In case you plan to travel, a credit card comes in handy. For this reason, bunq came up with the wonderful and reliable bunq travel card. Thus, you will have a smooth time when renting a car or paying for a hotel when traveling.
The Bunq travel card was part of the Bunq easyTravel Account. However opening an Easy Travel account is no longer possible. Active Easy Travel users will be able to keep using Easy Travel until their card expires.
What is bunq?
Bunq is a Dutch virtual bank founded in 2015, available for everyone with a European Citizenship or nationality. Its card services include the bunq travel cards, which we will delve into in this review.
What is a bunq Travel Card?
This is a MasterCard that does not have any foreign exchange fee. The company makes use of the standard rates that apply for the MasterCard but does not put up any addition for the markup fee. On the contrary, you will find most traditional banks charging you up to 2 to 3 % for all foreign transactions. The bunq travel card has many advantages over the traditional credit card.
How Does bunq Travel Card Work?
Ideally, the card works like a prepaid credit card or a debit card. Therefore, you can only utilize the amount that is already in your account and not any excess amount, as much as it is referred to as a credit card.
Is the bunq Travel Card a credit card?
Yes, it is an official credit card, but it comes without the risk of falling into debt. You can use it as a normal credit card, without the possibility of financial burden because the funds come from your account.
How Do You Activate Your bunq Travel Card?
- Using your passport or identity card details, install the bunq application and set it up.
- Through iDeal, transfer 9.99 Euros to bunq and apply for the travel card.
- Afterwards, you will receive the card; thus, you can top up the amount that you want via iDeal.
- You can then proceed with your travelling plans.
What’s more, you will be able to quickly refund the money left after your trip, since once you get the travel card, any other account you had with bunq becomes non-functional.
What Benefits Does the bunq Travel Card Offer?
- You can use bunq credit card even without having a steady income, as opposed to other options where you need to have a steady income.
- If you do not have a car, the card offers a convenient and quick option to rent a car when you are travelling.
- In case you are making an online purchase, you can use the card as a credit card.
- You can determine how much you will top up on the card and how much your expenditure and budget will be.
- There are no extra costs for real exchange rates.
- In case a cost applies in exchange rate, you will only incur a percentage cost of 0.1% where there is a difference in buying and selling price.
- For accounts in Spain, Germany, Austria, Belgium and Italy you can directly transfer money through Sofort, iDeal or credit card.
- Even under 18’s can apply for the travel card as long as they have permission from their guardian or parent.
Are There Any Disadvantages of Using the Travel Card?
- You will need to have enough money on your card to make a deposit when you are renting a car. If you do not have enough money in the account to make the deposit, you can easily create a money transfer through the options available.
- The rainbow colour on the card could cause problems in some countries where there is gay discrimination.
- The card is not sturdy enough; hence, it feels like it could break or chip if not used carefully or for a long time.
- Once you pay for bunq premium, you can only make transactions via Apple Pay.
Fees
To get the travel card, there is a one-time charge of €9.99. ATM withdrawals cost €0.99 per withdrawal. For bunq Premium clients, the first 10 monthly withdrawals are free. There’s no monthly fee.
Are There Any Limitations When Spending Money With bunq?
The travel card has a massive maximum spending limit of 50,000 Euros daily. However, the default limit per day is 1000 Euros. Also, you can alter the default details on the bunq app whenever you like. Most notably, the daily limit bunq offers is among the best deals among similar options that you will find in the market today. Furthermore, it gives you a chance to take advantage and make those substantial non-euro purchases that you have always wanted to do at an affordable price.
Does bunq Earn Through the Travel Card?
You could wonder if the card benefits the company much since customers only make onetime payment of 10 Euros in the beginning. Nevertheless, bunq has other ways that it makes profits from this card. In fact, other companies that allow credit cards for transactions pay a fee in each case. Mostly, you will find that the charges could even be in excess of 2% of the whole amount transacted. The various parties that include MasterCard or Visa benefit from the transaction fee. In this case, the banks that issue the cards are also beneficiaries, and thus, bunq earns from the transactions.
Supported Countries
The travel card is available in 28 European Union countries and 2 European Economic Area countries, namely Norway and Iceland.
Conclusion
In case you are worried about how safe your money is with bunq, it is a great relief to know that bunq is fully licensed in the EU. Therefore, any money held with them that gets to the amount of 100,000 Euros is protected by the Guarantee Scheme of Deposits of the Dutch National Bank. Hence, you have the assurance of the safety of your money even while carrying out your transactions. Finally, you can get notifications of any activities of your card; hence, you can monitor and set limits on the application.