I'm sure Apple is not so stupid and sexist as to have business logic that gives men 10x the credit limit as women, other things being equal. My guess is that the credit limit depends on the person's reported individual income, so that if the husband earns more than the wife, which is still true in the majority of U.S. households, he gets a higher credit limit. If that is the explanation, I think it's a plausible, non-sexist way of setting a credit limit, although setting a credit limit based on household income is equally plausible.
I agree that it is unlikely that the company "Apple have put in business logic that gives men 10x credit limit as women, but the back-end for this is created by Goldman Sachs. Can you with confidence says the same about them?
I agree there's probably no bad intent on Apple's part. But there are anecdotal reports in dhh's twitter thread from husbands saying their higher-earning wives had much lower credit limits, so the explanation is probably not so simple.
This doesn’t seem logical. Women are responsible for a large chuck of house hold spending... why would a company such as Goldman Sachs want to limit their ability to spend? The less they spend, the less data they can gather on their spending habits.
This is concerning, but the examples they gave were all from couples where the man contributed most of their combined wealth, AFAIK, might that not be the reason?
Is there an example where the wife contributed most of the combined wealth? What would their credit allowance balance look like?
Or what would happen if you just remove the gender variable from the algorithms?
I'm a woman and the income earner in my family. My Apple Card credit limit is significantly lower than my other cards. Anecdotal, but it certainly doesn't seem like being the income earner matters.
I wonder what the calculations behind it is. Maybe its similar to the fudging they do that makes my wife pay 40% less in insurance for the same car than I would.
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[ 1.9 ms ] story [ 43.6 ms ] threadIs there an example where the wife contributed most of the combined wealth? What would their credit allowance balance look like?
Or what would happen if you just remove the gender variable from the algorithms?
I wonder what the calculations behind it is. Maybe its similar to the fudging they do that makes my wife pay 40% less in insurance for the same car than I would.
Any financial modellers here that can chip in?