Apple is planning to launch an Apple Pay-branded credit card with Wall Street titan Goldman Sachs, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal. The move would be a big foray into the credit card industry for both companies, and underscores how seriously Apple is taking the payments industry, mostly thanks to the surprising success of Apple Pay.
The WSJ quotes sources familiar with the plans, who say that the card will carry the Apple Pay logo and launch sometime next year. It’s unclear whether the card will work exactly like a regular credit card but with Apple branding, or if it will give access to features like Apple Pay Cash or particular discounts on Apple products and services.
Currently, Apple offers a Barclaycard Visa with specific financing and rewards options for shopping at Apple. Customers can get up to a 6 month loan on purchases under $500, all the way up to 18 months on a purchase over $1,000. Customers also get rewards points for shopping at Apple, redeemable as iTunes Gift Cards.
Goldman Sachs, most famous for being the biggest of the Wall Street investment banks, has increasingly been looking at consumer lending as a new avenue for expansion. Rumors emerged earlier this year that Goldman and Apple were interested in teaming up, although that report suggested financing on iPhones as the specific plan.
A Goldman-backed Apple Pay card has the potential for Apple to try deeper integration between its payments network and physical transactions. The company already lets users send money to each other peer-to-peer, through a service called Apple Pay Cash. Currently, the easiest way to spend money transferred to you is using Apple Pay, but that only works at stores with contactless technology built into their payment terminals. In theory, an Apple Pay card could let you spend your Apple Pay Cash in any store that accepts credit cards.
