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  • What do you use your multiple bank accounts for?

Hi everyone! 👋

One of the awesome features of bunq is being able to create 25 IBANs to help you budget and get a clear overview of your finances.

Of course we want as many of our new bunqers to discover this feature as possible, so we need your help.

Do you use the multiple bank accounts feature of your bunq account?
If yes, we'd love to know how you use it and what you think about it.
If no, we'd love to know what stops you or why it is not helpful for you.

Thanks for any feedback!

Cheers,
Tom

    Yes, I don't use all 25.

    I use it for the following purposes:

    1) vaste lasten / direct debits for living, insurance, taxes
    2) gezamenlijke rekening / shared account for groceries - dinner
    3) zakgeld / pocketmoney - spending money
    4) spaarrekening algemeen / savings account general
    5) spaarrekening hobby / savings account fun - hobby
    6) ziektekostenverzekering / health insurance
    7) marktplaats / ebay / paypal account
    8) vakantie / holiday
    9) AmEx rekening / AmEx account

    I find it convenient for budgeting.

      @Tom#62057
      1 - Personal expenses
      2 - Fixed shared expenses (rent / utility bills / etc.)
      3 - Variable shared expenses
      4 - Subscriptions (I have/had multiple, although currently unused. -cough- something about rerouting transactions)
      5 - Some buffers.
      6 - "one time use accounts" - When I don't want people to have my IBAN(s) I quickly create a new one that I destroy afterwards.

      For me it's useful to split costs and keep an eye on how much I spent. 😁

        Hi 👋 @Tom#62057

        I personally use an 'advanced' version of budgetting with the accounts:

        (Accounts with a } are joint accounts.)

        Daily
        This is for everyday expenses and uncategorized fun money
        Groceries}
        Just groceries
        Car}
        All car related expenses, gas, insurance, parking etc
        Home & Decoration}
        This is for decorating and saving for bigger furniture and so on, basically play money for the girlfriend
        Electronics & Gadgets
        My favorite fun jar 🙈
        Gaming
        Xbox subscription etc and for buying games and accessories
        Clothing
        Clothing and personal care (perfumes or so)
        Mastercard
        As I can't reroute payments at the moment this is for all recurring online Mastercard payments
        Incomes
        Salary account and used for all monthly scheduled payments to flow the money to all jars.
        Personal Expenses
        Phone subscription, health insurance, auto top-up from OV-chipkaart and other personal direct debits
        Home & Utilities}
        Rent, electricity, home insurance etc
        Financial Reserves}
        Little backup, jar is used for when we get money back from the electricity and water company for instance and used whenever really needed
        Health Care Reserves
        This is basically for the 'eigen risico' and if the dentist bill ever gets over the insurance payout
        Citytrips}
        Savings jar for weekends out and citytrips
        Holidays}
        For the bigger holidays
        bunq.me
        This is to keep my important IBAN's private

        3 cards are used, 1 Maestro card with personal accounts(daily + random fun account), 1 Maestro with shared accounts (car & groceries), 1 Mastercard for the Mastercard account.

        Cheers 🌈

          @Tim#62073 I really like your setup. But how do you fill all these different accounts with money? Because I believe there is now function (yet) to automatically fill a account with money from a different Bunq account

            @Indra#62076 I simply setup monthly recurring payments from my income account. I have set them up on the 20th midnight. My salary usually comes in between 23 and 26 and when it comes in I have to tap 'retry' in the failed transactions.

              @Tim#62078 Thanks for your reply.
              Not ideal work around but its something.. 😄.

              Can’t wait for the auto fill feature between Bunq accounts..

                @Tom#62057 I currently don't use the accounts for budgeting, although I want to. I have been using YNAB for years now and for me, bunq is lacking functionality in the following areas:

                1. Upcoming transactions: In YNAB, I can schedule a transaction in the future (also recurring if needed) pretty easily. This way I can see per account, what I have to pay each month.
                  I even get a coloured warning, if a budget category is underfunded.
                  With bunq, I would have to setup multiple scheduled payments which is a pretty cumbersome process to be honest.

                2. Ability to enter a transaction and mark it as cleared: When I make a purchase somewhere, I can enter the amount into YNAB and mark it as "cleared" when it finally appears in my bank account.
                  In bunq, this is not a problem when paying with card. But for example, when I pay with direct debit or I purchase something via invoice, I can't block this amount as I can in YNAB.
                  There I can later mark a transaction cleared, when I have paid. This blocking of money gives me clear insight on how much money is left in the account and can be spent.
                  In bunq there is no easy overview of what has to be paid in the future

                3. Moving money between categories/accounts: It might be just me, but moving money between categories (or bunq accounts in this context) does involve a lot of clicking and also produces a lot of events
                  in the "Events" tab. In YNAB, I can just move money between categories in a very simple interface.

                4. Tracking of cash spending: I live in Germany aka Cash-is-king-country, and I do have to spend considerable amounts in cash. There is no way for me in bunq to track this cash spending and
                  this makes budgeting pretty hard.
                  I've tested a Siri Shortcut on the iPhone which could help me with that, but I did not try that in the wild so far. And if I was an Android user I would be SOL

                As always, YMMV

                  @Tim#62078 My salary usually comes in between 23 and 26 and when it comes in I have to tap 'retry' in the failed transactions.

                  Hoi Tim, was does that mean? What are failed transactions? Are they failing due to low account balance and are therefore "on hold" and waiting for action or am I completely wrong?

                    @Heiko-Hartwig#62089

                    Yes, the transfers fail because there is no balance as I completely empty the balance to all other accounts. And as soon as it comes in I want it divided.

                      I use 7 IBAN’s
                      - betaalrekening en/of
                      - incasso’s vaste lasten en/of
                      - zakgeld
                      - kluis en/of
                      - eigenrisico zorgverzekering en/of
                      - vakantie en/of
                      - kosten bunq pakket en/of

                      En dan nog 4 IBAN’s bij asn bank omdat ik vind dat spaargeld in de economie moet blijven
                      - grote kluis
                      - extra aflossen hypotheek
                      - uitvaart
                      - woningverbetering

                        @Tom#62057 Hi Tom!

                        I got to say the multiple accounts is by far my number one favourite feature! (in combination with the Connect feature). Absolutely briljant.

                        I'm not that great in budgeting. And it always seems that apps that gives you spending insights don't work the way at least my brain works, so I always end up removing them 😉But finally, I found the solution by using the multiple accounts at bunq!!

                        How do you use them John?
                        Good question :)... my wife and I share almost all of our accounts. A few accounts that we made (just some of them):
                        - Grocery Jar
                        - Car Jar
                        - Gadget Jar
                        - Coffee and Tea Jar
                        - Clothing Jar
                        - Vacation Jar
                        - Subscriptions Jar
                        - Savings Jar
                        ........

                        But.. to make budgeting even simpler I made an account called "Divide and Buffer Jar". This account I use for most of my income. I made some Recurring Payments to automatically transfer from this account to all our other ones!

                        example
                        Every week the amount of €225 gets automatically transferred from "Divide and Buffer" to our "Grocery" account. So this way I can have a much better overview of what we have left to spend that week. Not that we are on a tight budget, but just to get some more grip.

                        So to sum it up... I truly love the multiple accounts!

                        But pleaseeee for god sakes... make it possible to share "Savings Goals"... it is now creating a small wall between my lovely wife and I.

                        And please do some form of grouping of transaction, so that transfers between our accounts don't clutter up our event view

                          I have the following setup:
                          - Betaalrekening
                          - grote kluis(long term)
                          - kleine kluis(kleine spaardoelen)
                          - maandelijkse lasten
                          - inkomend geld(salaris, losse verdiensten. Voor verdelen naar alle rekeningen)
                          - bunq.me rekening om bij te houden of ik alles terug heb van vangen van grote rekeningen

                            I (as a student) have this setup:
                            - Daily Expenses
                            - Insurances (I pay all insurances from this account and it contains all deductibles for insurances I have)
                            - School
                            - Fun
                            - Charity
                            - Incoming
                            - Big expenses (savings-account, automatically saving enabled)
                            - Buffer (savings-account)
                            I will automatically transfer an amount every month to 'Insurances' and 'School', all other bank accounts will get a set percentage of 'Incoming' each month. I hope to automate the last part with Flow when that comes available.
                            I might divide the 'Daily Expenses' account into an account for subscriptions.

                              @Tom#62057
                              I use 18 accounts but soon more

                              • card purchase
                              • online card purchases
                              • bank transfer for ewallet
                              • payment by sepa
                              • main account
                              • shared account 1
                              • shared account 2
                              • direct debit
                              • crédit card
                              • savings in gold and silver
                              • account PIN2
                              • crypto 1
                              • crypto 2
                              • bunq.me
                              • holiday savings
                              • car savings
                              • bunq fee (bunq pack)
                              • Security

                                Let's start: Total 23 accounts.
                                - Bunq account - (Salary/Apple Pay (Maestro card))
                                - € Safe - (money box)
                                - 617 - (Hobby saving goal)
                                - Web Payments - (Webshopping)
                                - Crypto - (Cryptocurrency payments)
                                - Home Utilities - (Light/gas,....)
                                - Home Payments - (Rent)
                                - City Payments - ()
                                - Government Taxes - ()
                                - Internet & Mobile - ()
                                - Insurance - ()
                                - Lotery - ()
                                - Subcriptions - ()
                                - Reloading - (Hobby)
                                - iTunes Store - (Apple payments)
                                - Parking - (Car)
                                - Car - (maintenance) (second pin Maestro)
                                - OV - ( Bus/Train)
                                - New iPhone - (saving goal)
                                - Vacation - ()
                                - Dummy Debit card - (security mastercard)
                                - Company night out - (saving goal

                                  I have quite an extensive list with different accounts and budgets. It does help me to assign money for specific expenses and leave the money with the goal where it is meant for. Especially the saving goals where you don’t see the amount of money but just a percentage of the reached saving goal.

                                  My list contains:
                                  Main account
                                  Groceries
                                  Shared account with relatives
                                  Fashion
                                  Car
                                  Living (house/energy)
                                  Health
                                  Taxman
                                  Kids
                                  Hobby
                                  Crypto
                                  Gadget
                                  Apple
                                  Music
                                  Travel
                                  Reserve
                                  bunq.me
                                  Savingsgoal

                                  Every account gets funded with recurring payments which I manually set up to transfer money after receiving my salary. All in all banking and budgeting with bunq gives far more insight in how much money I need/spend on monthly costs. Also makes clear how much should be reserved for expenses to come in near future. Never want to return to my old fashioned bank with just one account without these options. I am one happy bunqer! 👍🏻🌈❤️🍏💶

                                    @Tom#62057 There was already a quite similar topic just two weeks ago: https://together.bunq.com/d/7642-how-to-budget-with-accounts

                                    I came from another bank where we had two joint bankaccounts. 1 for all the automatic stuff like wages, mortgage, energy and 1 we used to do shopping.

                                    When we switched to bunq we more or less kept it the same, but I'm (very) slowly changing this to more bank accounts. I should have thougth of it sooner because now I have to log in on websites to change the bank accounts again :sad:

                                    Anyway, what I have now:

                                    • Personal account which is automatically created when opening bunq and hardly used at all (sometimes when I want to experiment a bit wthout generating a lot of notifications for my partner)
                                    • Joint Shopping account: mostly groceries but we use it to pay for gadgets and things like that too.
                                    • Joint Magazine Subscription account
                                    • Joint Car account: insurance, maintenance, tax
                                    • Joint Energy account
                                    • Joint Legal insurance account; I'm not sure the English term is correct: "rechtsbijstandsverzekering" in Dutch
                                    • Joint Creditcard account for our external creditcards
                                    • Joint Child expenses account: child care, swimming, dancing and so on
                                    • Shared Pack account for the bunq invoices of the pack
                                    • Joint Heat pump savings account; we want to get a heatpump in the future
                                    • Joint House expenses account; mainly maintenance costs
                                    • bunq savings goal account; hardly used because almost everything is paid from joint accounts and bunq doesn't support that
                                    • Joint Main Account for all the other direct debits and wages. Some might be split off in the future

                                    So I'm already half way through the 25 accounts I can create. I have to be a bit carefull though because I still got some more old accounts I used to play with when I became a member. When my partner became a member too I had to recreate the accounts as Joint accounts because you can only do that when opening an account and not anymore later on.