• so many negative reviews everywhere, but my experience is great so far?!

so i'm still in the free trial period of bunq, since a few of my friends use it or have used it in the past and it looked really handy! and i'm trying stuff out and considering if i should switch.

and so far i really like it, but in the iPhone app store and on trustpilot there are so many negative reviews?! it seems to be mostly people who either got scammed by scammers that use bunq for their activities, or people that put a ton of money into their accounts without verifying their identity first and are now complaining that their accounts got closed and their money is gone.

so here's the question: what's up with all this?

it makes me worried that even if i'm verified, my account could suddenly be closed at any moment and i could lose all my money! which would really suck cuz bunq's budgeting stuff looks so useful and it's making me want to rely on it as my main bank account, but stuff like this scares me away from giving that a chance.

    @New-Aquamarine-Swan-173105345#215062 it seems to be mostly people who either got scammed by scammers that use bunq for their activities, or people that put a ton of money into their accounts without verifying their identity first and are now complaining that their accounts got closed and their money is gone.

    There's your answer. If people get scammed by someone with an ING (or some other big bank) account, they are angry with the scammer. If they get scammed by someone with a bunq account, they get angry with bunq. At the same time, there are apparently people who expect bunq to never check their account activity even if they do things that are obviously shady.

    it makes me worried that even if i'm verified, my account could suddenly be closed at any moment and i could lose all my money! which would really suck cuz bunq's budgeting stuff looks so useful and it's making me want to rely on it as my main bank account, but stuff like this scares me away from giving that a chance.

    The only way you could ever lose money is if you do illegal stuff like money laundering etc. -- even in the hypothetical case where bunq temporarily blocks an account to review it (which is already something very unlikely to happen if you use your account normally), of course it gets unfrozen with all your money still there as soon as the review is finished. The only case where bunq cannot give a user their money back is if the money is from illegal activities, because in these cases they have to cooperate with law enforcement and the money can hopefully be returned to the rightful owners.
    It's not like bunq can just pocket the money in these cases, they don't gain anything from blocking someone's account. It's really the last thing they'd want to do.

    To make it short: 1) Don't trust random people on the internet when they ask you to send you money or give them access to your account. Always verify. Then you probably won't have a problems with scammers, regardless of what bank they're using. And 2) don't expect bunq to be more lenient than other banks when it comes to risky transfers. If your main income is gambling, drugs and crypto-currency, there may be questions. If you do any illegal stuff, don't expect bunq to not notice. 3) Make sure your account is fully verified before trying to use it as your main bank account.

      @Jakob-Y#215066 well.. no, of course i don't expect bunq to be more lenient than other banks. also, why do people get angry with bunq instead of the scammer themselves unlike what happens with big banks?

      good to hear that bunq won't do sudden account closing if you're not doing shady stuff! i guess a LOT of shady people are trying to use bunq and posting negative reviews on trustpilot when that fails?.. which is kinda funny, on one hand it's people complaining they got scammed by the scammers, on the other hand it's the scammers complaining they got banned. wow what a mess! poor bunq

        @New-Aquamarine-Swan-173105345#215069 also, why do people get angry with bunq instead of the scammer themselves unlike what happens with big banks?

        That's a good question for behavioral sciences. Probably something about familiarity and trust. Big banks feel like part of our society, and people trust in the society. They're often not afraid to get screwed over by them even if they know people who have been. Small banks however, by virtue of being small and less important, feel like single entities, not yet woven deeply into the fabric of our everyday lives. You're automatically more cautious when dealing with them. Just human instinct, and probably often very useful.

        i guess a LOT of shady people are trying to use bunq and posting negative reviews on trustpilot when that fails?.. which is kinda funny, on one hand it's people complaining they got scammed by the scammers, on the other hand it's the scammers complaining they got banned.

        That is indeed quite ironic. Admittedly, I think bunq should have more of an eye on sites like Trustpilot and try to actively help people who complain there as I think there are quite a few cases that could be remedied. Myself I'm also just a bunq user like you are, but through my moderator activity on this forum I see a lot of the problems some users are having. While most of them come down to "user error", often it has to do with people not quite understanding how certain processes at banks, credit card companies, payment processors etc. work or what the legal framework is. After all the finance sector is a highly complicated field and bunq's approach of letting the user do everything by themselves is great for some people who know what they want, but sometimes leaves people behind who're confused by the terminology. The FAQ section (Knowledge posts) on Together (the user forum we're communicating on right now) contains a lot of information, but sometimes it's a bit hidden.

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