BEWARE of Balance Transfer from Apple Card to Another

[Anonymous]

Hello Friends!

As the title suggests, I'm going to drag you down a rabbit hole of pain so you can experience the awfulness I had to this month. I recently did a balance transfer from all of my cards (1,000 total across all cards). One of these cards was my Apple Card. Citibank had offered me a balance transfer deal, so in the interest (no pun intended) of financial security, I took it. This is where the struggle begins.

Two days later, all the cards clear except the Apple Card. I give it a few more days, and still no clear. I contact Apple, and the representative goes back and forth constantly wether or not the card is capable of balance transfers. Finally I get escalated to a Goldman Sachs Apple Card manager. She provides me that "We absolutely do not accept any balance transfers to or from the card. It's not possible with our bank.". So I call Citi. Citi says "We don't know what to tell you, they accepted the money.". I called Goldman Sachs, and they provided "NO WE DIDN'T!". The problem being Citi has a paperwork trail indicated that they accepted the funds, but Goldman Sachs will not work with Citibank to prove to them that they sent the money back. Citi has since opened a formal investigation, and are inquiring how to get my funds back.

The bottom line? Don't try to do a balance transfer from an Apple Card. It won't be fruitful. 

[K-in-Boston]

Welcome to the forums!  This is a first for me, but it appears that the terms and conditions actually specifically state that you must pay through the Wallet app using Apple Cash or a linked banking account.  It seems absurd that you cannot push payments from another source either through your institution's bill pay service or a balance transfer.  Here is the language that would apply to this from the Apple Card Customer Agreement.  It appears that this may be a mess for you until Apple either gives the money back to you or Citi, or decides to credit it as a Non-conforming payment.

Non-conforming Payments
We may reject any payments that do not comply with our payment instructions set forth in this Agreement or on your Monthly Statement (each a "Non-conforming Payment") in our discretion. If we accept a Non-conforming Payment, crediting your Account for the payment may be delayed and may result in additional interest billed to your Account.

We may accept any Non-conforming Payments, late payments, partial payments or payments with restrictive endorsements, without losing any of our rights, including our right to close your Account. We may deposit any payment you send us for less than the total outstanding balance of your Account that you mark "paid in full" or with any similar language or otherwise seek to provide as full satisfaction of a disputed amount. If we do, this payment will not fully satisfy the disputed amount or otherwise affect our rights to payment in full.

[Anonymous]

A balance transfer is, really, nothing more than one lender making a payment on your behalf to the card you are transferring from. Typically, this is a smooth process provided that all the correct info is provided for the payment.

That said, what you’re probably experiencing is the limitations that Goldman (probably influenced by Apple) has placed on card payments. I don’t have the Apple Card, but it’s my understanding that payments have to be done from you iphone and that no mail-in/transfer payments are accepted.

[longtimelurker]

This is the magic of Apple!   If say Barclays had done something similar, forums would be in uproar....

[Anonymous]

Apple through fruition of this iteration is basically a tokenized card that doesn't have a static account number other than the token cipher between the account and your wallet.

[K-in-Boston]

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@longtimelurker wrote:

This is the magic of Apple!   If say Barclays had done something similar, forums would be in uproar....

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I'm uproarius!  FWIW the way around this would be to use the "deposit to checking" option (if available) for a BT and then pull the payment from your checking account through the Wallet app after it has been deposited.  I am sure there are going to be a lot of horror stories coming around in the coming months when people buy shiny new MacBook Pros thinking they can just BT it later after earning the rewards.

[FinStar]

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@K-in-Boston wrote:

Welcome to the forums!  This is a first for me, but it appears that the terms and conditions actually specifically state that you must pay through the Wallet app using Apple Cash or a linked banking account.  It seems absurd that you cannot push payments from another source either through your institution's bill pay service or a balance transfer.  Here is the language that would apply to this from the Apple Card Customer Agreement.  It appears that this may be a mess for you until Apple either gives the money back to you or Citi, or decides to credit it as a Non-conforming payment.

Non-conforming Payments
We may reject any payments that do not comply with our payment instructions set forth in this Agreement or on your Monthly Statement (each a "Non-conforming Payment") in our discretion. If we accept a Non-conforming Payment, crediting your Account for the payment may be delayed and may result in additional interest billed to your Account.

We may accept any Non-conforming Payments, late payments, partial payments or payments with restrictive endorsements, without losing any of our rights, including our right to close your Account. We may deposit any payment you send us for less than the total outstanding balance of your Account that you mark "paid in full" or with any similar language or otherwise seek to provide as full satisfaction of a disputed amount. If we do, this payment will not fully satisfy the disputed amount or otherwise affect our rights to payment in full.

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As mentioned above by @K-in-Boston, the T&C clearly spell out how payments are accepted by G&S for the Apple Card.

@Anonymous, it's unfortunate that you're going through this situation, but all of this could've been avoided by being familiar with the T&C or reaching out to them to inquire about the pay off via BT.   Hopefully, you'll get it resolved, but what I would have done instead is requested the BT funds be transferred to your personal checking account then disburse them to each lender accordingly and then pay Apple via its traditional Wallet method or linked bank account. 

[Anonymous]

I read the terms and I clearly pointed this issue out months ago. 

I am curious where OP even found an address to mail the payment to begin with. There isn't one on the statement and there is no account number. Under "How do I pay my bill?" it says you pay it through Wallet on your phone. 

Sorry that this happened OP but the fact the account doesn't have an account number to put in or a payment delivery address should have prompted a text to customer service which would have advised you that this isn't supported. Hopefully you get this sorted quickly, keep us posted. 

[Anonymous]

Hi @Saeren

All that Citibank requested me to provide was a Creditcard number, expiration, cvv, and the balance on the card. It did not ask me for anything else. 

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Hi @Saeren

All that Citibank requested me to provide was a Creditcard number, expiration, cvv, and the balance on the card. It did not ask me for anything else. 

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That seems to be a failing on Citi's part then. Not all credit accounts are credit cards and asking for the CVV puts card security at risk. 

Also, if they were looking cards up in this manner their system should have realized that they can't send payments to a virtual card number.