• Emergency withdrawal from Savings Accounts beyond the 2/month limit

Bunq recently made some pretty significant changes to Savings Goals/Accounts which limit the withdrawals to two per month across all your Savings accounts: https://together.bunq.com/d/55218-update-to-massinterest-as-of-december-2-2022/2

Normally, that should be fine, and I understand this limit gives Bunq some predictability of the funds they have at their disposal, and helps them optimize the investments they make with all the Savings money.

However, what happens if you consume the limit of 2/month withdrawals in the normal course, and then you need immediate access to your money because of an emergency that cannot wait until the next month? Is it possible to still withdraw, possibly with some penalty such as losing some/all the interest for that month?

    @New-Orange-Ostrich-53921355#273475 Create an emergency sub-account that isn't a savings goal that you can use in case of an emergency. Or split the money in multiple savings goals.

      @thijsoost#273476 Thanks for the suggestions. I already considered those options, but it did not answer the question, because:

      • Regular sub-accounts do not accrue interest, where typically any large sum of money you don't need frequently would be kept in interest bearing accounts.
      • Splitting across multiple Savings accounts/goals will not help to circumvent the withdrawal limit. Check the Bunq announcement:

      You’ll be able to withdraw funds instantly, twice per month from your all your Savings Goals (no limit on withdrawal amount)

      To be clear, I'm not talking about normal emergencies for which you typically maintain an emergency fund that's readily accessible (your first suggestion answers that); but rather exceptional situations where basically one might need to liquidate their assets. With other similar products (such as a traditional fixed deposit), you can do so after paying a penalty. It would be good to know what is Bunq's policy in such situations - especially since it's marketed as a much more flexible "Savings goal".

        @New-Orange-Ostrich-53921355#273480 It means that you're able to withdraw twice a month from all your savings accounts.

        To me this sounds like:

        • Twice from savings goal A
        • Twice from savings goal B
        • Etc.

        And indeed you get no interest over normal sub-accounts. But since I always want access to a large part of my money, I chose 'freedom' over interest: I created a normal sub-account and moved some of my savings to it. Not ideal, but better than not having access to my money.

          @New-Orange-Ostrich-53921355#273480 I mean, the limit is just the amount of withdrawals in a certain time frame, it's not about how much you withdraw. So it's always possible to withdraw all the money that you need, unless you have already used your 2 withdrawals for the month (which normally I guess shouldn't happen if you withdraw money only in emergency situations).

            @thijsoost#273496 If your interpretation (2/month limit is not a combined limit, but applies to each Savings Account separately) is indeed correct, then that solves my problem.

            I'll reach out to Support to check what exactly is the case.

            Cheers!

              @New-Orange-Ostrich-53921355#273509 I'll reach out to Support to check what exactly is the case.

              And feel free to check back in here when you got a response. I would definitely like to know more specifics :)

                I got confirmation from Support that the 2/month limit on withdrawals is per Savings Account.

                They also mentioned currently there is no provision to allow exceeding this limit even in exceptional situations, but the per-account limit makes it a non-issue as one can create multiple Savings accounts, which allows for better planning/budgeting, and ensuring one account (probably with the biggest balance) is not withdrawn from unless in exceptional cases.

                  @New-Orange-Ostrich-53921355#273655 Thank you Ninad!

                    7 days later

                    @New-Orange-Ostrich-53921355#273655 I hoped a limit per account was the case, but it seems to be implemented as a limit across all accounts, or I’ve encountered a nasty bug. I withdrew money from savings account a, then transferred money from savings account b to savings account a, and now all the accounts (even accounts that I haven’t touched) say I have 0 withdrawals left.

                    I could understand one limit across all accounts, but then why does transferring between accounts count toward the limit. The money is still @ Bunq right?

                    As I said, I hope the support employee you spoke got it right, and I encountered a bug. If I get an update I’ll do my best to think about adding information here.

                      This really sucks. I have an old shared savings account shared with my wife. We use it to save for furniture / home improvements. She used that account, not knowing there is a limit on it from now. I have another savings account that I use to save up and buy expensive items when I have saved enough. So I bought something this month. Now our 2 withdraws are used, and there is an emergency cash flow needed. I have an emergency cash flow saving account, but that one I cannot access now since the withdraws are limited to 2 spread over all accounts combined. Even with 2 user accounts and 1 business account ( and 4 savings accounts ) we only get 2 withdraws in total for everything :(

                        Hey @Melle-Lime-Swan#273978 and @Jack-Over#274033

                        You are be able to withdraw funds instantly, twice per month from all your Savings Accounts, you can check further under the "Good to know" section here 👉🏻: https://together.bunq.com/d/5142. Internal transfers between your Personal Savings Accounts don't count towards the monthly limit so if that was counted please contact us via private support, and we’ll be happy to assist you further.

                        Find the steps here: https://together.bunq.com/d/32181

                        Alternatively, you can send an email to support@bunq.com from the email address you've registered at bunq.

                          @Stela#274094 thank you for your reply, there seems to be a bug then, because after two withdrawals across different accounts, it says I don’t have any withdrawals left. I’ve opened a support ticket for that.

                            10 days later

                            @Jakob-Y#273508 do you happen to know what happens if you try to transfer out a part of a savings account (using the pay-and-switch-source-flow) for the third time a month?

                            • Is it actually blocked?
                            • Or is the transfer just delayed, if so how long?
                            • or does it cost a fee?

                            The linked page mentions “transfer twice per month instantly” but does not explain further.

                            The ‘rules’ are changing and I am having a hard time finding the information.

                            Is a month defined as the last 30,5 days or a calendar month?

                            And a big one: why was decided that one could not link cards to a savings account anymore?
                            I can make up reasons, but I would like the know the memo. Also why the limit? Is it for the benefit of the user? I saw some users asking for making it harder to spend savings? Is this why? The topic starter also mentions predictability of investments; is it known what the real reason is?

                              @Joeri-Silver-Lynx#274477 I don't have tried it myself, but as far as my understanding goes it is just not possible. After you have made 2 withdrawals, the funds are essentially locked down completely. The month is the calendar month, so the counter resets on the 1st of each month, and then you can withdraw freely again any amount you want.

                              why was decided that one could not link cards to a savings account anymore?

                              Actual reasons I cannot know as bunq hasn't shared them publicly, but I think the most obvious answer here would be that savings accounts are not supposed to be used for general payment flow after this change, so card payments, iDEAL, Sofort etc. are now not possible anymore.

                              Also why the limit? Is it for the benefit of the user? I saw some users asking for making it harder to spend savings? Is this why? The topic starter also mentions predictability of investments; is it known what the real reason is?

                              Same disclaimer here, I don't have internal insight and there was no reason shared by bunq. But my thinking is that bunq wants less fluctuation of assets / more predictability as the OP mentioned in order to be able to offer a higher interest rate (which is something that can be used for promotion/advertisement pretty easily, in comparison to more convoluted "features"). It will also lead to less assets being eligible for interest at all, so bunq can claim higher interest rates while paying less interest in total (or at least, not as much as they would pay if all assets on all accounts were eligible).

                                I'm new to bunq and was wondering if these limits apply to all savings accounts (also within the Easy Money plan in my case) or just to the Easy Savings plan? As in the pricing document it only says "Maximum of 2 outgoing (non-instant) payments per month." under the Easy Savings account section.

                                  @Sander-Cyan-Penguin#274483 bunq sometimes calls the savings sub-accounts "Easy Savings accounts", not to be confused with the "Easy Savings plan". One is a type of sub-account, the other one is a certain subscription plan.

                                  To answer your question: Yes, the limits apply to all, regardless of plan.

                                    @Melle-Lime-Swan#274142 I can confirm I have the same bug (or feature?).

                                    Note that with the pay-and-switch-source-flow I did already make more than 2 withdrawals of the same savings account this month, not sure how I did that - but I wasn't gonna question it. I really hope it becomes a per-savings account limit, otherwise 2 withdrawals is really low...

                                      @Stela I would like to add my complaint to the list.

                                      I have multiple accounts in bunq split up in several categories.

                                      • personal
                                      • personal shared with partner
                                      • business 1
                                      • business 2

                                      I noticed the is this new limit on withdrawals from ALL savings accounts. I get that you might want to have the limit in place, per account, but this is really bad.

                                      I can’t work like this. I can’t even transfer money from all my dedicated savings accounts into my dedicated checking accounts every month.. I hit the limit with only 2 transfers.. meaning I can’t use my business savings anymore for any bigger purchases. I can’t clear out my savings. I can’t use multiple accounts like this.

                                      I have 4 accounts, I'd like to use them. I am completely locked out of my savings right now. Who is the product owner responsible for this?

                                      You’ve gone out of your way to make this feature unusable. Thanks again bunq 😒

                                      Please change this to 2 withdrawals per savings account. Or even per entity (me/business1/business2) or per literal savings account.. But not per person - I am not my business - my business needs withdrawals.

                                        I just stumbled upon my own post to find this nasty surprise. After Bunq Support explicitly confirmed that the withdrawal limit will be applied per account, I went ahead with my plan to make Bunq my primary bank account, and transferred all my savings to it. So apparently even Bunq Support has no idea how this limit is supposed to work and cannot find consensus?

                                        I can only suggest everyone who is affected by this very weird policy change to open a Support ticket and link them to this post.