Apple Savings: Easy to Put In, Hard to Take Out

Set up took two minutes

Six weeks ago I opened an Apple Savings account to earn the highly attractive 4.15% interest rate. The major banks now offer CD's in that range, but Apple Savings still has an advantage because the account holder can withdraw the funds instantly, or so I thought:

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.

Unnerved by the Journal's June 1st article, I immediately ordered a $100 withdrawal to be sent to my bank account. The credit appeared on June 2nd, a 1-day delay that I find perfectly acceptable.

The article goes on to state that withdrawals can be delayed if there are certain "red flags": [bold added]

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.

The above precautions sound reasonable, but Nathan Thacker was only trying to transfer $1,700, a small transaction in banking circles.

Although one deposit and one withdrawal went smoothly, I'm going to wait until next year before putting any more funds in Apple Savings.