I’ve just got a reply from Bunq on Twitter that there aren’t any plans to make a simple transaction view API available for Travel Card plan features.
I totally get the idea behind having a free, barebone product and keep more advanced feature for premium. But in this case, I think that’s not a good business decision.
With the Travel Card, Bunq earns more interchange than with their Maestro and MC Debit cards. They don’t pay interest on the balance. And ATM withdrawals are at least partly covered by the fee.
Offering an option to add the card to multi banking apps (for spending categorization, or just for a general overview over multiple accounts), would make the card so much more convenient for customers that want to use it as a solo card in combination with a current account somewhere else.
And this, on the other hand, would probably result in customers using the card more, which should make the card more profitable. It’s a fine line between luring in customers into subscribing to a pricy plan (that’s worth the money but sometimes just not what a customer wants) and limiting a great product to an extend where it becomes less convenient in everyday spending despite its otherwise clever and unique features.
