Nice to see that bunq sticks to their cause :). Although this topic may not directly apply to me, I'm not entirely sure if I understand the topic correct and have some questions:

From my understanding business accounts with more than 100.000 EUR in funds now have to pay an extra fee to keep their money safe at the ECB.

- In the pricing this is categorized as 'extra'. What happens if someone does not picks this extra? What will happen with this money? Will it be invested? If so, what will this be invested in?

- Does this update have any effect on non-business accounts, either with more or less than 100k in funds? Is the money of personal accounts always safely stored at the ECB?

If you have 200.000 euro in holdings, you will be charged 71 euro's a month!! What do you think about this? Bunq has good reasons to make a difference in the banking industry but do they cross the line now?

Why not a fixed fee? Are you spending different amounts on accounts depending on how much they have in them? Why not at least have a top fee? The yearly fees are such that 2-3 medium sized companies are enough to pay a month of income. One larger company would already be enough to actually pay one of your employees. These fees are ridiculously high, and I'm sure will lose you customers. You can't expect companies to pay for a bank account a similar amount that they would pay for an accountant.

Luckily this is not for personal account's so my dream of becoming very rich isn't affected 😥

Hi René,

Thank you for reaching out. To answer your questions:

Firstly, to clarify, your money is always safe! We've always chosen to keep your money safe (for all users) and clean and we've decided to stay true to that cause.

No fee will be applied for business users with amounts under 100k and these funds will also be safely deposited at the ECB. This change is only for business users, so it does not apply to personal accounts (no matter the amount).

Feel free to check out our legal page here for more info (scroll down to see our pricing docs): https://www.bunq.com/legal

Please let me know if there is anything else I can help clear up for you 🙂

Awesome, I was mainly just interested to know if someone had the choice to not pay and instead bunq would invest their money etc.

Thanks for your response :)

Hi there Octavian,

To answer your question, yes, we are charged based on the amount that all of our business users have (no matter the holdings amount). By creating a different option than a fixed rate, we are able to provide our business users with a solution that is tailored experience to their own company and finances!

A good example would be comparing two business accounts: one business user who has 105,000 euros with us versus a business user who has 1 million euros with us. Because this rate is relative on the amount of holdings, the extra fee is vastly different between both companies. Now this allows for a unique way to solve this problem for various companies 👍

Thanks for reaching our and sharing your feedback!

This is my point exactly. It makes sense only if you hold in the low 100Ks, but for anything over 200k it's absurd

The reason for this fee is the negative deposited rate of the ECB. While this is at -0.4 % it’s common for banks to charge more beyond larger amounts sometimes for every amount in business accounts. I have seen 0,85 % beyond 100k Euro deposits but others only charge 0,4-0,5 %. While bunq still have to pay 0,4 % for euro they deposit with the ECB (there is no alternative) no matter private or business it’s a lot of money. As soon as the ECB wakes up to fix this stupid failure of monetary policy this fee should disappear. My own ideas about that: money is a medium of exchange and not a store of value. it’s wrongly taught at schools and universities. It becomes “value” after being “invested” in business or stocks, people or salaries and of course housing or real estate. Bunq don’t invest aka lend money so it’s up to each on of us to do ourselves.

Bunq, If interest rates increase in the EU will you waiver the fee? Just interested.

I thought that BUNQ is not going to give an interest when the rates go up. So why then put the costs on us and the profite in your pocket. I miss the balans. Andere please top deleting posts you don't like. Something to do with the land of free.......

First it was free so we moved all our companies to BUNQ. Then there were monthly costs. Higher than before but ok we support the idea. Now we will need to pay hundreds of euros a month. Really?

ECB introduced a negative rate to somewhat force people and companies to spent their money... all to keep the economy flowing :)...

From a bunq perspective this a completely logical and necessary step whether we like it or not.

Finally, if somebody had a problem with this, I have a bank account where you can deposit everything above your 100k :))

In your example the second company has to pay over 10.000 euros per year just to hold the account. Mind you that doesn't include any bonuses like extra cards, that doesn't include what they pay for transactions (I would imagine such a company already makes you enough money through transactions) and other fees. Whatever you say paying this amount for the same service that someone with less money in the account gets is crazy.

Hi Bianca,

Why don’t you guys call this what it is, a -0.88% interest rate of all holdings over 100k. Or, if you hold an average of 200k, an 800% rate increase. I have a hard time understanding it. And, after I just convinced my partners to move to bunq, I will now have to explain this, which will prompt the question: “right, so what will these bunq guys do next?”. So my question is: what will you bunq guys do next? And, if you don’t invest in anything, why don’t you just hold the money yourselves, and not be dependent on ECB rates? And, will we be getting positive interest if ECB rates go over 0.5%. Don’t get me wrong, I really love what you are trying to do, and was about to cancel our other bank accounts. This announcement gives me pause. Guidance on your future actions would be most helpful.

In addition to John Do: companies interested, just ask for my bunq.me 😁

Dispite the fact I am a fan of Bunq and it's philosophy I think these rates are really high indeed, fixed fee or a scale would be a better solution.

Hi there,

In that scenario, we probably will!

Cheers 🙂

Hi there,

You always have the freedom to park your money wherever it suits you; either investing it, saving it or whatever form you choose.

So by us not investing your money in shady businesses, we then provide a unique and distinct choice in an array of avenues you can pick from.

With this being said, we appreciate your feedback and I wish you a nice evening 🙂

You didn’t answer any of my questions. I get that I’m free to move our money somewhere else, why wouldn’t I be? It’s just that, like any business, we like some level of predictability from our bank. What happens next? And why the 100k threshold? Why not 500k (as Triodos does)? Why not 0 and spread the “pain” evenly. You pride yourself on being transparent. It would help us to get some transparency into the future plans.