By AnnaMaria Andriotis
Apple's savings account, a partnership with Goldman Sachs, launched in April to great fanfare. Some customers say it has been hard to get their money out.
Nathan Thacker, who lives outside Atlanta, had been trying to transfer $1,700 from his Apple account to JPMorgan Chase since May 15. Each time he called Goldman's customer service department, he said, he was told to give it a few more days.
The money arrived in his Chase account Thursday morning, he said, after The Wall Street Journal contacted Goldman about his and other customers' experiences.
Others said they also had trouble transferring money from their new Apple accounts. Customer service representatives at Goldman, which holds the deposits, sometimes gave differing responses about what to do, they said. Sometimes, their money appeared to have simply vanished, not showing up in their Apple account or in the account they were trying to move it to.
Goldman said it couldn't comment on specific customers, but added that "we take our obligation to protect our customers' deposits very seriously."
"The customer response to the new savings account for Apple Card users has been excellent and beyond our expectations," the bank said in a statement. "While the vast majority of customers see no delays in transferring their funds, in a limited number of cases, a user may experience a delayed transfer due to processes in place designed to help protect their accounts."
An Apple spokeswoman declined to comment.
On brand-new accounts, like Apple's, transfers that make up a large share of the overall balance can trigger anti --money-laundering alerts or other security concerns that require additional review, according to people in the AML field. Those delays usually last five or so days, they said.
It can also be a red flag when a customer tries to transfer a large amount of money from a newly opened savings account into an account that is different from the one where the money originally came from.
Min-Jae Lee was curious to try out the Apple account and intrigued by its high interest rate. She deposited $100,000 in April, but soon decided she would rather have her money elsewhere. On May 1, she tried to transfer it out.
It took more than three weeks for her to get it.
Lee, a lawyer, said Goldman told her to contact JPMorgan Chase, where she was trying to move the money. Then, on Goldman's advice, she tried sending the money to her Vanguard account. The $100,000 moved there before going back to Apple the same day, she said.
Goldman then called her, she said, and told her that the money could be transferred only to the account from where she had sent it. She initiated a transfer to Ally on May 16.
A few days later, Goldman told her that her account was under a security review.
Her Apple account showed a zero balance, but the money wasn't in her Ally account either. It finally showed up there on May 25. She isn't entirely sure why.
It is reasonable that a bank would delay a transfer to do enhanced due diligence, but the length of the delay in these cases is surprising, said Dennis Lormel, who worked on financial crimes for the U.S. government for three decades and now is a bank consultant.
"A two- to four-week delay definitely seems long," he said. "As someone who deals with banks on a frequent basis, to me that seems unreasonable."
The Apple savings account has attracted people searching for the same thing: yield. It pays a 4.15% interest rate, riches compared with the current savings-account average of 0.25%, according to Bankrate.com.
Goldman also issues Apple's credit card, and consumers who want to open the savings accounts have to first sign up for the credit card.
For Apple, the new account is a way to expand the iPhone further into people's daily financial interactions, keeping customers linked to its ecosystem. For Goldman, it is a way to build deposits.
The Wall Street titan has encountered challenges, including regulatory probes, when dealing with the mundane tasks of servicing Main Street consumers. Goldman has been cutting back on its consumer lending, and earlier this year said it is "considering strategic alternatives" for the unit that includes its credit-card partnership with Apple.
The long delays have forced some customers to make financial decisions they hadn't planned on.
Kevin Smyth of Minnesota tried transferring $10,000 from his Apple account to U.S. Bank on May 16. He needed the money to pay for remodeling his basement.
Goldman told him to contact U.S. Bank, Smyth said. U.S. Bank told him it saw no sign of an incoming transaction, he said.
Smyth said Goldman eventually told him that his account was under a security review.
Smyth tweeted at Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook on May 25. "Was your plan to partner with a bank that holds people's life savings hostage?" he wrote.
The following morning, Smyth sold about $12,000 of stock so that he could have cash on hand.
Later that day, Goldman told Smyth he would have to transfer the $10,000 to American Express, which is where the money had originally been.
Smyth went a step further. He emptied his Apple account, moving all $200,000 back to Amex. The money showed up promptly.
He plans to close his account this week.
Write to AnnaMaria Andriotis at annamaria.andriotis@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
June 01, 2023 13:25 ET (17:25 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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