Idea: Use the bunq (Metal)Mastercard as a Proxycard

pqckmqn

Hey 👋

I am someone who loves all in one (app) solutions. 😁 That’s also a reason why I chose bunq over other banks. It offers (nearly) every feature I wanted for my bank and in some regards even more.

But featurewise I would like to see one more feature, maybe some of you agree and if enough of us like it, bunq will add it 🌈💪

It would be great, if you not just could use Dual PIN, linking 2 subaccounts to your Card, which is great I will say. But rather allow us also to use the (Metal)card as a proxy card.
This would mean, you can link one or more of your (digi)cards to your (Metal) Card and then you could for example sort afterwards which card you want to use for different payments made. For example you could link one of your Cards linked to a local currency account and another linked to your subscription (Digi)card.
This would give us a very powerful tool to hand, to be able to organize our payments and finances even more and in my felling even a little bit better!
For some of you this may sound familiar, because Curve is doing this already and I think it would be great to see this kind of feature at bunq, because I fell like bunq is always kind of a forerunner, regarding banking features.

So my fellow bunqers, let me know your thoughts on this! 🌈

thijsoost

Markus I have a Curve card somewhere in a drawer, but I hardly ever use it because I never come across situations where I would want to use it (maybe it's also because Mastercards aren't accepted in many places in the Netherlands)...

But can you name a situation where you would use such a proxy card, in practice? I think the idea is interesting! But since a card can already be linked to two different sub-accounts, I don't quite see how linking a card to other cards adds much

pqckmqn

Thijs So as an example, I could make a (Digi)card for my Clothes spending account and link it to my Metalcard. Now if I buy something online or at a local store, I could always select (afterwards) the „Clothes“ (Digi)card. This would give us more freedom, because the Dual PIN is for example linked to the account for everyday spendings like grocery and a cash-reserve account in my case.
So I use the Dual PIN for the accounts I use mostly but would prefer to have the Proxy function, to have the possibility to organize the payments even better with the 25 subaccounts bunq offers.

thijsoost

Markus Ah, now I understand! What I do now is change the linked sub-account just before I make a non-frequent payment, but then you have to adjust it again afterwards by manually transferring money and that's a hassle. It would be especially handy if you could easily change the sub-account (or card, in this case) afterwards, instead of manually transferring money from one sub-account to another.

Wouldn't the 'problem' also be solved if you could change the sub-account of the payment in two taps, after you made the payment?

pqckmqn

Thijs Yes, I do the exact same thing, therefore my Idea with the Proxy. Of course there would be more possible solutions to this „issue“. The proxy card was the one that came to my mind first 😁👍🏻

thijsoost

Markus Understandable! This could certainly be a solution for cases like this! You have to be creative in solutions with the amount of sub-accounts you get with bunq 😂

pqckmqn

Thijs Another benefit of the proxy solution would be the security aspect. If I link digicards to the physical Card and sort the payments to this digicards, I can always freeze them and link a new one if something goes wrong, without risking my physical Card data.

thijsoost

Markus Isn't the problem then that, for example, an online seller still has the card code of your proxy Metal card? Of course you can link another digicard to it, but if your proxy card code is leaked/misused, for example, an attempt to withdraw money using this card number can still be made. Or am I misunderstanding how a proxy card works?

pqckmqn

Thijs Indeed a good thought and I think I was wrong. They only will get the proxy card details an no card details otherwise. So the Metal Card’s details would be compromised in this case probably 😆

thijsoost

Markus Yes and the Digicard details will be safe, but that's not the issue 😂

pqckmqn

Thijs 😂 Nonetheless, the solution would have great benefits. If you could link for example 3 Cards to every physical Card acting as a proxy, you would be able to cover up to 9 cards and therefore 9 subaccounts. Even more considering the dual PIN functionality as a bonus. I would love it for making budgeting even easier!

thijsoost

Markus Yes this feature would certainly have it's benefits! Maybe not for everyone (because I don't think that many bunq users have 9 cards), but certainly for some!

pqckmqn

Thijs Sure, that’s why maybe only Easy Green should have this feature. It would make Easy Green more attractive in comparison to Easy Money and it would be probably more cost-effective for bunq.
Bunq offers 25 digicards and accounts, but in my honest opinion it’s hard to micro manage them. The proxy solution would make that way easier in my humble opinion.

New-Olive-Goat-3322534765

Markus Maybe a simpeler solution/implementation of the feature:

My 2 cents:
Allow the creation of a proxy subaccount (that can be linked to cards like now already and dualpin etc) choose a max amount or select other account and calculate the total allowed amount/balance on the proxy subaccount. Preventing to 'overspend'. Just an account viewpoint instead of a card one.

Allow you to assign the transaction to the correct on proxy subaccount later. (Let's say within a max time window otherwise a default subaccount is targeted)

Issue (think this exists with curve as wel)
One drawback/challenge might be how the iban on the other party of the transaction is handled, because the proxy iban vs target account iban. Especially when use case 2 is in play or other proof of payments.

Use-cases:

no 'mistakes' on the accounts purpose (clothes on groceries example)
Seperate business travel expenses and personal ones without mistakes so that the 'ask-employer-to-reimburse' account/transaction overview can be shared/targeted without private transactions. (Also more generic, when the targeted account is a connected one shared with you.