I want to start out by saying that the Bunq 🌈 app is the best gig in town. Almost everyone loves it! Bunq really did an impressive job transforming banking.
However, there are some serious concerns with these new changes, their implications, what it means for previous promises and the way it was communicated.
I hear a lot of people not being listened to. Users want a stable and reliable bank. Once you have a deal you like, get used to, and depend on, you don't want a rise in cost of (up to) 800% (formerly €12 now €96). It's the "bank of the free", so you're free to go. But you'd need to change all your subscriptions, change your bills, contact your payment contacts. Which makes this a bit similar to a customer lock-in, and it's starting to look like that's what bunq is banking on.
Wikipedia: Customer Lock-in
[A customer lock-in] makes a customer dependent on a vendor for products and services, unable to use another vendor without substantial switching costs.
I think we feel like some promises were made. Things like "get bunq it's free". Or "until your card expires". Or "free lifetime premium promo subscription" When these statements are retracted, trust is lost.
People want to trust their banks that promises are kept. That they won't have to fear doubling or quadrupling their banking costs every two years. That after six years, they have learned how to communicate like an institution you can trust.
But after the apology in 2017, it seems no lessons were learned. Bunq tries to make this into a mutually exclusive choice between innovation and keeping their promise:
Supporting these old memberships became an increasing burden. (...) we favored progress (...) over sticking with the old.
But as bunq may have noticed, no one really falls for this. If the old accounts were truly a burden to maintain, bunq could still choose to uphold their promise by:
- Offer free bunq premium to "get bunq it's free" users and keep the 2015 and 2017 promise;
- Offer free bunq premium to "free lifetime subscription" users and keep the 2018 promise.
Bunq could also make friends not enemies by softening the blow:
- Offer bunq premium to "get bunq it's free" users at a discount;
- Offer bunq premium with a different pricing model (e.g. per IBAN) to "get bunq it's free" users;
- Offer free bunq premium to "get bunq it's free" users until their cards expire;
- Similar for "free lifetime subscription" users.
Bunq can gaslight us by removing previous promises from the internet, but we collectively know what they were, and it's starting to eat away the trust gained even in already paying customers.
I am listening to users. Both on Together and this topic on Tweakers. And if you ask me, what a lot of users want is a subset of features for less cost. Bunq is free not to offer that, but please be real when communicating that. 🥺 Being real and honest is infinitely better than these ninja-edits of previous blogs to remove previous statements, and misdirected dilemma's that aren't related to pricing.
Bunq's app is the best gig in town! 🌈 We all love it. Some of us have loved it since the very beginning. It's probably worth a few bucks to many of us. We want to know if a bank is trustworthy however. Bunq had the benefit of the doubt in 2015. In 2017, the year of the apology, they failed, and had to prove themselves again. Their trial period would end in my book when my cards would expire. Then I would decide whether to start paying more. But now I'm not observing the stability of cost, of account type, and of communication that I want in a bank. Their app is really nice, and I am looking for a reason to give them another chance. But there'd have to be a trial period of three years, as it took them 2.5 years to mess up again.
However, bunq doesn't want to be trialed for three years. They will stop the trial in three months.
At "bank of the free", the former bunq-fans that did all the mouth to mouth marketing that made bunq big, are now free to leave. Free to search for less features for less money. It is what they want. And it's not like bunq is still the only new kid on the block. We have a lot of chances to give to new players now.
Players like N26 (DE), Hovli (FI), Monese (BE), Revolut, OpenBank (ES), Moneyou Go (NL), BNC10 (ES). Some of them for Apple Pay, some for Fitbit Pay, one for iDEAL, many for a Credit Card, and soon, using PSD2, all accounts can all be managed from one app like Yolt. All cards can be combined with a Curve card. We are free indeed. 💪
All of them offer a free account. They have more expensive tiers for people that want them. They understand that they can keep users onboard until they are at a phase in their life (first job, first company) to start paying for more. When they are ready. Users will pay at the institution they are comfortable with. Which is the institution that allowed them to stay when they were not ready to pay the big price tag.
Wouldn't it be in bunq's interest to offer something small, simple and free too? Something that users can upgrade from if they want more?
edit: @Sander, thank you for the polite response. Unfortunately I am not able to discuss this any further. After I made this post, my account has been locked from participating in any discussion. I can only read and edit my own posts.