By Helena Kelly Consumer Reporter For Dailymail.Com
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Apple has ventured deeper into the banking sector by launching a new savings account that offers a competitive 4.15 percent interest rate.
The deal is more than 10 times the average US savings rate, which is currently a paltry 0.37 percent, according to data from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.
It forms part of the tech giant’s plan to push deeper into the financial services industry since the success of its Apple Pay function which was launched in 2014.
It also comes as banks are facing increasing scrutiny for their failure to pass on high interest rates to their customers as savings rates fall pitifully below the Fed‘s 5 percent base rate.
The Apple product puts many of its competitors to shame, with American Express only offering a 3.75 percent rate.
Apple has ventured deeper into the banking sector with the launch of its new savings account that offers a competitive 4.15 percent interest rate
Goldman Sachs’s standalone savings rate – under the brand name Marcus – also only offers 3.9 percent.
To sign up you must have an active Apple Card on your iPhone
– On your phone, open your Apple Card through the Wallet app
– Click the icon with three dots on the upper right corner
– Select Daily Cash
– There may also be a promotional button to sign up for the account
– Then follow the instructions. It will ask for your Social Security
Once signed up Apple will start putting your Daily Cash into the account by default
From today, customers of Apple’s credit card Apple Card can benefit from the new account with no minimum balance required.
It is also fee-free and offers a maximum balance of up to $250,000.
And money from Apple Card’s ‘Daily Cash’ rewards scheme will be deposited straight into the savings account – though this can be changed by the user.
Jennifer Bailer, vice president of Apple Wallet and Apple Pay, said: ‘Savings helps our users get even more value out of their favorite Apple Card benefit — Daily Cash — while providing them with an easy way to save money every day.
rewards for other services.
Apple Inc. will handle the lending itself for a new ‘buy now, pay later’ offering, sidestepping partners as the tech giant pushes deeper into the financial services industry.
But experts dispelled the theory Apple wanted to move away from computers and into financial services full-time.
Christian Owens, chief executive of payments company Paddle, told the Financial Times: ‘I don’t think Apple wants to be a bank.
‘I think Apple can eke out the economics of the bank without actually becoming a bank.’
Apple is reportedly working to move its financial services in-house as part of a secret initiative nicknamed ‘Breakout’
It comes amid widespread panic in the mainstream banking sector.
Customers withdrew $800 billion of deposits from US commercial banks since March last year when the Fed began upping rates.
Published by Associated Newspapers Ltd
Part of the Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday & Metro Media Group