CUPERTINO, Calif.–Customers who placed funds in a high-yielding savings account launched in April by Apple in partnership with Goldman Sachs are reporting difficulties in withdrawing their money.
As CUToday.info reported, Apple jumped into the savings market with much fanfare in April with a high-yielding account paying 4.15%, far above national averages.
The Wall Street Journal shared the stories of a number of people who said they have experienced ongoing delays and runarounds in attempting to access their funds.
One customer, Atlanta resident Nathan Thacker, said he had spent weeks attempting to transfer $1,700 from his Apple account to a JPMorgan Chase account and had been unable to do so until the Wall Street Journal contacted Apple.
Thacker said that each time he called Goldman’s customer service department, he was told to give it a few more days.
‘Appeared to have Vanished’
“Others said they also had trouble transferring money from their new Apple accounts,” the Journal reported. “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 told the Wall Street Journal it couldn’t comment on specific customers, but told the publication 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 to the Journal. “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.
Some Explanations
The Journal said sources had indicated that with 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 told the Journal.
“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,” the Journal added.
As an example, it cited the case of Min-Jae Lee who had deposited $100,000 in April, but soon decided she would rather have her money elsewhere. On May 1, she tried to transfer it out, the Journal said, but that took more than three weeks.