Apple is no longer just a provider of hardware products such as iPhones, iPads, iMacs, and Airpods. They provide a whole suite of ancillary services from entertainment to now even throwing their hand at banking, including a high-yield savings account (the new savings account drew in nearly $1 billion in deposits in the first 4 days alone).
Unfortunately, the Apple Savings Account is currently not available to European customers. To be eligible to open an Apple Savings account, you must be a U.S. resident with a valid, physical U.S. address. Apple has announced no plans to extend the high-yield savings account or the Apple Card to Europe or elsewhere outside the U.S.
We think Wise has the closest product offering to Apple for European customers. With Wise, you can earn around 2.25% on your euro balances through a money market fund and get a card that you can add to Apple Pay.
Why is the Apple Savings Account not available in Europe?
The Apple Savings Account is not available in Europe because this product’s financial viability is tied to the Apple Credit Card, which is also not available to European customers. In the US, you can only open an Apple Savings Account with an active Apple Card.
Apple faces a big challenge in rolling out these services in Europe due to the EU Interchange Fee Regulation, which caps the fees card issuers earn on each payment at 0.2% for consumer debit cards and 0.3% for consumer credit cards. There are no such caps on credit cards in the U.S.
It is not uncommon for retailers to be charged more than 3% interchange fees in the U.S. market, which makes the US market far more lucrative from Apple’s perspective. Many US retailers accept these higher rates because Apple customers are seen as more valuable than the average customer.
The Apple Card is also changing issuer: in January 2026, Apple and JPMorgan Chase announced that Chase will replace Goldman Sachs as issuer of the Apple Card, in a transition expected to take about 24 months. Apple says it will share details about the Savings account as the transition approaches.
So, if and when the Apple Card is launched in Europe, it is likely that the features and offers may be very different from what is being offered to US customers due to the fundamental differences between how each market operates.
Key features of the Apple Savings Account
What makes Apple’s high-yield Savings account stand out for many people is that there is no catch. Usually, when a bank or any other institution is offering, what seems to be a great interest rate, some terms and conditions make it challenging to get the full benefit of the offer.
Here are some of the key features of Apple’s Savings Account:
- Interest rate of 3.50% APY (as of September 23, 2026)
- Interest begins to accrue on the business day that Apple posts your deposit to your account
- No fees
- No minimum deposit
- No minimum balance requirement
- Maximum balance limits apply
- Account provided by Goldman Sachs Bank USA
- Covered by FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation) insurance
- Only available to Apple Card owners in the U.S.
Source: Apple Card Savings.
Alternatives to the Apple Savings Account in Europe
| Bank/ Brokerage Firm/eMoney Institution | Interest Rate on Euro | Interest Rate on USD |
| Lightyear | 2.44% (BlackRock) or 2.43% (J.P. Morgan) | 3.89% |
| Interactive Brokers* | 1.982% (IBKR Pro) | 3.380% (IBKR Pro) |
| Wise | 2.25% | 3.61% |
| Scalable Capital | 2.60% | n/a |
Rates as published by each provider in October 2026. Lightyear and Wise pay these returns through money market funds, net of fees, and the fund manager depends on your country. *IBKR pays the benchmark rate minus 0.5%, with no interest on the first 10,000 in each currency and a reduced rate for accounts under USD 100,000. All rates are variable.
Example: on €10,000 held for a year at today’s rates, Scalable Capital would pay about €260, Lightyear about €244 and Wise about €225. With Interactive Brokers you would earn nothing, because the first €10,000 of a euro balance doesn’t earn interest. These figures assume the rates stay the same, which is unlikely.
Lightyear
- Interest rate on offer: 2.44% (BlackRock) or 2.43% (J.P. Morgan) on euros and 3.89% on US dollars, through money market funds, net of fees (October 2026).
- Accepts deposits from Apple Pay: yes, Apple Pay and Google Pay deposits are accepted with a personal debit card, for a 0.6% fee.
- How often interest is paid: it accrues daily and is paid on the first business day of each month.
- Limitations: the fund manager (BlackRock or J.P. Morgan) depends on your country, and money market funds are not available in Belgium.
- Safety: money market funds are investments, not deposits, so no deposit guarantee scheme applies. Lightyear keeps client assets separate from its own, holds uninvested cash at banks such as Erste Bank Hungary and Citibank Europe, and EU clients are covered by the Estonian investor protection fund up to €20,000.
Co-founded by former Wise employees, Lightyear sets out to be a platform that allows you to invest your money globally without unnecessary barriers and with a simple, fair, and transparent pricing structure.
Lightyear is available in 26 European countries: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the UK.
Lightyear also offers a free share up to €100 with our promo code.
Disclaimer: Capital at risk. The provider of investment services is Lightyear UK Ltd for the UK and Lightyear Europe AS for the EU. Terms apply: lightyear.com/terms. Seek qualified advice if necessary.
Interactive Brokers
- Interest rate on offer: on IBKR Pro, 1.982% on euros and 3.380% on US dollars above the first 10,000 in each currency. Rates can change without notice.
- Accepts deposits from Apple Pay: No
- How often interest is paid: accrued daily and paid monthly.
- Limitations: the first €10,000 (or $10,000) earns no interest, and accounts under USD 100,000 get a proportionally lower rate.
- Safety: the level of protection you will receive for your money on deposit will vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction.
The level of protection you will receive on your cash deposited with Interactive Brokers will vary a lot from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, this is something we covered in detail in a separate article if you want to learn more about your protections with IBKR, and we also have a full review of IBKR’s services if you want to dig a little deeper.
Interactive Brokers is a renowned online brokerage firm that offers individuals and institutions a wide range of investment and trading services.
IBKR pays different interest rates on each currency, from USD to ZAR.
Unfortunately, you won’t earn interest on the first €10,000 of your euro cash balance with IBKR.
Accounts with a Net Asset Value (NAV) of USD 100,000 or more are paid interest at the full rate for which they are eligible. Accounts with NAV of less than USD 100,000 (or equivalent) receive interest at rates proportional to the size of the account.
This makes it more difficult to determine the interest rate you will receive. Still, Interactive Brokers has a calculator you can use to try to estimate your interest earnings.
Wise
- Interest rate on offer: 2.25% on euros and 3.61% on US dollars, after fees, in countries where the fund is managed by BlackRock (2.2% and 3.58% with JPMorgan Asset Management in Ireland).
- Works with Apple Pay: you can add your Wise card to Apple Pay for mobile spending.
- How often interest is paid: returns are added every working day.
- Limitations: the return depends on the fund’s performance and can go down as well as up.
- Safety: Not covered by a deposit guarantee scheme, but safeguarding is in place for customer funds. As Wise declares on its website: “We are not a bank, which means we don’t lend out our customers’ money to people or businesses. This also means our payment services aren’t subject to the Belgian Deposit Guarantee Scheme.”
However, Wise safeguards customer funds on European accounts by keeping them separate from its own money, in commercial banks and money market funds.
These assets are held in segregated accounts separate from Wise’s funds. In addition, money held in Wise Interest (provided by Wise Assets Europe AS) may be covered by the Estonian investor protection fund up to €20,000.
Launched in 2011, Wise is an eMoney business aimed at people who want to reduce the cost of making international money transfers. Among Wise’s products are an account that holds 40+ currencies, a travel money card and an international debit card.
One of Wise’s features is the ability to hold your funds in Cash, Stocks, or Interest. Wise will select an appropriate index fund and invest on your behalf when you hold your money in stocks.
If you switch your money to Interest, it is invested in a money market fund that holds short-term government debt and bank deposits, and the return is passed on to you.
Scalable Capital
- Interest rate on offer: 2.60% a year (variable) on euro balances in Germany, Austria, Italy and the Netherlands.
- Accepts deposits from Apple Pay: not mentioned as a deposit method.
- How often interest is paid: calculated daily and paid monthly.
- Limitations: the rate is the same with or without the PRIME+ subscription and there is no cap on the balance. In Italy and Austria part of the rate is a temporary bonus.
- Safety: cash is held at banks covered by deposit guarantee schemes up to €100,000 per bank, or in money market funds. PRIME+ clients can spread cash across up to five banks.
Scalable Capital was founded in 2014 and allows investors to independently trade stocks, ETFs, funds, cryptocurrencies, and derivatives.
You no longer need the PRIME+ subscription (€4.99 a month) to earn interest, but it lowers trading costs and gives you wider deposit protection, as Scalable can spread your cash across up to five banks with €100,000 of protection each.
Without PRIME+, Scalable keeps your cash at a bank covered by the deposit guarantee scheme up to €100,000, or in money market funds, according to its interest page.
The growing importance of Apple’s ancillary services to its business model
Over the past number of years, services have become a huge part of Apple’s business model. In fiscal 2012, services accounted for just 8% of Apple’s revenue. In fiscal 2025, services brought in $109 billion, about 26% of total revenue, according to Apple’s annual report.
Among these services, Apple has:
- AppleCare
- Apple One
- Apple Pay
- Siri
- FaceTime
- App Store
Final thoughts
While many of Apple’s great features, such as the Apple Card and Apple Savings account, are restricted to just US customers, we are not completely in the dark ages here in Europe.
As we have outlined in this article, many providers in Europe are competing with one another and offering ever-increasing rates on deposit accounts. This space is changing rapidly as banks, institutions and brokerages adjust to the European Central Bank’s rate changes, most recently the increase to 2.50% in September 2026.
If you want to keep up to date with the latest offers on the market, make sure to bookmark investingintheweb.com.
