I’ll swap my Apple for your cake (then your car and house)

I do love how big firms like Apple walk their customers blindfolded into a dead-end, under the banner of ‘service’, and how everyone follows with a smile on their face.

Can you imagine how many will use ApplePayLater (pay never) to roll life’s expenses into one pot, and away from the traditional banks.

This stinks every bit as much as Klana.

Imagine how your debt will grow when Apple deem you worthy of the Apple credit, and the convenience to spend when you can’t afford, but still get.

Whilst it starts with small payments, just like the contactless payment system was limited to £15, it will grow, and before you know it, you’ll be buying a car on your apple account, and then why not also accept that cash advance loan too when checking out?

The convenience and ability to borrow doesn’t mean we should, nor should that lending be secured against your digital life and fingerprint.

No one cares that the banks have lost this financial and lending race.

No one cares that banks were too slow to adapt.

Nor did it seem to matter that people nolonger trusted banks, and that for some reason Google, Meta, Apple and others are.

The banks have already lost their slice of the debt market, but these tech firms have eyed up the entire cake.

In no time at all people will be explaining to kids what banks used to be, whilst also explaining why cars are being repossessed in exchange for an Apple account.

Apple’s immense power over its users, which comes from its dominant position in the technology industry, has led to concerns about its control over users’ data and financial lives. This is especially true for Apple’s financial services offerings.

Apple Pay has the potential to collect vast amounts of financial data and influence users’ financial decisions.

While Apple has implemented privacy and security measures it takes it’s advice from Goldman Sachs, so it’s really a bank in your pocket, but who is protecting the user from this grip of power?

Also note how the language has changed over the years.

People talk of customers, or ‘consumers, but as is more accurate, theyre ‘users’.

And much like drug addicts, these users suckle on the teat, loving the first taste, and then go back for more, and just like that a new normal is born, and everything has changed.

I fear that for many this convenience masks a huge step backwards, and away from responsible lending.

This is going to impact those at the bottom far more than those at the top.

Maybe you don’t care, or think this small step doesn’t matter, and is a choice. But can you imagine being cash poor, unemployed and desperate. Can you imagine trying to get your phone and cash back from Apple when they’re literally deleted your phone or cash, and there is no person to help, or building to visit?

What a future we have ahead of us.

Those without have just been given a lifeline, but the pain and problems ahead are not detailed in the glossy headline of the press release, or even in the small print.

I’m not sure either of the Thompsonettes have needed to visit a bank in their short lives, and at this rate, they never will.