Wesley Hilliard
There's been a quiet battle between banks to be the next Apple Card issuer as Goldman Sachs moves on, but another battle is brewing between networks to take over from Mastercard.
Apple is set to move Apple Card from Goldman Sachs at some point soon, but Apple could switch payment networks in the process. Goldman Sachs previously suggested it wanted to rid itself of Apple Card in 12 to 15 months as of November 2023 — so the move is past due.
Before the card issuer changes, however, Apple may choose to sign a new contract with a different payment network. The current network is Mastercard, but according to a report from The Wall Street Journal, Visa and American Express are fighting for the position.
Visa has even reportedly offered Apple about $100 million to take over as the payment network. That's a large sum it has reserved for its biggest clients, like Costco.
American Express is also reportedly attempting to take over as both issuer and network for Apple Card. The Amex CEO has previously seemed uninterested in Apple Card, but throwing in the ability to be the network provider may sweeten the deal.
Apple can't move from Mastercard until that portion of the contract expires sometime in 2026. However, even if Goldman Sachs finds a new issuer, it'll take time to make the shift and may be able to include some negotiation into who the new network provider is.
Nothing official has been said publicly, and there is still no sign of what company will take over from Goldman Sachs or when. It could be several months before it all shakes out, but if Goldman Sachs is so pressed to be free of Apple, expect moves to be made soon.
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17 Comments
I have had a Platinum level Amex card since 1968. (Before it became Amex it was Patterson Travel Service) The number of places that accept the card has dwindled every year. It is our travel card for airline tickets and hotels and is the card to have in an emergency. The long term relationship is a plus in our credit rating.
We also have CostCo City Bank and Apple Pay that I carry daily. We usually get more than $1k back annually for each of these accounts.
We have Wells Fargo accounts at a local branch used for cash access with our debit cards and handling the "Old Folks" accounts.
Amex worked okay for CostCo for us and was still accepted in the UK CostCo last time we were over there.
So having the three top Financial flavors in hand is okay with us. Really have no preference which way Apple goes as it will be transparent to us, the users.
Amex would be a terrible move if Apple hopes to profit off non-Apple transactions. Amex does 38% of Visa's transactions by value, and less than 4% by volume. There's no way Amex could make up the difference, even compared to Mastercard. When Costco walked away from Amex, there was good reason.
AmEx lost the plot years ago. They thought they had a business, turns out it was Costco keeping them afloat. You can’t pay with AmEx in most places, nobody wants that stupid card. I hope Apple switches to Visa so I can use it at Costco.
I understand the more recent historical limitations of Amex, but that's not really the case anymore. It seems Amex is growing on all fronts, like tripling its worldwide acceptable since 2017 and today being accepted by 99% of merchants that accept card payments. This is due in no small part to the OptBlue program they launched circa 2016 that , "
Personally, I really don't care what multinational payment network Apple picks. I have several MC, Visa, and Amex cards. The only one I don't have is Discover. It'll all work out. If you have a local vendor that still hasn't signed up to accept to Amex I would wager that will change down the road if Apple coverts to Amex if that merchant has already been seeing a lot of Apple Card business in the recent years.
PS: This isn't the first time Apple has switched multinational payment networks in a Wallet card they control. The Apple Pay Cash card originally used Discover and now it uses Visa. I think this switched about 5 years ago and it wasn't everyone at once. I remember being able to go into Wallet and change it from Discover to Visa.