You can definitely send/receive payments to your bunq account from another bank account outside of the SEPA Region!
All you need to do is make sure that the sending bank converts the amount of the payment into euros before sending the payment to your bunq account. If a payment using a different currency reaches bunq, it will get bounced back automatically as we only support euros as a currency.
Alternatively you can use Wise. It's up to 8x cheaper than the traditional way of transferring money.
There is only 1 case in which the funds send in a non-SEPA currency don't bounce back:
Local currency 💸
Let's say your friend in South Africa wants to send you money. South Africa is not in the SEPA region, so to make sure the funds wouldn't bounce back, you would have to ask your friend to convert their rand in euro. Well, no more! By opening a Local currency account for South African Rand, you can simply give that IBAN to your friend to send you money directly. No hassle, no conversion, just smooth sailing ⛵️
To open a Local currency account simply follow the flow below:
- Go to the Home tab
- Press on +Add account
- Choose 💵 Local Currencies
Keep in mind that even with a Local Currencies account, the transfers are still SWIFT payments. It takes time for these payments to arrive. SWIFT payments can take up to 5 days. There are also fees involved in receiving a SWIFT payment. You can learn more about this here.
