Hello,
I wish to put it out there and to find out if you also experienced similar problems when using Bunq MasterCard outside of the EURO zone.
I recently realised that there is a double conversion when I used my Bunq Credit Card. Instead of making the direct exchange rate from the local currency to EUR, MasterCard first exchanged it to USD then continued to the EUR rate. As a result instead of paying 38EUR I was charged 43EUR.
You may say it is not a big deal, But let's look into the details: Bunq claims that using Zero FX (meaning there is no extra charge when using Bunq card for payments in foreign currencies) and further claims that we can save up to 3% with bunq automatically when using their cards.
It is getting interesting from here. Indeed the Bunq Credit Card is widely accepted yet thanks to the double conversation rates, in fact I lost 8% of my payment. Then I started to look further and I realised a significant number of transactions were affected by this double conversion used by MasterCard. As a result, I have lost a handful of money.
This has never happened to me when I'm using my Visa card (from another bank). Obviously, when we travel we keep more cards in hand, and due to these disadvantageous exchanges imposed by MasterCard, I started to use more my other bank than Bunq.
Could you please check yourself when you were abroad (outside of the EUR zone) whereby USD was charged instead of the local currency and then it was exchanged to EUR? In my case, recently I was in Senegal, where the local currency is FCFA that is linked to EUR on a fixed exchange rate (1EUR is 655.957 FCFA). However MasterCard decided to consider it as USD payment which was then exchanged to my EUR. On average my losses were 8% of my spending. That is not acceptable, neither tolerable.
SOLUTION: I propose that Bunq (continues to live up to its standards and carry on being the "bank of The Free") to offer an option when we order cards, so we can select if we would prefer the Visa or the MasterCard depending on our way of life. I am sure it can be accepted since Bunq is actively listening to us and also it aims to make us save money, not to lose it.
What do you think?
Have you experiences something similar?
Thank you.