I’ve been to Germany, Italy, Spain, and the UK in the last month and didn’t encounter any place that didn’t take AMEX…and spent anywhere between 15-20k so it’s not like ai didn’t use the cards heavily.
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Goldman Sachs Wants to End Apple Partnership, American Express Might Take Over
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Well written article regarding recent Visa, MasterCard and AMEX.
www.moneycrashers.com
What struck me as interesting is Purchase Volume numbers and UnionPay.
I would wager Apple would like to treat their CC Service like their Publishing (Book Author here) and Applications from stores in a sense where the card seamlessly becomes available to whatever the third party transaction and specific business supports, at any point around the globe.
In short, Apple would directly issue their card (and not have to change our current cards at all) and upon transaction choose the supported process on-the-fly the business code supports, but have preferred choice hierarchy in place contractually with Visa, MC, AMEX, Union Pay, etc, having relationships with all of them.
Take the Purchase Volume of AMEX which is second only to JP Morgan Chase who use Visa. Outside the US where Visa/MC have >90% market share in total transactions UnionPay is second just behind Visa @32% and 50%, respectively in transactions.
Yet, in actual bank purchase volume, the 4% total transactions AMEX is second amongst US banks due to hundreds of banks issuing their own CCs with either Visa or MC as their transaction network.
AMEX is the bank and transaction network in one.
I imagine Apple will create a preferred hierarchy with AMEX 1, Visa 2, MC 3, etc if they contractually do it.
How they do it is to license a main Visa & MC back bank not just a single source presently, which might be the reason GS is out, and then have AMEX top tier.
This would expand Apple’s card globally and expand use of the service giving more pie slices to more backers, and making the consumer more willing to travel and purchase goods and services.
Forcing people to have multiple cards is something Apple will want to change.
Credit Card Market Share: 2024 Analysis & Data on Processors
Four credit card payment processors share the U.S. market: Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and Discover. Find out which one dominates all the others.
What struck me as interesting is Purchase Volume numbers and UnionPay.
I would wager Apple would like to treat their CC Service like their Publishing (Book Author here) and Applications from stores in a sense where the card seamlessly becomes available to whatever the third party transaction and specific business supports, at any point around the globe.
In short, Apple would directly issue their card (and not have to change our current cards at all) and upon transaction choose the supported process on-the-fly the business code supports, but have preferred choice hierarchy in place contractually with Visa, MC, AMEX, Union Pay, etc, having relationships with all of them.
Take the Purchase Volume of AMEX which is second only to JP Morgan Chase who use Visa. Outside the US where Visa/MC have >90% market share in total transactions UnionPay is second just behind Visa @32% and 50%, respectively in transactions.
Yet, in actual bank purchase volume, the 4% total transactions AMEX is second amongst US banks due to hundreds of banks issuing their own CCs with either Visa or MC as their transaction network.
AMEX is the bank and transaction network in one.
I imagine Apple will create a preferred hierarchy with AMEX 1, Visa 2, MC 3, etc if they contractually do it.
How they do it is to license a main Visa & MC back bank not just a single source presently, which might be the reason GS is out, and then have AMEX top tier.
This would expand Apple’s card globally and expand use of the service giving more pie slices to more backers, and making the consumer more willing to travel and purchase goods and services.
Forcing people to have multiple cards is something Apple will want to change.
This is probably it. Apple doesn’t let GS do a lot of things that traditional banks do, like sell customer data. Plus their wallet app makes it extremely easy to monitor and pay off your balance. The end result is that issuing credit cards likely hasn’t been as profitable as GS would like it to be.
This is one of those scenarios where something that is good for the end user isn’t necessarily beneficial to the business. And why no bank wants to work with Apple.
Still worth doing if you don’t have access to those other banks.
If you’ve already got Card you have client relationship.
Until you make another move doing this is low hanging fruit where you get most of the available APY with little effort.
There is literally no significant relationship between google/Apple and how Apple Card functions or if you even have Apple Card.
Goldman Sachs is a public company. So it is required to make regular filings with the SEC, as well as with the regulators of its governmentally regulated businesses.
Details on each of GS’ divisions’ activities and performance are readily available, at no charge, in many places including:
Financials
www.goldmansachs.com
Amex is my main credit card and I've always found their customer service top notch. They even have a 24 hour helpline, using staff in different countries to give a round the clock service which I thought just went the extra mile. Amex is one of the most customer friendly financial services companies, Apple the best tech company, a perfect partnership.
Hard to understand. If my mom and sister could use AMEX Costco and delta without issue I think most anybody can.
If you’re a balance payer the interest is irrelevant.
And if you’re not a balance payer you’re doing credit cards completely wrong.
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I always buy big ticket items w AMEX for the supplemental coverages.
Here's my recollections, from roughly 2014-2018 period when I was traveling a lot:
Spain (Barcelona, Madrid, Valencia) - maybe a quarter of businesses accepted AMEX.
Portugal - ever worse.
Belgium - most stores wouldn't take Amex, Mastercard was far more accepted, a lot of places were cash payments only.
Netherlands - no problems with larger stores, almost impossible with smaller ones.
Germany - very much a cash country. Again, Visa / MC seemed to be preferred.
About the only place I haven't really had any issues with Amex that I can recall was London. But then in Leeds I ran into places that took Visa / MC but not Amex. (I was in a company of local coworkers and fairly off the beaten tourist path).
Pretty much across the board - big business, luxury stores, chains mostly ok; smaller, especially local / non-touristy places - cash, Visa / Mastercard, or some local payment system (I think it was called Maestro in the Netherlands ?). Overall, I'd say Visa / MC had at least 2:1 advantage vs Amex, acceptance wise.
This would be a huge blow to people who use this as their travel card abroad, AMEX isn’t as widely accepted as Mastercard. Wife and I just spent 2 weeks in Europe. I had ApplePay and she carried my physical card; it was the only form of payment we used anywhere aside from some petty cash.
Same here, been a Gold Amex holder for over 40 years. Never had a problem.
Correction: Apple playing the “secrecy first” game wasted both the employees’ and customers time on something that every other bank can answer in less than a minute.
I have an Amex card, too. It gives me Avios points (a bit like air miles) each time I use it. The problems are… Avios are really hard to spend on flights, as eligible flights are very restricted. There are loads of places that don’t accept Amex. Finally, when I do use my Amex card, I get a bit of a guilty feeling when I see the pained expression on the retailer. He knows he’s being fleeced. I know he’s being fleeced. He knows that I know he’s being fleeced. It’s not an ideal situation, to be honest.
If Apple Card is moved to another provided I don’t want to have to apply again for the card or have my outstanding installment plans called in.
If the accounts are being sold or transferred to another bank you shouldn’t have to reapply. I have had many accounts that moved to new owning banks they just issued new cards… some had new numbers on them especially if they ended up changing networks. All the plans moved. They could possibly eventually change terms and conditions but that would be with advanced notice.
The buy now pay later installments that are available through AppleCard are funded by Apple themselves. Goldman just issues the purchase token to get the merchant the money.
The buy now pay later installments that are available through AppleCard are funded by Apple themselves. Goldman just issues the purchase token to get the merchant the money.
Don’t know if anyone mentioned it, but most cards as I know of, collect points for your purchases,
but Amex is as far as I know, the only card with an actual good use of them.
To pay off/lower the invoices with them!
Save points some years and you get your Apple stuff cheaper.
A Master Card I have, that I mainly use for smaller stores purchases, that not always even take my debit bank card, give payback in some more or less useless stuff. As I seldom use it it’s not a problem to get some towels or something like that every 5-10 years or so.
With Amex I always save my point to get my Apple stuff cheaper. That is useful.
but Amex is as far as I know, the only card with an actual good use of them.
To pay off/lower the invoices with them!
Save points some years and you get your Apple stuff cheaper.
A Master Card I have, that I mainly use for smaller stores purchases, that not always even take my debit bank card, give payback in some more or less useless stuff. As I seldom use it it’s not a problem to get some towels or something like that every 5-10 years or so.
With Amex I always save my point to get my Apple stuff cheaper. That is useful.
Exactly I have always had great CS with Amex. GS has been nothing but useless
Yes. The only disadvantage of Amex we ever have is places not taking it. I've never seen someone not take MC unless they just don't take CC
But they are saying the same thing I feel. Really the only reason I slightly miss my iPhone is the convenience of managing AC with it.
I don't see how. Outside the USA, it's very difficult to use an Amex card unless all your spending is at luxury hotels and Michelin-starred restaurants. Few people would be interesting in signing up for a card they could barely use.
I second this! The most I've had to do in the past with accounts changing banks is create a new online account. Banks are very good at making a seamless transition.