bunq Together

We need a credit card

Giuliano

Guys, I love bunq and I really hoped that I would fully transition to it. Unfortunately it’s not possible. Why? Bunq doesn’t offer a credit card. And despite all the good intentions, the world still asks for legit credit cards. I travel a lot and many hotels, car rental, gas stations require a credit card. Last month I traveled to the US: I would have incurred in serious troubles without my other bank’s credit card.
So please, add this feature to your services. I think I’m not the only one asking for it.
Thank you.

Ali

Giuliano Interesting and thanks for sharing. Did you use the Mastercard Debit? I travel in the US regularely too, and I haven't found significant number of places where it doesn't work. Sometimes it doesn't work; but then again sometimes my other card(s) also don't work. It seems to be a bit random there unfort.

I usually travel to NYC and/or SFO, and never rent a car. Hotels, restaurants, bars, airbnb, uber, atm's, metro machines, have never been an issue for me.

Thanks for explaining!

johannes

Giuliano In the US you need to select "Credit" if the debit card is not from the US, even if you pay with a debit card, sometimes this is confusing and you get into trouble by selecting "debit".
But Ali, if you are lucky you don't run into trouble, but there just must be the one merchant asking for a credit card and you are "lost" if you would just use bunq. There is even a popular example right here in Europe: The German Train Service (Deutsche Bahn) only accepts real credit cards if you want to buy your ticket in the train or food by card.. they are now working on allowing other cards for food, but still.. there are such merchants and for that cases a real credit card can help, you just wouldn't be lost.

iHaldun

Zo is dat.

Mark-Blue-Shark-3137357496

You can always secure a credit card through a 3rd party if you need one. Increasingly, car rental companies and hotels accept debit cards for deposits these days.

Giuliano

Ali Hey Ali, yes I used the MasterCard. In one week it was rejected at least 5 times and I had to use a credit card which fortunately always worked. I’m just saying, not having a credit card could be a real issue.

johannes

Ali And also important: There are banks in Germany offering a "credit card", although there is no real credit behind it (just an offline limit bunq also has). ING is a good example or DKB, they are issuing "credit cards" for kids just without any credit behind it.. but the card itself is still "credit"... maybe bunq could do something similar?

YY

Ali Maybe an idea to follow Curves idea?

They offer a debit/creditcard which support offline payments and allow you to use the card to rent a car

Ali

Giuliano Interesting; can you please share where it was rejected? Was it chains? Local merchants? What city/etc :)

Also: did you see an event appearing in the app?

Thanks!

johannes

Youssef bunq's card also supports offline payments and allow you to rent a car, only some merchants just say "no" if it's not a "real credit card".

YY

Johannes 🇦🇺 The Curve card is in this cases accepted! Thats why it could be an idea to follow that at Bunq

Steffan

+1 here! It is a mess without a credit card. Why not giving the user the freedom to choose? It hasn't to be free of charge. If bunq would add the feature to choose afterwards which amount or credit card payment has to be withdrawn from which bunq account it would a very nice little feature which would be very useful for me. Example, paying different things on vacation and when you come home you can split or define which amounts has to be taken from which bank accounts when the credit card amount is withdrawn (one a month) from the accounts. If you are not using bunq as main account it would make it a lot easier to use bunq with a credit card, getting rid of the situation that you have to top up the account in a restaurant etc

JeroenE

Steffan Als je bunq niet als je hoofdbank gebruikt waarom gebruik je dan niet gewoon de credit card van je hoofdbank?

Ik weet niet hoe het zit in andere landen, maar je kan in Nederland simpel een credit card krijgen bij een derde partij. ICS heeft een MasterCard Gold inlcusief een extra kaart voor je partner voor 32,50 euro. Tenzij bunq onder die prijs gaat zitten dan is het toch helemaal niet aantrekkelijk om een bunq credit card te nemen? Ter vergelijking als je bij bunq een extra MasterCard neemt (boven de 3 gratis kaarten die je hebt) dan betaal je daar al 36 euo per jaar voor. Dan heb je dus geen krediet, geen aankoopverzekering, geen partner kaart etc. Wellicht heeft bunq die prijzen zo gemaakt ter afschrikking van mensen om veel extra kaarten te nemen, maar het zou natuurlijk verbazingwekkend zijn als je straks voor een extra debit MasterCard meer zou moeten betalen dan een extra credit MasterCard.

NB ICS heeft natuurlijk alleen een Nederlandse pagina: https://www.yourmastercard.nl/creditcards/mastercard-gold/

Steffan

It is not my problem to get a credit card, I have several from different banks in Germany for free, that is not the point. I just want to make clear, that I would find it very good when bunq would provide that feature, as I will get rid of all these cards soon....bunq is cool and it works like a charm, so a credit card would make it even more to think about changing away from the big players in the market .

Giuliano

Ali I don’t remember each time bunq MasterCard got refused but I remember a couple of times in a gas station, once in a market, at dollar car rental LA and an hotel in Vegas

Ali

One of the major problems with Credit Cards is btw that due to the way the international card network is setup it's very complicated to create an unsderstandable user experience in combination with real-time. Currently there seems to be no (reliable) way to detect whether something is a reservation or a true payment. This is only found out when we get the settlement file (which can be up to 1 month later...)

Michiell

Ali ja en daar heeft Curve dus iets op uitgevonden omdat wel te kunnen detecteren.
Het moet dus wel kunnen of zoals reeds geschreven, maak er een credit card van zonder krediet zoals ze bij de oosterburen doen.

johannes

Ali How do you mean that, and what's the difference here between a credit or debit card? When I rent a car with my debit card you also don't know if it's just a reservation or true payment. Maybe you could just write a "pending" in the description of the payment until it's getting settled.
The thing is, if you travel a lot you just need a real credit card but you can't get one from bunq. There are merchants who don't accept debit cards (mentioned a popular example above). So for now you need to go back to an old traditional bank to be fully covered.. :/

Jakob-Y

From my personal experience this behavior is actually why I don't always use the debit card. Sometimes authorizations take a long time to disappear, and sometimes they linger around weeks after the actual payment was made. Then you're out of double the money for that time. With a credit card, at least it is only your remaining limit that is a bit lower for that time.

I mean I realize if I just have a high enough balance on my account, it's no big deal. And also the aforementioned never really happened to me in Europe, so as long as I live here it's not a problem for my regular spending. But while definitely see the problem Ali describes I'm not really convinced that problem is solved at all by giving out debit cards. Only adds to the confusion imo.

Ali

Michiel 🏳️‍🌈 Is het niet zo dat curve 1 op 1 afschrijft van de achterliggende kaart, dus dat ze er niets op hebben uitgevonden maar het probleem delegeren?

YY

Ali

Goed gezien Ali! Maar als je achterliggende kaart een debit kaart is dan werkt dit ook. In de Thalys bijv werkt mijn debit kaart niet maar Curve wel. En de transactie word dan binnen een week afgeschreven van mijn debit kaart omdat die dan verwerkt is door Curve. Zij het een omweg word het wel uitgevoerd

Ik denk zelf persoonlijk dat het voor Bunq interessanter is om dit "trucje" wat Curve heeft aan te bieden zodat je met een Debit kaart ook op plekken waar alleen de Credit word geaccepteerd rondkomen. Dan dat je moet overwegen om krediet aan te bieden voor een echte Creditcard, wat misschien niet in lijn is met de gedachte van Bunq. Tenzij jullie een samenwerking overwegen met ICS/Qander, en al het werk aan hun uitbesteden.

Michiell

Ali klopt ze schrijven direct af op de onderliggende kaart.

Ik zie dat je al iets hebt gevonden op de website van Curve. Eerder op together is door een bunq en curve gebruiker aangegeven dat dit in de praktijk prima werkt.

Ali

There we go:


Curve will automatically assume that charges from hotels or car rental agencies over £150 are deposits. We treat these transactions differently to all others, putting a hold on payment capture, so Curve effectively acts like a credit card would.

However, Curve cannot distinguish between deposit pre-authorisations and normal transactions, so for amounts below £150, Curve will always process the transaction, much like if you paid on a debit card.```