Seniors preparing to graduate are beginning to scout out credit cards. And, the Apple Card is one that many are considering.

What makes this so appealing? Likely, it is the $0-annual-fee and the possibility of a 3% cash back earned on Apple purchases made through Apple Pay on one’s iPhone. However, those interested may want to wait until 2025 to do so, as Apple Card is severing its banking relationship with Goldman Sach and moving over to Chase.

Looking back to February 2023 to see what led to this, financial reports on Goldman Sachs indicate that the banking mogul lost several billions of dollars due to payment failures on the Apple Card. The Bloomberg Financial Report states that the credit card made up only a proportion of the money that was lost.

However, was there more that assisted the decline?

Focus attention even further back to the year of 2021, when significant attention was put on Apple Card’s app shutting down when attempting to use it. More often than not, it would malfunction mostly for women. 

Could there be a gender-bias with Apple Card?

Go back another three years to 2019. Allegations were made about the Apple Card showing a preference toward men over women–at least in terms of credit limits–making people seek the truth for themselves. After investigating, it turns out there was some truth to the allegations. Social media and internet reporting spread the findings quickly, to the point where a report was filed at the New York State Department of financial services:

“The Department issued this report to inform the public of the outcome of its investigation of allegations of discrimination against women in the underwriting of the Apple Card co-branded credit card (“Apple Card”) offered by Apple Inc. (“Apple”) and underwritten by Goldman Sachs Bank USA (“Goldman Sachs” or the “Bank”), a New York State-chartered bank. In November 2019, allegations surfaced on Twitter regarding discrimination by the Bank in extending credit for Apple Cards. Consumers complained that the Bank, in its underwriting of Apple Card credit card accounts, offered lower credit limits to women applicants and denied women accounts unfairly. These claims, in turn, brought the issue of equal credit access to the broader public, sparking vigorous public conversation about the effects of sex-based bias on lending, the hazards of using algorithms and machine learning to set credit terms, as well as reliance on credit scores to evaluate the creditworthiness of applicants.”

Alia Karbaleali, a sophomore at Elkhart High School, can attest to the issues with her Apple Card app but has no clue whether that had anything to do with her gender. “My card kept declining while trying to buy things. It was like everything was fine but just wouldn’t go through!”

Like so many other card holders, Karbaleali is anxious to see how well the card works once Chase takes over. The next question will be whether it continues to offer the no-annual fee and the 3% cash back on purchases. Remember this adage: “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.”