Bunq Discussion & Feedback

Bunq update 11 has been released:

It includes a web interface:

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Looking forward to this. I really like their product and ethos.

Interesting quote:

One point of difference to its competitors is that bunq will just run euro accounts, targeting users who often spend money abroad.

Bunq, which doesn’t believe in free banking, is targetting an older userbase than many of its rivals, competing against traditional banks.

Seems an interesting move to launch in the UK without a £ account. I imagine there’s a fair number of people who would join up for the benefit of a Euro account, but can’t imagine it will shake much up in the UK without £.

Also fund it funny that their strapline is “Bank of the Free”, despite “note believing in free banking”.

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Let me know when signup is live, I’d love to check out their onboarding flow and app. And it’ll be useful for the next time I go to Holland.

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You can open an account with them with a UK address anyway, so it’s not yet clear what difference launching in the UK will have.

You can sign up right now…

Well this is what I found strange about their ‘launch’. I remember ordering a Bunq card to the UK about maybe a year ago, but cancelled once I realised the cost / lack of features.

I don’t see what’s different about the account now vs a year ago given there’s never any prevention for UK customers signing up?!

I did like that each of the ‘Pot’ type spaces of the account were actual accounts with account numbers, and I seem to remember them having Virtual cards which I liked :slight_smile:

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That’s the big question mark.

Best case, they’ve got something interesting in the works.

Worst case, it’s just a marketing exercise and the offering will be unchanged.

Saw the article in Sifted dot eu about them launching in the UK

£10 for the Bunq card. 0.5%-2% per load of the card. £1 per withdrawal on the card. This is probably the most expensive “free” card that exists on the UK market. I think Niknam’s confidence that he can make it against N26 (card free to issue and load, and no withdrawal fees), Monese (card free to issue and load, and no withdrawal fees), and Revolut (card £4.99 (but free if you use certain links), free to load, and no withdrawal fees) is somewhat misplaced. The markets he is “successful” in have a long tradition of charging for banking services – the UK does not. Aside from the attractive colour scheme, there isn’t a whole lot going for it that isn’t available elsewhere, and it gets some pretty terrible reviews on Trustpilot, mainly because it seems to randomly freeze accounts for no reason and then fail to communicate (or pay out even when closed).

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I don’t see this as an expansion into the UK. Nothing is really changing from what they offered to UK customers before. I’ve been a bunq customer based from the UK for almost 2 years. It isn’t actually a UK specific account, it just feels like they are just advertising their Dutch Euro account pan-Europe now. It is impossible to really compare the account to UK fintechs. If it had a GBP account then comparisons would be useful.

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If they do nothing to adapt to market, this is going to :bomb:

Thanks for that link!

Interesting quote in there:

Technicoloured dream-bank?

Bunq doesn’t disclose its user numbers, but its collective deposits amount to €211m (Dec, 2018). That’s about half of what Monzo controls, which listed deposits of £461.8m (Feb, 2019), while Starling said it’s approaching £1bn.

Not sure how up to date those figures are, but intersting that Starling has twice the user deposits than Monzo, despite having maybe 1/3rd of the customer base.

FT has some interesting stats, mentioned here

Starling currently has user deposits of 600M. The 1B is a projection for end of year. They have more simply because they pay interest on deposits.

Nothing to do with business accounts?

Definitely not a first-order effect.

I signed up last week (same as every other neobank, took ~5 minutes) and loaded €200 for free via a SEPA transfer from Revolut. The €0.99 cash-out fee is also not terrible (probably better than Monzo for me, given the miserly Monzo free monthly ATM allowance).

Sofirstly load Revolut with Euros, then transfer them via SEPA to Bunq.

Seems like a faff when there are plenty of cards you can just simply load.

For sure it’s a faff, and I don’t see the appeal for UK users!
But I thought it was a bit unfair to rip into their fee structure when it actually feels similar to Monzo fees.

Do Bunq charge for UK withdrawals?