Challenger bank Bunq expands to all EU countries
Fintech startup Bunq is launching in 22 additional markets today. It is now going to be available in all European Union markets as well as Norway and Iceland. Overall, users can sign up in 30 countries.
In addition to today's geographic expansion, the company is enabling Apple Pay and Google Pay support for Travel Card users in the Netherlands, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Belgium and Ireland.
Bunq wants to create a bank account that works better. Originally from the Netherlands, Bunq is already available in Germany, Italy, Spain, France, Ireland and Belgium.
In those countries, you can open a full-fledged bank accounts. You get your own IBAN and debit card for a monthly subscription fee.
More recently, Bunq also launched a (nearly) free tier called the Bunq Travel Card. The Travel Card is all about saving on banking fees. It isn't a true bank account, it just complements your existing bank account.
When sign up to the Travel Card, you can top up an electronic wallet and then spend money using your Bunq Mastercard. The main advantage is that Bunq uses the standard Mastercard exchange rate but doesn't add any markup fee. Most traditional banks charge you 2 or 3 percent for foreign transactions.
While Bunq doesn't offer a credit line, the Travel Card is technically a credit card. It means that you can use it for hotel security deposits or car rentals just like a normal credit card. But Bunq still checks whether you have enough money on your Bunq account before processing a transaction.
Bunq is launching the Bunq Travel Card in 22 new countries, not the premium bank accounts. You can get a Travel Card for a one-time fee of a9.99 and there's no monthly subscription fee.
Here's the full list of new countries launching today: Bulgaria, Croatia, Republic of Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, the United Kingdom and non-EU countries Norway and Iceland.