Apple launches high-yield savings accounts

Apple is on a roll with its financial services.

Tim Cook and Co. just launched a new high-yield savings account with some of the best interest rates in the industry. Apple is offering 4.15%, while the industry average is just 0.35%, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.

That’s still lower than inflation, but it’s close!

And while some other banks or credit unions offer similar rates, they often come with restrictions like minimum deposits or balances. Apple’s new Savings account appears to be one of the few that doesn’t require these and is also available to ordinary consumers, not just high-worth individuals.

This comes on the back of Apple Card and Apple Pay Later, two other financial services that are consumer-friendly, dispensing with predatory banking practices like late fees.

But is this innovation? Is Apple just becoming a boring, money-grubbing bank?

I say it is innovative.

Steve Jobs may not have pushed this stuff, but we’re in a different era.

As I increasingly use my iPhone to pay for everything, the best place to manage my financial life is on the device itself. Apple’s financial services are well-integrated on the iPhone, and are better than competing offerings. I know I’ll be opening one of the new Savings accounts as soon as it becomes available to me.

Also in today’s newsletter:

• Apple’s first store in India looks like a beauty.

• We review SwitchEasy’s Skin Silicone magnetic Apple Watch band — a jack-of-all-trades sort of strap.

• Rode’s “biggest product announcement ever” includes a nifty-looking streaming deck.

• Learn how to use Camo, a powerful app for turning your iPhone into a webcam.

  
  — Leander Kahney, EIC.

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