Steve Jobs explored the Apple Card in the 90s but didn't like that some customers would...

Shawn Knight

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Bottom line: Apple is walking a dangerous line with its credit card as it runs the risk of romanticizing credit and encouraging debt. That’s unfortunately par for the course for most consumers but the truth is, the best way to be financially fit is to avoid debt like the plague.

Apple earlier this month started processing applications for a branded credit card ahead of a broader rollout in the coming weeks. As it turns out, the Apple Card – issued in conjunction with Goldman Sachs – is not an entirely original idea for the Cupertino-based tech player.

According to a report from CNBC, Apple held discussions with Capital One regarding a joint credit card in the late 1990s. A former bank executive said the two even tested a card but didn’t roll it out broadly, partly due to Steve Jobs “aversion” to rejecting customers for the card.

Jobs revisited the matter in 2004 with the idea of creating a credit card that would reward users with free music from iTunes. Again, it never came to fruition, this time because Apple could not negotiate the terms it wanted for the card.

Perhaps the most surprising aspect of the Apple Card launch is the seemingly wide net Apple and Goldman Sachs are casting. CNBC notes that some subprime borrowers are being approved for the card. One user got approved with a FICO score of around 620, adding that he was “absolutely shocked” he got approved.

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More "status symbol" garbage.
I have an 800+ credit score, zero credit card debt.
When I use my card, I PAY IT OFF when the bill comes due.
 
Plenty of people pay their card off each month. Cards are an ubiquitous part of modern life and it can be inconvenient not to have one. I don't see Apple as promoting some sort of new and dangerous fad here. (If anything I'd think the bigger danger to user's financial well-being is with their expensive products.)

If they can do a better job at organizing and presenting my past purchase data than current card providers, good for them and us.
 
This is so that Apple can automatically charge you for a new iPhone when it get's released, regardless of whether you want it or not. Its just so convenient.
 
Is there ANYTHING that hasn't been supposedly invented by Apple, and even by Steve Jobs, personally? I'm suspecting soon we'll also learn that Steve Jobs once considered inventing the wheel, but he ultimately decided not to, because he didn't think it was the right time to do so.
 
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