How do I activate and deactivate my card?

Elise

Hey bunqers 🌈

Have you ordered a bunq card and can’t wait to start using it? Or have you temporarily lost your bunq card and want to disable it until you find it once again?

You can easily activate and deactivate your card from your bunq app. You can see the steps to do this below.

Activating your card

Go to 🏠 Home
Select the card in question
Tap on 🟢 Activate Card
Choose and confirm your new PIN

Then you're all set to start using your card!

Keep in mind that:

The magnetic stripe of your card comes enabled by default for the countries you've allowed in your countries list 🌍
You can also activate your card by scanning the QR code on your envelope once you receive it. Scanning the code will bring you to the activation flow 🪄

Want to enable contactless payments?

In order to enable contactless payments for your card, you'll first need to make one transaction using your PIN. You can do this by:

Inserting your card into a physical pin terminal.
Entering the PIN code that you set when activating your card.

After doing so your contactless payments will be automatically enabled. The limit for contactless payments that don't require a PIN code is €25 per individual transaction and €50 for all transactions combined. This topic can give you some more info.

Deactivating your card

Go to Home and tap on Cards.
Select the card.
Tap on Block
Select Block Temporarily

Now your card is temporarily disabled until you wish to activate it once again. Keep in mind that this is different from blocking a card permanently. If you block your card permanently, this is an irreversible action that can't be changed.

Can my card get automatically blocked?

Due to security reasons, your card will be automatically blocked temporarily if there are multiple failed card transactions due to insufficient balance. However, if the same card keeps experiencing more failed transactions, it'll be blocked permanently.

In case your card is only blocked temporarily, you can re-activate it by simply following the steps explained here - once you do, you'll be able to either top-up the Bank Account linked to the card in question or link the card to a Bank Account with sufficient balance.