What inspired me to start using bunq?
TLDR: the mobile driven society in Indonesia triggered me to redefine my needs regarding my finances. Sending and requesting money should be done any time, any where. By using my phone. I wanted to have an overview of my spendings. Any time, any where. I want to allocate my money to certain purposes. Any time, any where.
And it is bunq which fulfill all these needs.
It was during my holiday in Indonesia 🇮🇩 in 2016, that I've noticed that Indonesia has become an increasingly mobile driven society. And this trend is still going on.
Hailriding companies for example, like Grab and Go-Jek 🛵, succeeded expanding its business by focusing on how to get their services and products into the hands of their customers via their apps: not only you can order an "ojek", or a "driver", but you can also order food 🍛 by its app, or order to pickup and sending a package 📦, and so forth. Nowadays, they have even have GoPay and Grabpay.
I was blown away by the impact of mobile driven technology, and how fast one can act utilizing this technology.
It was during my time in Indonesia that a fellow budoka 🥋 in the Netherlands wanted to get a present for someone else. He splitted the bill, and as I was not in the Netherlands, I wasn't using my Dutch mobile number. Hence, he send me the request via e-mail.
"bunq" I read. 🤔 I didn't payed much attention to it at the moment, while I was enjoying the es teler 🍧 and nasi padang 🍲🍚
Back in the Netherlands.
It was around the end of the year of 2016.
My irritation began to grow with the bank I have an account with. If I wanted to send money or request money, the app of this bank just lacks significantly in the features is has. And if I want to transfer larger amounts, I need to use their website, while their mobile website at that time just does not meet my needs. (It sucks, big time)
I want to have the availability now. Any time, any where. I want to have the freedom.
That's when I start searching.
I remember that I once received a request while being in Indonesia. I looked up that e-mail, looked at bunq.com as the email refered to, and as I found out about what bunq does - its philosophy, its features, its mobile app, etc - I thought I want it to give it a go. I decided I to open my bunq account on my birthday in February, 2017.
I didn't regret that decision ever since 😊
After that since March or April 2017 I upgraded to bunq more, paying €1 per month for the card. I was, and still am, very satisfied with bunq as bunq more fits all my needs! Much 💚 to bunq!
When bunq premium was announced, I actually didn't feel the need to upgrade at that time.
It was actually until the end of April this year that I upgraded to bunq premium. I didn't realize all the other features and freedom one has with bunq premium.
bunq is, especially from technological point of view, far ahead of the competition. Way ahead!
This is their key selling point, as you see other banks nowadays copying some features which bunq already has.
All I have to say about this is:
Thank you very much, Amir, for that one request! 😉
And thank you very much, Ali (and team of course), for building bunq!
And thank you very much, Ali, for building bunq!