The Apple Card is Losing Partner Goldman Sachs – What Next for the Apple Card?

The news came out this week that Goldman Sachs and Apple are parting ways. This means that the Apple Card and the Apple Savings accounts will need a new partner. Who might that be?

The Apple Card Breaking Up with Goldman Sachs

Apparently, both parties are unhappy with some things in the partnership. Goldman Sachs is facing regulatory issues and blames Apple for those while Apple is not happy with the customer service aspect, causing a bad look to their brand. According to the Wall Street Journal (paywall), this end to the partnership will take place in the next 12-15 months

So, what then for the Apple Card and their millions of customers? This was a big move for Apple to break into the personal finance relationship business and they certainly won’t want that to end. There had been some noise about American Express possibly being a new partner but that won’t work in the interim since the Apple Card has to stay on the Mastercard network until 2026.

The Apple Card was Goldman Sachs first foray into this space and a lot of what they experienced may cause future partners to avoid taking on the Apple Card. This included things like not being able to take a cut on the fees from merchants as that goes to Apple. Another loss point for Goldman Sachs is that they are not getting annual fees, late fees, or foreign transaction fees, since Apple had used the lack of those as a signing point for customers. What Goldman Sachs was getting paid for on the consumer end was the interest from cardholders who decided to pay their Apple purchases in installments.

Obviously, a bank’s big money is in things like annual fees and late fees, in addition to interest. To be able to draw any future partner, Apple may have to give more to get a good partner for their Apple Card.

Also according to the Wall Street Journal, Synchrony bank has been interested in taking on the Apple Card. They are the backend partners for many store credit cards.