Apple customers say it’s hard to get money out of Goldman Sachs savings accounts

watersb 3 years ago |

My hot take is that this is a new service, so none of the accounts have much of a history.

Algorithms in place could reasonably impose extra checks on large withdrawals from new accounts.

What's more, I could speculate that Goldman Sachs' limited experience with mainstream retail banking could lead to delays of this sort, where they lack a statistical universe to identify exceptional usage (transactions large percentage of balance) as legitimate.

FWIW, I have a tiny amount of money in an Apple Savings account; I have deposited funds and withdrawn a bit exactly one time each. No unusual delay, but it's not exactly an account I intend to use like checking.

Zanni 3 years ago | |

It seems to be mostly security alerts on large transfers (over $10,000). The first version of this story I read [0] had Thacker's transfer (first in the WSJ story) as $17,000, not $1,700, but maybe that's a typo.

[0] https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/apple-savings-users-com...

linusg789 3 years ago |

https://ghostarchive.org/archive/4kcgj

mikehollinger 3 years ago |

JFYI: you can skip the Apple middle man and just open a Marcus.com account. It’s Goldman Sachs on the back end. Works great. No drama. Decent app. Reasonable website.

Same rates as far as I can see.

prepend 3 years ago | |

I don’t understand why someone would open a Marcus account as it only yields 4.15% vs other higher yielding accounts [0].

I get why someone opens an Apple account as it’s easy and linked to their phone. But it seems kind of dumb to seek out Marcus and go through all that work to miss out on 50 basis points.

It’s not a lot of money, but for a $1000, that’s $5/year. It’s the tip for a coffee.

[0] https://www.bankrate.com/banking/savings/best-high-yield-int...

ksec 3 years ago |

>Smyth required the $10,000 from his Apple Card Savings account to do some remodeling work in his basement, only to find he could not complete his transaction

This is funny because it reminds me of other Apple Services.

Our_Benefactors 3 years ago |

I tried in multiple ways to put money in and was not able to. I’ll hold off I suppose.

TheLoafOfBread 3 years ago |

Eagles - Account California.

rvz 3 years ago |

Just like lemmings attracted to the high yields to claim and boost adoption numbers, now the bank doesn't want you to withdraw your money too easily.

A very slow and steady rug pull which the yields will gradually drop.

i_am_jl 3 years ago | |

It's not that high of a savings yield (compared to other offerings, it's crazy-high compared to the past few years).

CIT is offering 4.8% APY with $5,000 minimum balance. SoFi is offering 4.2%, zero minimum, $250 bonus for direct deposit.

4.15% wasn't even that great when it was announced, people simply haven't paid attention as interest rates have risen.

35997279 3 years ago | | |

4.15% was 10x the national average when it was announced. Neither of the banks you mentioned have the Apple Card -> Apple Pay Cash -> Apple Savings integration. That is the main draw; people who are not interested in this integration will find more competitive rates elsewhere, including investments, CDs, etc.

prepend 3 years ago | | |

The national average is stupidly low. Major banks still charge 0.01 and even my credit union pays basically nothing.

But if you’re opening an account online specifically for savings, why choose one that isn’t the best.

Also, for comparison the vanguard money market fund is paying 5% right now, and Bask pays 4.75% on a $0 minimum balance, so there’s no reason to open this account and put $10K into it unless you really love Apple, or for some reason are blocked from opening accounts with higher yielding banks.

i_am_jl 3 years ago | | |

It's still 10x the national average deposit rate, that doesn't change the fact that it wasn't/isn't an abnormally high or unsustainable rate (as the comment I replied to implies).

I'm not making a value judgement on Apple Savings, I'm refuting the idea that Apple Savings must be some sort of a scam designed to draw in lemmings with a high interest rate and rug them by delaying/refusing to return their money.