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Comment by jez | Hacker News Reader

Far be it from me to get in the way of someone protesting megabank centralization, but...

I have to imagine that this bank relationship will be different from those previous acquisitions? I never interacted with Goldman Sachs for the duration I've had my Apple Card—the relationship is entirely with Apple and their iOS app. I don't imagine that to be much different when Chase is the issuer.

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I have a couple store brand cards backed by Chase (like the Amazon one) and they are basically exactly like any other first party Chase card. They show up on the Chase dashboard. You call Chase customer service for issues. Payments happen through Chase. The card benefits are all provided by Chase. The only difference is that there's Amazon printed in front and the points the card earns aren't regular Chase points. Of course their relationship with Apple could be different, but I doubt it'll be anything like the Goldman one. Remember that Goldman didn't have a consumer business at all before they got into the partnership.

"Of course their relationship with Apple could be different, but I doubt it'll be anything like the Goldman one" I can nearly guarantee this is completely wrong. It will be just like Goldman. That's literally the point of getting the card, is do everything through Apple and Goldman is just the backbone and support (through Apple's UI). Apple's contract with Goldman was until 2030, they wouldn't let Goldman out of it unless they were able to find a new partner with same or better experience and terms. They could have choose Synchrony, etc if Chase didn't agree. And clearly Chase was willing to concede to Apple since they don't even offer high yield savings, but agreed to for Apple since thats part of their existing offerings. Right now Apple decides the Promos for Apple Card, and at most maybe Chase will have a little more involvement in those but probably not. So in realty the only real world change is probably better customer support than Sachs, and Chase may not offer higher risks customers credit or as much like Goldman did and finally they may not offer the very low APR's that Apple card is known for, for it's best customers.

AFAIK in the current setup, only the UI is Apple's; any time you message customer service or open a dispute, that is handled directly by Goldman employees, and decisions to raise/lower your credit limit are also made by Goldman. All of those parts will be handled by Chase now.

Have to disagree there. While the iOS wallet apple is all apple and thats what you will use for checking your statements and making payments which is great. But anytime I have to actually interact with for support that is 100% with Goldman. When you do you support through the iMessage chat feature it's all Goldman on the other end, not Apple at all. And I've had to deal with them far too many times, and each time was absolutely terrible. Because of Goldman but also because of the platform Apple gives them for support, since you send a message have to wait for a text response. So feels like a chat but unlike a chat responses can take a while more like email, but then if they respond and you dont respond very fast then it closes it out and your response triggers a how can we help and you start all over, which is unlike email. So it's the worst of Chat and the worst of Email. Hopefully that is revamped with the new relationship. And if you have to call you get Sachs not Apple. Chase isn't great but expect much better than Sachs.

My problem with Chase and PNC is that their "fraud detection" seems to be random die rolls or monkeys throwing darts at my picture on a wall. I love the 5 minutes of anxiety after each and every purchase where I wonder if it will just randomly fail.

We’ll find out, but it still sort of sticks in the craw to be stuck doing business with them again.

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