• Ideas

  • Crowdsourcing features

Hey bunqers,

We all know that somewhere at bunq-quarters there's a secret wishlist of features we all want. We also know they simply lack quantity in developers to get all of them implemented on short notice (no offence @bunq). Last but not least, we know there's an API.

As it happens to be, I'm a software developer by profession and I also like bunq. Some features are hard if not impossible to implement without integration in the bunq app. Some however, are quite manageable to be build with the API. One of the features I'd love to have for example, is the "savings in the margin"-feature, i.e. every time you make a transaction, the amount is rounded up to a whole number and the difference is send to a savings-account.

So let's talk crowdsourcing new features. There's two questions, one for the users and one for bunq:

Users: would you be willing to pay a small amount for me to build features such as these? I'm not after profit, just covering costs (man-hours, IT-infrastructure). Please let me know in the comments what amount you'd be willing to pay for crowdsourcing features this way, what features you would like and any other questions/remarks you might have.

Bunq:

This is just an idea I came up with this afternoon, but if people are like-minded I might be building stuff like this. However, don't get your hopes up all too high; I want both bunq- and user-support before I'd actually start coding.

Greets,

Rien

    Hey Rien,


    Whoah! That's absolutely fantastic! 😍 let me just say that you've definitely got bunq support!


    We just cannot resist a cool initiative.

    We will contact you in the app 👍


    Thanks so much!

      Ehm ... I kinda built this already this weekend :D ... check it out: https://github.com/PJUllrich/Bunq-API-Scripts

      Sorry!

      But since I only deliver the code there would certainly be the need to setup a decent infrastructure so that also people without their own server and technically less experienced people can use it!

        I love developers :D

          That's an awesome start! I'm more of a php-guy myself though, so if people more collectively want this I'd recode it, but your work would definitely serve as inspiration (and not go unmentioned of course) ;-).

          And surely don't be sorry, there's gotta be plenty more features people want that can be built, so my idea/question is still up 'n running. Now only for some non-devvers to comment here :P.

            I think that would be a great way to get to some features really fast... I would be willing to pay an amount but it all depends on what he feature is and what the amount is...


            Maybe a good idea to share an upcoming feature including a plan of how to get there and what the estimated cost would be. Then people can sign up and split the cost.

              Totally fine with me :-)

                Sounds great guys​! I'd love to use features build by other bunqers but I think a nice infrastructure to help non techie users would be very welcome 😁

                  Important note:

                  I just chatted with support about API pricing since those are currently not listed anywhere (work in progress according to support). Anyway, conclusion is:

                  So be aware that if you have a bunq free account you cannot partake in this. (To check API availability: click your profile icon in the app -> Security -> API Keys. If you can make an API key you have access.)

                    Yes, supporting! If you would be transparant in Your cost, users of Your app can contribute an amount That's suits them.

                      Awesome Rien! Do you know if we will be charged for transactions generated via API, or will that be included in the cost of the key itself?

                        According to Marc from support after I asked practically the same thing:"Alright! So no other costs in your case, callbacks are no longer charged!"

                          Strange.. This pricing document says "API keys and IP addresses" are free for bunq Premium and Business, nothing about € 1/each for following keys:

                          https://www.bunq.com/files/media/legal/en/20170731_consumer_business_pricing_EN.pdf


                          (The text "Free" for "bunq free" is not correct, that's a typo/bug :-). because you cannot use the API as bunq free user)

                            I'm in! The pinsparen idea you and Peter both mentioned sounds nice 👍

                              Well, guys! All Premium members get unlimited API usage for free! 🎉

                                What also would be a possible way to take is to make this 'self-hostable' for non-developers as well by using a 'deploy to hosting' flow, where a user just gives in his/her API key and answers some questions and they're off on a free tier hosting infrastructure. For example https://devcenter.heroku.com/articles/heroku-button

                                Wishful thinking; I foresee a new Heroku-like service for TransIP for that beautiful synergy, for every bunq user to deploy their own API tools with the click of a button and without any developer knowledge.

                                  7 days later

                                  Update

                                  First of all, thanks for all the replies. It's great to see the community is enthousiastic about this too and open for such ideas.

                                  However, I encoutered a problem today. Apparently, bunq more-users can no longer request API-keys and only use the ones they already requested. Since I hadn't gotten an API-key before the update to the new premium-model, I can't get an API-key now unless I go premium (which I do not intend on doing). So roughly put, this is where it ends.

                                  Bunq support has told me not to worry because they are working on a solution; so that's definitely a good thing. So we'll have to wait for that solution.

                                  In the meantime:

                                  I've been discussing the API and how it is set-up over here: https://together.bunq.com/topic/api-why-not-oauth2. Feel free to join in on the discussion, I'd love to here more developer-opinions on the topic.

                                  I've also been thinking about the security and scalability aspects of this, since I want it to be user-friendly. (No offence to Peter, but his version is not very usable for the average user.) I haven't quite figured this part out yet, seeing that my discussion about the api-structure is still ongoing (see topic above). Once I've figured that part out, I'll probably be able to work out a robust method (at least in cooperation with bunqers on Together :P).

                                  In short:

                                  The project is awaiting a solution from bunq for me to get an API-key without upgrading to premium. In the meantime I'm trying to figure out how to build this robust, secure and scalable by discussing certain API-aspects over here.

                                    Write a Reply...