A novelty that, although it does not affect many of us at the moment, can have a great impact. After officially announcing it last fall, Apple launched its own savings accounts for Apple Card users.
The announcement was made on Apple’s website: although the account is backed by Goldman Sachs, it’s managed directly from the iPhone’s Wallet app and is integrated with the rest of the company’s financial services.
“We want to help our customers have a healthier financial life”
Each time someone in the United States uses an Apple Card, they generate a small amount of cash in the form of “Apple Cash”. Until now, this was stored in a basic virtual account of the same name and with the aim of being the site from which to send and receive money quickly between Apple users.
Starting today, this account becomes the official Apple Savings account. And little joke, because he proposes an annual interest of 4.15% (taking into account the compound interest generated by adding money regularly). With this and the complete absence of commissions and payouts, Apple is looking to get the attention of anyone who uses an Apple Card to deposit their money into this account.
The bad news, as always with Apple Card, is that you must be a US citizen to use this savings account. Other requirements are that you must have iOS 16.4 installed to use it, and there’s a maximum balance of $250,000 that you can’t exceed. Any money placed in this account is guaranteed by the United States Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.
As to whether something like this can see the light of day in USA and other countries, I find it difficult. We have Apple Pay, but Apple Card is linked to a very typical style of payments in the United States which resides mainly in the use of credit cards and not debit cards. In addition, Goldman Sachs continues to be the only bank to offer this type of service with Apple and is not present in USA.
Everything is waiting for a European bank to dare to try its luck. As we do, we can see how Apple gradually becomes a bank.
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