Dear bunq users 🌈
bunq is available in every country in the European Economic Area (EEA), which makes it an international bank. But not every country has the same banking habits. That’s why we’d like to share a few tips with our users living in France, a country full of culture, beautiful landscapes and incredible food. 🥐
Know your IBAN
While finding our way through the ocean of traditional banks, we were lucky enough to get a banking licence: a Dutch banking licence, to be precise. That means when you open an account with bunq, it’ll have a Dutch IBAN that’s perfectly fine to use across the whole EEA (European Economic Area). So don’t worry, you can absolutely pay your bills with your bunq account.
Example of a bunq IBAN: NLXXBUNQXXXXXXXXXX
If you ever run into a situation where your IBAN is refused because it’s Dutch, check whether it’s a case of IBAN discrimination.
RIB? I only like “ribs” at the barbecue 🥓
RIB stands for relevé d’identité bancaire (French bank account details). Some organisations may ask you for a RIB to prove that you own your IBAN. To make sure you can use your bunq account without any limits, we’ve added a feature that lets you get one in seconds. Just switch your phone’s language to French and follow the steps shown here.
Cheques
As an online bank, bunq doesn’t have local branches. That means all the ways to deposit money into your bunq account are fully digital. Today, our users mainly use Klarna (SOFORT), iDEAL, bank transfers or credit / debit cards to top up their accounts, even though some still prefer a paper cheque. Our app only supports fully automated and eco-friendly methods, though. Fewer cheques, less paper, fewer damaged trees. 🌳 If you have a cheque that needs cashing, we recommend checking whether a local third-party company can transfer the cheque amount to your IBAN details.
Tax number
As a bank, we’re legally required to run a few checks during your sign-up. For example, we have to ask you for your NIF (tax identification number). To help our expat and underage users, we give you a 3-month period to send it to us! If you create an account for your child, their NIF can be linked to yours until they come of age.
Extra tip: this is the time of year in France when our users start filing their taxes. You’ll find more information about this on this page.