Bunq, a Netherlands-based challenger bank, revealed the new changes – the fourth large-scale update to the app – in Amsterdam, and includes new features around budgeting, group expenses, and green spending.
The key new feature that should help users right now is an extension of their budgeting features.
Users could already set up dedicated sub-accounts and they will now be able to budget from them automatically. That means that with each transaction a user makes, the money will automatically and in real-time at the point of sale, be taken from dedicated sub-accounts set aside for different purposes.
In the expansion of that with ‘Auto Select; tool, when you use your card to make a payment, it will select automatically which sub-account to deduct from.
With a four second decision making window on every transaction, the feature has been about 18 months in the making to ensure that this is ‘true budgeting’ and not just accounting after the fact.
The bank is also trying to encourage even more eco-friendly behaviour in this latest iteration.
New features such as activities reward users with trees – for every tenth place recommendation they make to their friends, Bunq will plant a tree.
There is also a new ‘Green Tab’ centring all the features that the app has to help users become carbon-free. The new tab not only allows people to offset their own carbon footprint, but also somebody else’s.
Bunq is committed a ‘green, inclusive, and diverse future for anyone on the planet’, and aims to set an example for sustainability in the industry.
In 2021, the bank was announcing that its users have planted over 5 million trees as a result of their activity with the bank, offsetting the amount of carbon equivalent to over 1.6 million flights from New York to Paris.
Moreover, every time a bunq Easy Green user spends EUR 100 with their bunq card, the bank donates a tree to Eden Reforestation Projects, a nonprofit NGO that works in developing countries to rebuild natural landscapes destroyed by deforestation.
According to the bank’s research, two thirds of users said they see their long-term plans, such as starting a family or moving house, being affected by the current inflation rates.
In the current cost-of-living crisis, 94% of millennials in the Netherlands, Germany, and France said they have been affected, with 40% cutting their expenses and 38% putting off larger purchases to a later date as a result.
However, apps on the market can connect to a user’s financial institution to help them plan and budget their finances. These apps use real-time data from the bank to give their users a clear picture of their spending habits.
They often break things down into categories, including groceries, bill payments, and dining out. Then, they calculate how much money users save. This overview gives customers an insight into where most of their funds are going. Analysing this information allows clients to make more informed decisions on resource allocation.
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