing as infinite money. Eventually they will crash. Companies need to learn its okay to be stagnant. There are companies that are 100 years old and still doing good business. Then there are companies that were the most profitable in history for several years then disappeared. Apple is headed in the direction of the latter.