Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak says Apple Card offered his wife a lower credit limit

Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak.

Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak.

• Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak weighed into a growing controversy around Apple Card, saying the card gave him a credit limit ten times higher than his wife's, despite the couple sharing all their assets.
  
• Wozniak's comments came after a Twitter thread went viral on Thursday accusing Apple's credit card of discriminating against women by giving them lower credit limits for no discernible reason.
• Apple's card partner, Goldman Sachs, denied accusations of sexism and said its systems do not discriminate against women.
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Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak has weighed in on a debate about whether the new Apple Card discriminates against women by limiting their credit. He thinks they do.

Apple launched its new credit card in August of this year, but a tweet went viral from web programmer and author David Heinemeier Hansson on Thursday accusing the card of giving his wife 20 times lower credit than himself, despite the fact the couple file joint tax returns and she has a higher credit score.

Hansson wrote: "The @AppleCard is such a fucking sexist program. My wife and I filed joint tax returns, live in a community-property state, and have been married for a long time. Yet Apple's black box algorithm thinks I deserve 20x the credit limit she does. No appeals work."

Hansson's thread was retweeted thousands of times.

Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak weighed in on Saturday to say he and his wife, Janet Hill, had experienced a similar problem, with Wozniak being given ten times as much credit as Hill.

"The same thing happened to us," Wozniak wrote in a response to Hansson. "We have no separate bank accounts or credit cards or assets of any kind. We both have the same high limits on our cards, including our AmEx Centurion card. But 10x on the Apple Card."

He added that his wife tried to call a support number to have the issue resolved, but got nowhere.

In another tweet Wozniak suggested the sexist ranking was the work of an algorithm, rather than a conscious decision by a human controller.

When contacted about the allegations, an Apple spokesman referred Business Insider on to Goldman Sachs, saying the bank was responsible for decisions about credit and operational management of the card.

Wozniak said in a tweet that Apple should bear some of the responsibility.

He wrote: "I'm a current Apple employee and founder of the company and the same thing happened to us (10x) despite not having any separate assets or accounts. Some say the blame is on Goldman Sachs but the way Apple is attached, they should share responsibility."

Goldman Sachs was not immediately available for comment, but in a statement put out on Saturday, the bank said: "As with any other individual credit card, your application is evaluated independently. We look at an individual's creditworthiness, which includes factors like personal credit scores, how much debt you have, and how that debt has been managed. Based on these factors, it is possible for two family members to receive significantly different credit decisions. In all cases, we have not and will not make decisions based on factors on gender."

The accusation was serious enough for a Wall Street regulator to launch an investigation into Goldman Sachs, according to Bloomberg.

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