I came here to post something similar. The direct reason I came was the auto-top up feature which bunq emailed me about today.
This may sound arrogant, but I don't run out of money. I'm no student and these are not the use cases most people deal with. What I deal with is having lots of transactions which I need to at some point in time take action on (taxes, subscription renewals, etc). I share spotify and netflix subscriptions with different people. Bunq does not make it easy for me to manage those set-ups. I have to check every month if everyone paid. This sucks and bunq does not help me get an overview. I have monthly and yearly direct debit transactions (energy, tv, internet, mobile, etc). With kids things get even more complex (don't have kids yet). I want to have an overview and see when transactions are scheduled, be able to set a date when the contract with that service provider expires. If a newspaper initiates a direct debit and takes 50 EUR from my bank account, then bunq can know this transaction will possibly return to haunt me. After it hits and i open the app for the first time, inform me and ask me when I expect to be hit again, so bunq can track it for me (and I can easily cancel the subscription).
I want a rule builder so that when I receive money on my business account, I can automatically move the VAT to my VAT account and already reserve some money for taxes by moving it elsewhere. Pocket money for kids, same thing, shared subscriptions same thing. I don't want to set up a recurring transaction. As a customer I don't care what that is. I want you to hide the complexity for me and show me the implications (scheduled transactions). What bunq now does is: 1. basic budgeting and 2. easy spending. But spending is too easy and I need to get an overview, especially when I'm running a mature household. If you fulfill this need, you are relevant to almost all target audiences. I really want to be able to manage all my money affairs from inside the app and not have to use external tools that were built on top of your API. It is not a matter of doing things togetherfor me as a customer. I don't want to leave your app.
Bunq is still drifting: are you targeting consumers or small business owners? Are you targeting students/starters who are eternally tight on money or adults who have the bankroll to afford your subscription. Are you targeting families or are you targeting students who live in dorms and who share expenses? Are you targeting the NL, DACH, ES and IT regions at the same time? Good luck, but you need more rigorous focus. Apple pay is a nice marketing feature, but the spending part is not where your challenge is in your market. I can already transact wirelessly using my bank card. And apple pay is worthless outside of IT and ES. The features you are now focusing on are not making an impact on most of your users and you are not getting the most bang for your investment buck. This makes me very worried and I moved a lot of savings back to my 'old' bank acocunt today. I believe your prioritization is fundamentally off.
If bunq truly wants to localize their product to other European markets, then please start supporting creditcard top-ups, paypal top-ups, and any other widely supported payment method. Don't show ideal to users in countries other than NL and don't show sofort to people in NL. Focus on the payment methods that work for each country and rigorously optimize per country.
You're not going to win customers based on the assumption that people will just switch bank accounts. You need to focus more rigorously on the typical user journey: 1. sell people on the budgeting and money managing features (and expand on that). You are already way ahead on the spending features (maestro, mastercard, multiple cards, dual pin), 2. make it easy for them to top up money and so they find out about the beneifts of using bunq, 3. one by one convince them to move their incoming money streams to bunq. Only after this will they be willing to ditch their current bank. You are marketing yourself to a large degree based on the last step (old banks are bad). Improve your marketing.
No thanks for the free advice. I am available for consulting.