• Ideas

  • Make Real Secured Credit Cards an Option.

First, let me start off by saying I've been a Bunq member since late 2016. So I've seen all the updates, been to a few launches and so on. Everything seems to be improving a bit slowly but surely. Suggested user ideas are being implemented. Of course not all ideas can ever be implemented. That would make the user interface clustered and perhaps frustrating. I think the app is perfect they way it currently is. All the settings, services and products being offered are fine in my opinion. However, I think there is just one thing that would completely put the icing on the cake: Make Real Secured Credit Card an Option. Okay, let me try to explain a bit. As some of you might know, in some countries including Jamaica where I'm, secured credit cards exist. You approach your bank, tell them you would like to have a secured card. They open a fixed deposit account with funds you provided as a collateral, say €250 minimum. You then receive a credit card with real credit from the bank. There is a bit more to the traditional way but let me slip in my own idea as to how Bunq should do theirs. First and foremost, Bunq doesn't need to charge APR rates or anything like that, considering the allowance of current supergreen package. Bunq can allow the repayment period of six months to completely payoff the balance owed in full. If said balance ain't repaid in 6 months, Bunq can and should collect the payment from the collateral account, then close that collateral account. The customer should of course be allowed to use this feature/service again, provided they are willing to start over with the above mentioned. No BKR should ever be included or be involved in this! That where things will become messy and at best frustrating and perhaps even costly. The reason I am suggesting this idea is because I still see people on YouTube and on creditcard.nl among others, classing the beautiful green metal card as just another prepaid card that plant trees. My suggestion idea about should also be optional. The customer should opt for it or just use the Bunq Green as it currently is. No differences in mechanism. If Bunq make this suggestion a reality. Nobody on earth can call it just another prepaid card offers no actual credit but instead plants trees. Please let me what you think. Thank you for reading.... ☺️☺️☺️

    So the money can always be collected from this "collateral account" in the end? You haven't spent anything that isn't there? How is that fundamentally different from how bunq's credit cards work now? The money for the "spending room" is always in your account.

      Hi Jonathan, you asked a good question. Let me explain a bit more. If you visit www.bincodes.com and check the bin of both the Bunq Travel Card and the Green Card, you would indeed see that both cards are indeed credit cards! Infact, no merchant can dispute that. The credit card system outrightly will show the hotel or car rental company that it's a true credit card. But what they wouldn't know is that it's just the card mechanism has been set to such, no real borrowing of funds from Bunq is taking place. For this reason, some people are still calling these cards prepaid cards, which if this keeps speaking about in this way, it will spread and eventually will defeat the credit mechanism setup on the card. My suggestion is the perfect way to fix this issue. Then no one can call it a prepaid card. Because in reality, it's not a prepaid card. It's a real credit card will a collateral that backs it. Collateral which you the customer has no access to. And you are actually really borrowing money in reality. Many countries like the US, Canada, Jamaica where I'm from does this. They call it a secured credit card. It's not a prepaid debit card or prepaid credit card as some call it.

        @Alex-Golden-Cheetah#159191 Maar wat maakt het in de praktijk uit? Wat is het verschil in acceptatie?

          Der Unterschied ist das es eine Kreditkarte mit Rahmen ist. Der Kreditrahmen ist durch die Sicherheitszahlung abgesichert. Die Bank räumt also einen finanziellen Rahmen wie bei einer echten Kreditkarte ein und sichert diesen durch eine Hinterlegung des Betrages ab. So hat die Bank kein Risiko und die Beträge auf der Karte werden bei einer Automiete nur geblockt und nicht vom Guthaben auf dem Konto abgezogen. Gute Idee.

            Hi Michiel, it's not exactly a matter of acceptance in this case. It's more a matter of reputation. Most car rental companies don't accept prepaid card(card without a bank account). Some don't even accept debit card(card attached to a bank account). Prepaid card and debit cards are not the same thing. Yet people think it is. Setting the card mechanism to true credit card is okay but people still will see it as a debit card or prepaid card. Both of which some hotels and car rental companies frown upon. My suggestion would easily fix this. Make secured credit card an option to bunqers.

              Hi Niko, thanks for reading and replying. You do understand what I'm trying to say. Thank you...

                @Alex-Golden-Cheetah#159196 Debit and prepaid cards have the word 'debit' printed on them, and (secured) credit cards have the word 'credit' printed on them. The metal card and travel card already have the word 'credit' printed on the card. So why would a merchant think it's a debit or prepaid card?

                  @Alex-Golden-Cheetah#159191 I still don't see the real difference. You don't have "access" to the funds in your bunq account once you have spent them with with your bunq credit card either. And any merchant accepting credit cards always has to test whether the transaction is accepted, or if the customer's limit has been reached; the same with a bunq card.

                    I won't say anything more. I've clearly explained the reasons. It's now up to Bunq to decide. I personally know it's a logical idea. It's up to Bunq to implement it or not. I personally would rather the one I explained earlier. I also said it's optional. So it would be up to the bunqer to decide if they wish to use the service/product I described. So let's see if Bunq will implement it. 😊🙏👍👀

                      I have tried to understand the concept, but have a hard time to understand at what particular point is really differs from bunq Travel or Metal card. They act as a real credit card for the outside world, so what problem are we trying to solve here?

                        @JohnDo#159204 Naja ein Problem sind Reservierungen bei Autovermietungen oder im Hotel. Teilweise wird viel Geld als Kaution geblockt, worüber der Kunde nicht verfügen kann und erst nach einigen Wochen wieder zurückerstattet wird. Hat man einen Kreditrahmen, hat man trotzdem weiterhin den kompletten Kontostand zur Verfügung.
                        Da bunq hierfür aber Rücklagen bilden müsste, wird es dies wohl nie geben.

                          @Patrick-K#159208 ahh, true. But bunq is in principle against loans. So, don’t see that happening any time soon unfortunately.

                            @JohnDo#159211 Patrick-K, I clearly outlined what a secured credit card is. Many countries around the world uses that collateral card concept. My point is that Bunq can optionally offer the same. If you don't like it, you don't have to use it. I'm sure someone like me wouldn't mind it. Also, since the credit line is backed by a collateral. What does Bunq have to lose? As a matter of fact, many people in the United States who have bad credit scores/credit report use this methodology to rebuild their credit history. This concept isn't new and frankly I'm shocked that no bank in Europe besides the UK actually offer this....The UK have secured credit cards too. It's mostly for people who again, have bad credit or personal problems where owning a real credit card wouldn't be possible.

                              @Alex-Golden-Cheetah#159177 Secured credit cards come in many versions. Most are very expensive (you have to offer 200% collateral, you have to pay the same interest rate, you are charged a higher card fee), because of this they are mostly used by people that have a bad credit score or have an other reason they don't qualify for a unsecured/regular credit card. Most work exactly the same as a unsecured/regular credit card. This type of secured credit card has a real credit and so it has to be registered, at least in the Netherlands, if the credit is higher than € 260,-.

                              This makes it an inferior product to the metal card in mainland Europe, because we don't use the Anglo-Saxon credit score system. It has a higher cost, it requires a higher blocked down-payment.

                              And if the reputation of your card is your problem this won't help because they have a worse reputation than debit card's.

                                Raoul, you are the only one who seems to fully understand what I was suggesting. A few years back in my home country(Jamaica), I didn't qualify for a regular/unsecured card. So I had to open a fixed deposit account with 500 US dollars...In Jamaica, the banks uses 100% collateral, not 200%. As you said secured cards varies in each country. I deposited $500 USD, the bank keeps the deposit certificate so that I cannot use it at all. Then I was granted a regular card with a real $500 USD credit(borrowing) revolving credit behind it. It's a standard card just as all unsecured regular credit cards. And because the back keeps the deposit certificate, the account grows interest. I eventually closed the card and got my collateral deposit back...I was selling Avon and Herbalife products at the time and back then only regular credit cards were available, be it secured with a collateral or unsecured with salary slips or job letter when submitting the card application. Since 2014, there are regular Visa debit cards in Jamaica. But the secured credit cards are still very much popular there because people usually see it as a form of proper financial reputation. It's really a matter of reputation like I said before. But you do make some valid points so I thank you for that. But like I said, I just think my suggestion could be an optional service/product that a bunqer could decide to use. I also mentioned earlier that Bunq's version of the card should not charge APR rates. No late fee or minimum balance payments either. If those things are involved, it will make it messy and frustrating since the collateral amount is a fixed. I'm was not suggesting that all bunqers should use this, I only meant it could be optional.

                                  I don‘t see this happening. Mostly because our credit scoring (if you could call it that) works a lot differently here than in the US etc. Whether that is good or bad is another story, but most Europeans just don‘t really know what secured credit cards are in the first place. For 99% of Europeans it would be a highly confusing product, and I doubt that‘d make its „reputation“ (that you seem to be after) any better than the current bunq Credit Cards.

                                  But I‘ll add a thought here: Right now a bunq account‘s balance is always (except for rare edge cases) between 0 and some positive number. What about if we could set the zero value ourselves?

                                  Let‘s say I put 500€ on my account. I then click a button and the amount shown will be 0€, but I can go down to -500€ if I want without paying any interest. Basically a built-in function for an overdraft credit that you provide to yourself. Sure, that would only be a cosmetic thing, but I know many people do something like this with a second account manually. Maybe you would also like that?

                                    Jakob Y., I like your overdraft idea and I think that could work perfectly too. I would like this. And yes, I realized most people in mainland Europe have never even heard of a secured credit card! Lol. You are right. A few banks in Latvia also offer exactly the same that Bunq currently offers. The Green card and Travel card are indeed secured cards in a sense. Your overdraft idea would make sense. That way, it's technically the same as my original idea, even way better! Also, I personally use a second account manually as an overdraft facility as you mentioned. Your idea is cool. Hopefully Bunq may implement your idea if not my original one. 👍👀😎

                                      @Jakob-Y#159389 Wow... endlich mal eine Idee, für die ich sogar ein Like da lasse.
                                      Wirklich simpel und lässt sich wahrscheinlich auch gut umsetzen.

                                        I have a better suggestion, Bunq could make fixed deposit accounts an option, then we could deposit whatever amount we want into that account. Use dual pin to link it to the Travel and green cards. The fixed deposit account can have an unlock option only if the dual pin feature is deactivated. In reality, that would be similar to my original idea. Just without BKR and APR charges or late payment fees.