After debuting over 6 years ago, Apple Card has been a little bit of a nightmare for its partner bank, Goldman Sachs. They’re looking to exit, and while rumors aren’t crystal clear on the future of Apple Card, we’ll be recapping them here.
Goldman Sachs losses
First and foremost, Goldman Sachs is looking to offload the Apple Card partnership – and the top contender, per recent reports, is JPMorgan Chase.
American Express, Capital One, and Synchrony have also been rumored contenders. At the moment, though, they don’t seem to be likely to take over the partnership. Amex CEO Stephen Squeri commented on the potential takeover back in 2023:
“Because that’s what you want a co-brand partnership for, is the distribution, as well,” Squeri said. “And does it add value to both brands? And do you create premium economics? So, as we evaluate partnerships, that’s the lens that we use.”
Many people interpreted this as him shooting down the idea, as Apple Card’s current customer base contains a lot of subprime customers. So far, the Apple Card partnership has cost Goldman Sachs at least $1 billion, with total Goldman Sachs consumer product losses totaling $6 billion.
Granted, not all of those losses come purely from credit delinquencies. Apple Card is also a very generous product offering, with no foreign transaction fees, no late fees, no returned payment fees, up to 3% cash back on partner merchants, and 0% APR financing on Apple products.
JPMorgan Chase takeover
Right now, JPMorgan Chase is the “preferred choice” for taking over the Apple Card partnership, per The Wall Street Journal. This report is from July, though it serves as the latest news.
That said, a deal is yet to be signed. One of the key challenges with the takeover is Apple Card’s high percentage of subprime customers.
Chase, for example, has a subprime rate of around 15%. Capital One, who’s known for being a subprime lender, has a rate of around 31%. For Apple Card, that rate is 34%, according to the report. In this instance, a subprime customer is someone with a credit score below 660.
Apple Card also has a delinquency rate of around 4%, higher than the average of 3.05% across the credit card industry.
For these reasons, a deal will only be made if a new lender can get it at a “huge discount.” Apple Card balances currently total over $20 billion.
Apple Card Savings account
One key component being left out of much of these discussions is the Apple Card Savings Account. This is also issued by Goldman Sachs.
While you do need to be an Apple Card customer to hold an Apple Card Savings Account, the savings account doesn’t exactly have a unique tie-in with the Apple Card. You can choose to have your Apple Card cash back deposited into your savings account, but beyond that, there isn’t a deep tie.
Additionally, high-yield savings accounts aren’t a product that JPMorgan Chase offers. Maybe they’d take it on just for Apple Card customers, though I’d be surprised if that were the case.
At the moment, Goldman Sachs continues to offer its Marcus by Goldman Sachs savings account product to the public, despite a larger pullback from the consumer finance market. So, it’s plausible that Goldman Sachs will continue to offer the savings account, even if the actual credit card offering switches hands.
Wrap up
All in all, it seems incredibly likely that the Apple Card partnership with Goldman Sachs will come to a close sometime in 2026, after years of negotiations with various lenders.
It isn’t quite clear what this will mean for Apple Card, but given the high number of subprime customers and all of the losses seen to date, it’d be plausible to assume that Apple Card will change a little bit after a takeover. Late fees would likely be introduced, and the product will potentially become less generous overall.
I do think Capital One could be a strong contender for Apple Card if JPMorgan Chase ends up falling through. After their acquisition of Discover last year, they have a strong profitability advantage by being both a card issuer and payment network. This could potentially offset some of the strong losses with Apple Card currently. Only time will tell, though.
My favorite Apple accessory recommendations:
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