Bunq enters ireland

Bob24

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119291918#Comment_119291918

Thanks. I actually had a similar issue with my home insurance direct debit, so there must be something related to my account :-s

Maybe because it is a joint account, but neither Vodafone nor bunq are benign very helpful. Vodafone just says the payment was declined and wouldn't provide any other documentation. And bunq just says they haven't seen any DD presented to them.

Yggr of Asgard

With the latest version digicards can be added to Apple Pay directly again.

awec

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119305386#Comment_119305386

Game changer!

martin_g

Guys are u charged say a top up fee if ur topping up ur bunk bank account from say a Permant Tsb Card?

awec

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119336247#Comment_119336247

You can top up by card up to €500 a month for free, after that I think there's a charge.

Mimikyu

Anyone have a problem with payments being returned, specifically AIB credit card?

I’ve tried to pay my AIB credit card with both their Irish and EU IBAN and it’s been returned to my account both times. I’ve used these details with KBC for the Irish IBAN and N26 and Revolut with the EU one and never had this problem.

Senature

I was just about to pull the trigger on setting up a Bunq free savings account when I saw that the interest is paid on €10,000 max.

It's not obvious at all on their website, the sneakiness of that is pretty off putting to me.

Does anyone know how their investment platform works? Do you just pay the monthly fee or are there T&Cs waiting to trip me up there too?!

Thanks.

walterking

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119796801#Comment_119796801

I saw that, but it was fairly transparent. Loads of T&C's with deposits. Some credit unions won't allow more than 10k in an account. Banks offer very small returns.

Rates may start to change now that the ECB is at 2%, but up to a few months ago ECB was negative and deposits were costing banks money

Yggr of Asgard

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119796801#Comment_119796801

Good news, as of 1 December You’ll get interest on savings up to €100,000 (previously €10,000) and it's now Interest rate quadruples to 1.05%.

And Bad news, this is now only on dedicated savings account which also have a twice monthly withdraw limit:

Update on MassInterest as of December 2, 2022 💪 - bunq Together

Yggr of Asgard

And another raise in interest rates for savings accounts to 1.31%

Update to MassInterest as of January 1, 2023 💪 - bunq Together

retalivity

I was wondering why there was a massive jump in Interest at the end of Dec, only realised it was related to the 2% hike now

Explosive_Cornflake

Has anyone added direct debits to a joint sub account?

Any issue?

I see under SubAccount->Settings->AutoAccepted Payments->Direct Debits-> It says "Authorize the direct debit manually first and then they will automatically be paid"

Does that need to be done?

I've set some up over the last few days, but I don't see anything under "Add direct debit" and it's not something I've ever done with a bank.

No payments are due yet until next month though.

EDIT:

did some googling, you need to accept the direct debits.

https://together.bunq.com/d/1972-how-can-i-pay-direct-debits-with-bunq

I'm still curious to hear from people who've been through the process.

Yggr of Asgard

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120133580#Comment_120133580

So once a direct debit info is transmitted to Bunq from the other bank you will get an advance notification in the app that the direct debit over xxx € is going to hit you on the following date. It's going to happen a few days before the direct debit is due.

You than have the option to refuse the debit (for example because it's unauthorized, not the right amount etc.) or to accept it on this one occasion or to accept it always (auto accept).

It's a feature of Bunq so that you know before a direct debit hits.

Nothing you need to do until the first time the direct debit hits (or in case you prefer manual approval every time they take money).

Mimikyu

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120133580#Comment_120133580

Everything Yggr of Asgard said is spot on, just another feature worth pointing out is if you auto accept future direct debits you can set a limit on them, eg if you know your phone bill should always be €40 you can set that as the max to auto accept so you don't get any surprises from a billing error or similar.

As an aside, has anyone set a Vodafone direct debit up successfully with Bunq? I only moved to Vodafone recently and it accepted the IBAN when joining but it didn't come out in December and had to manually pay the bill. Entered the details again and the direct debit is due in two days and I haven't received notification from Bunq about it. I also got a letter confirming the direct debits and a mandate number both times from Vodafone.

carloscorreia

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120133733#Comment_120133733

I setup vodafone broadband direct debit with Bunq last September and worked fine.

I really like the direct debit approval feature in Bunq and to be able to set a limit which you can change at any time.

Explosive_Cornflake

Has anyone had any luck with using the secondary pin on a card? I tired it twice today and I got an incorrect pin. I'm not sure how it works behind the scenes. I assume THE pin is synced to the card for offline terminals or do they even exist?

awec

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120138899#Comment_120138899

I think it doesn't work with offline terminals. It's a feature that sounds good but I found the 2nd PIN was declined so often that I stopped using it.

I just create a new Digicard per-account and use my phone now, works better since you can add Digicards to Apple Pay again.

inel

Currently, more than 50% of Bunq reviews on Trustpilot are 1 star.

I read many people have mentioned that their bank account was suddenly closed for no apparent reason and lost access to their money for months?

In fact, it is also mentioned somewhere in the T&C that bunq may hold your money for more than 4 months in such case, before you are able to retrieve it.

Others also complain about bad customer service when such issues arise and limited access to the 'SOS' line.

I was wondering how 'safe' or hassle-free is to hold some savings with bunq, if you risk losing access to your money for months.

Has anyone ever had such an experience?

Yggr of Asgard

I would suggest you refer to the T&C, especially about the reasons why Bunq can terminate the account Personal Account - Terms & Conditions | bunq

As a bank they follow the same standards as most others and if you have a dispute you can complain to both the Irish Regulator (as they have a branch here) or the Dutch  Klachteninstituut Financiële Dienstverlening.

As with most neo banks or financial providers the lack of phone support can be an issue in case of disputes or general questions and hence should be part of your assessment before you open an account.

Jim2007

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120159443#Comment_120159443

I think you need to keep in mind that you are more likely to hear from disgruntled customers than happy ones and most people will present the facts in the most favour terms to fit their situation....

One of the most common reason for these negative outcomes is a failure to comply with MLA requirements and requests. All banks have to follow the same procedures in these cases. The accounts are frozen and the authorities are informed and once that happens the bank can no longer communicate with the client on the matter and in fact any bank employee who does so could face a criminal prosecution. Once the authorities are involved it can take a lot longer than four months before the authorise the bank to release the funds. And in such cases imaking complaints to the regulator authorities will have no impact as they have no role in criminal investigations.

I can tell you from experience there are an awful lot of people out there wanting anonymity in their financial affairs in order to hide funds very often from the tax authorities, spouses, partners, family members etc and when they discover that their plan does not work out they take to social media.

I would disregard such reports because it is impossible to verify them. If you have a legitimate reason to open an account [most people have], you comply with all MLA requirements and requests, there is no reason why your account would be frozen.

inel

I also add the following link about Bunq account terminations/blocking (from their FAQs):

Why was my account blocked?

https://together.bunq.com/d/26054-why-was-my-account-blocked

I understand that many negative reviews in Trustpilot may not be speaking the full truth about their situation, however the increased percentage of people complaining about this may also indicate some over-sensitivity of their systems in flagging accounts as suspicious, which combined with their slow/bad customer service can lead to delays, distress and frustration.

I hope it is not the case that, in the attempt to transfer own funds to take advantage of better interest rates, you may end up with your account suddenly being flagged as suspicious and blocked and then you have to prove that you are not an elephant, under an environment that lacks quick and unrestricted customer support.

Yggr of Asgard

In addition to that, for a long time the Dutch Central bank did not like the digital verification that Bunq was doing so Bunq had to be extra careful when it comes to suspicious activity.

Now that they won their legal case, and a court cleared the digital verification I think they will fine tune their AI a little bit to be not so aggressive anymore (but that is my personal opinion).

In addition, with the Irish Branch they now also have to obey by Irish AML rules.

Jim2007

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120160257#Comment_120160257

You are going to believe what you want to believe, but it makes no sense from a business point of view to build up a bad reputation in freezing customer accounts. And I can't recall a single meeting where the business owners argued for more supervision, it was always for a relaxation....

AlmightyCushion

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120160918#Comment_120160918

It happens. I had it happen with my Monese account. i got a new phone, logged in to the app. It asked me to do some security verifications e.g. look at the screen, look left, look right. After I did it, they locked my account and said someone from their security team would contact me. They never contacted me. I tried emailing them and they never replied. After 3 months they eventually replied to my emails and unlocked my account. For some reason it seems the new fintech banks are a lot more likely to lock people out of their account and when they do it takes a long time to get back in again.

Yggr of Asgard

And interest is now 1.56% which is not too bad.

Yes Traderepublic does have 2% but if you prefer real bank rather than a trading account Bunq is an option with the free savings account.

inel

Good news the increase in interest rate, it becomes more attractive.

Now that I try to switch from the initial Easy Green trial plan to the free Easy savings, it asks me to delete all sub accounts but one.

However, you cannot delete a sub account if it is your main billing account, so I thought I should configure my Savings account as my billing account, since this is the one I want to keep.

It seems however that you cannot set the billing to the Savings account, you need to convert it to a regular sub account first?

Does anybody know, how else can you directly switch to the Easy savings plan, in case you have an existing Savings account created? Do you need to disable your Savings account and move your money to one of your 'regular' sub accounts, the one that you eventually want to keep? Does this automatically become your 'Savings' account then or do you need to add again a Savings account after you switch to the new plan?

AlmightyCushion

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120214862#Comment_120214862

I could be wrong but I don't think there is any such thing as a savings or a normal sub account. They are all just sub accounts. You select which one the savings rate applies to in the settings. Saying that I don't know what you mean by billing account either. How Bunq works can be pretty confusing.

Mimikyu

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120214974#Comment_120214974

I think they changed it when they started to raise the interest rates. I noticed I wasn't getting the higher rates on a shared savings account I had and had it selected in the settings. I created a new dedicated savings sub account and got the higher interest last month on it.

I agree it can be pretty confusing to use sometimes.

Yggr of Asgard

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120214862#Comment_120214862

Easy Savings is a plan not an account.

So, if you have already a savings account set up than you can downgrade your plan which will result in all open accounts (and sub accounts) and cards be canceled and only the savings account survives (with the same IBAN that it had), the savings account becomes your billing account. You will need to disable your cards manually for the downgrade to work.

If you don't have a savings account at the moment, then you need to delete all sub accounts and just leave one account intact which is your billing account, that than should be converted into a savings account once you downgrade your plan to easy savings.

In theory all you need to do is go into our profile, select the plan and switch plan to Easy savings. It should prompt you to freeze your card and the flow will then guide you through the changes.

If the plan downgrade does not work automatically for you, you will need to contact support, there was a bug for a while which did not allow for downgrades/upgrades in certain configurations.

inel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120214974#Comment_120214974

Under Profile -> Invoices and Billing -> Preferred Billing sub-account you are supposed to choose one of your accounts for the monthly charging (in the case case of Easy Green plan at least) .

When I try to set it to the Savings account (the one I currently receive interest and want to keep when switching to Easy savings plan) it says 'Are you sure you want to stop now?'

It seems that it does not allow me to keep it as a 'Savings account' in such case.

Yes, I agree, their interface is sometimes confusing.