UPDATED 14:02 EDT / FEBRUARY 07 2018

NEWS

Report: Apple may team up with Goldman Sachs to offer iPhone financing

If you really want the new iPhone X, but that $1,000 price tag is a bit too rich for your blood, Apple Inc. may have a solution for you: Take out a loan!

The Wall Street Journal reported today that the Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is in talks with Apple to offer consumers more financing options to buy iPhones, Apple Watches and other devices. Both companies declined to comment on the rumor, but people familiar with the matter said that Marcus, Goldman’s consumer lending platform, wants to let Apple customers take out loans for their purchases rather than charging them to a credit card with higher interest rates.

Apple and Goldman have not made any solid agreements, and they may not go forward with the deal at all, but the financing options could be good for both companies.

IPhones have never been cheap, but the cost of the devices has continued to rise, and the recent decline in iPhone shipments suggests that consumers might be finding those prices harder to swallow. Several carriers have also reduced or eliminated the subsidies they previously offered for new iPhones, which makes alternate financing options even more attractive to consumers.

Meanwhile, Goldman is reportedly looking to build a new point-of-sale financing business, which would allow customers to apply for loans at checkout. A partnership with Apple would go a long way toward getting Goldman’s plan up and running.

Apple already offers some financing options for customers with its iPhone Upgrade Program, which carries the tagline “Get a new iPhone every year.” The program allows owners of older iPhones to upgrade to the latest model with a no-interest loan paid out over 24 months. At the moment, payments to upgrade to the iPhone X start at $49.91 per month for the 64-gigabyte model or $56.16 for the 256GB model. Consumers can apply for another upgrade once they have made 12 payments, so the more rabid iPhone fans could be making payments on two phones at once.

Citizens Financial Group Inc. currently operates the iPhone Upgrade Program, but according to the Journal’s report, Goldman may be taking over some aspect of the program.

Photo: Apple

A message from John Furrier, co-founder of SiliconANGLE:

Your vote of support is important to us and it helps us keep the content FREE.

One click below supports our mission to provide free, deep, and relevant content.  

Join our community on YouTube

Join the community that includes more than 15,000 #CubeAlumni experts, including Amazon.com CEO Andy Jassy, Dell Technologies founder and CEO Michael Dell, Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger, and many more luminaries and experts.

“TheCUBE is an important partner to the industry. You guys really are a part of our events and we really appreciate you coming and I know people appreciate the content you create as well” – Andy Jassy

THANK YOU