Hi, I have added a Canadian account to my Bunq but it seems that I can't transfer money to it because Canada doesn't use IBAN. I'm a Canadian expat living in the Netherlands and my goal is to keep a small amount of CAD on hand for when I travel back. I currently have an account I keep open in Canada but my hope is this new feature will allow me to transfer it all to Bunq and close those local accounts. I haven't been able to find a work around for transfers though. Can anyone help? Or are local transit routing formats going to be a future feature?
Local currencies - local routing numbers
JakobProdigy
@Christina-Green-Llama#238334 The only local currency account that supports domestic banking details is the GBP account at the moment. All other local currency accounts support only SWIFT transfers incoming and outgoing.
Therefore, a CAD local currency account at bunq is not the same as a bank account at a Canadian bank. But it allows you to hold money in CAD, spend CAD directly from your cards without conversion and use the SWIFT system for transfers. It does not allow you to use the domestic Canadian banking system.
@Jakob-Y#238344 I may be missing something. But it seems that in the end it’s more expensive in time and money to use this feature with swift than to just pay with my euro account in canada and have small conversion fees?
- JakobProdigy
@Christina-Green-Llama#238346 That may indeed by the case. I don't know what your current Canadian bank's pricing conditions are, but I would always suggest to compare all your choices wisely. Consider exchange rates and all fees that occur at both sending and receiving bank account.
In my personal opinion, currently only the GBP local currency account makes sense to use in most cases. Aside from that, I'm using the services of Wise for international transfers. Wise is also integrated in the bunq app and can be used for transfers from your Euro account at bunq back to a Canadian bank account. To make use of this integration, you need to (unintuitively) select "Currency not listed? Use Wise!" when sending a payment. Or just forego the integration completely and use their services directly through their app or website.
@Jakob-Y#238352 Thanks Jakob. I also use Wise for my transfers and it works perfectly. I still want to keep some Canadian funds for when I'm back visiting family, so i'll keep my Canadian account for now until possible future improvements in Bunq. :)