I've already expressed my disdain for the Apple Savings account, but I mainly had my gripes with the labyrinthine set up process. However, according to reports form The Information and The Wall Street Journal, some people aren't happy with the day-to-day usage of their Apple Savings account.
As it turns out, account holders are reporting delays with transferring money out of their Apple Savings account. We're not talking two-to-three days here. We're talking several weeks. Perhaps the 4.15% high-yield savings account lure was just that — a lure. As they say, all that glitters is not gold.
People are frustrated with Apple's Savings account
According to The Information, Apple Savings account customer Kevin Smyth plans to close his account with the Apple-Goldman Sachs service because it took two weeks for him to withdraw funds for a home renovation.
Out of desperation, he had to sell stocks to get the money that he needed urgently. "I looked at the interest rate and thought, 'Well, it's Apple and Goldman Sachs; it should be great. I should open an account.'" Unfortunately, Smyth is now disillusioned with the delays he suffered with the Apple Savings account. "Like an idiot, I moved all my money there."
Unfortunately for Apple and Goldman Sachs, Smyth isn't the only account holder to express frustration with delays. Apple used enticing terms like "easy to use" and "withdraw funds at any time" for the service that debuted in April, but there's a growing number of unsatisfied customers that are sullying the high-yield saving account's initial image of reliability and trust.
Over at the Wall Street Journal, Nathan Thacker claimed that he was waiting for his transfer of $1,700 since May 15. He finally received it on June 1. That's over two weeks long, too. Some people even said that their money seemed to vanish — it didn't show up at the targeted account, but it's not appearing in their Apple Savings account either. Yikes!
Various anecdotal stories from The Information, Wall Street Journal and The New York Post tell the same story: people are waiting too long to get their money and they're pissed.
Are these delays just Apple/Goldman Sachs doing their due diligence?
One may argue that the transfers in question are simply triggering anti-money laundering (AML) alerts or other security issues, which require an additional review. However, according to the WSJ, this should only last about five days — not over two weeks.
“A two- to four-week delay definitely seems long,” Dennis Lormel, a bank consultant, told WSJ. “As someone who deals with banks on a frequent basis, to me, that seems unreasonable.”
Bottom line
Apple's new high-yield savings account appears to be a success. According to Forbes, it drew nearly $1 billion in deposits during its first four days. Hell, it even attracted stubborn ol' me, an avid Android user, to use my iPhone 14 Plus to take advantage of the 4.15% annual return, so I'm sure that this service seduced countless others into the Apple ecosystem.
However, it's a bit fishy that account holders have been experiencing delays to this extent. On the plus side, there's a good chance this all may be blown out of proportion. Goldman Sachs told WSJ that "in a limited number of cases, a user may experience a delayed transfer due to processes in place designed to help protect their accounts." However, the Goldman maintains that most customers see "no delays" in transferring their funds.
