How to Open a bunq Account as an Expat: Step by Step

Disclosure: this article contains affiliate links. If you open an account through one of our links, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. That does not change the eligibility rules below, all of which come from bunq’s own pages.

Why this article exists

Most “open a Dutch bank account” advice stops at “download the app”. That is fine until the app asks for a document you do not have, or your ID type turns out to be one bunq does not accept, or you promise payroll an IBAN on a date you cannot control.

So this is the boring version: what bunq asks for, in the order it asks, with the failure points marked. Everything factual here was checked on 4 October 2026 against bunq’s own help centre and plan pages, and linked so you can re-check it, because bunq updates these pages.

If you are still deciding between providers rather than signing up, read bunq vs Revolut or the three-way N26 vs bunq vs Revolut comparison first. If your problem is specifically that you do not have a BSN yet, opening a Dutch bank account without a BSN covers the alternatives alongside bunq.

Step 1: Check you are actually eligible

This is the step people skip, and it is the one that ends applications.

bunq states that “All EEA citizens who reside in one of our supported EEA countries can sign up for bunq” (bunq Help: Who can open a bunq Personal account?). The supported list bunq publishes covers Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden.

Two points matter for expats:

• Residence is the gate, not nationality. bunq tells people who are not European citizens but live in one of its countries to check which documents can be used to sign up. A non-EU national living in Amsterdam is therefore not excluded, but needs an accepted document (Step 2).
• Still abroad? You can start, not finish. bunq’s expat page says to “download the bunq app and sign up, even before moving to the Netherlands” (bunq: Banking for Expats in the Netherlands). The help centre explains the mechanics: from outside the EEA you select the country you are moving to, enter your moving date and allow notifications, and on that date bunq sends you back to finish the sign-up and open the account. If you are not moving to a supported EEA country, bunq offers a waitlist instead.

bunq also lists situations that block an account regardless of where you live: being under legal guardianship, having a pending bankruptcy, or being under an active garnishment. Residents of the French overseas regions (French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Mayotte and Réunion) and of the overseas countries and territories bunq lists, including Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao and Sint Maarten, are excluded too. Under-18s can open an account in a supported country, but only with permission from a legal guardian who also has a bunq account.

Step 2: Get the right ID document in your hand

bunq’s document rules are specific, so check them before you start.

From bunq Help: What ID documents are accepted for my identity verification?:

• EU documents: an EU plastic driving licence, plastic ID cards, residence permits and passports. bunq specifically notes that “ID cards from Denmark 🇩🇰 and Ireland 🇮🇪 aren’t accepted”.
• Non-EU documents: only passports, and only from a specific accepted country list (it includes, for example, Australia, Brazil, Canada, India, Japan and Singapore). bunq states that “UK ID cards, driver’s licenses, and residence permits aren’t accepted”. If your country is not on the list, bunq says you must have a European passport or residence permit ready for verification.
• Russian and Belarusian nationals: passports, valid residence permits and ID cards issued in listed EU/EEA countries, but “Driver’s licenses aren’t accepted for Russian and Belarusian nationals, even plastic EU ones.”
• Everyone: the document must be the physical original. bunq says “photocopies or scans are not accepted”.

Practical consequence: if your passport is sitting with the IND or in the post after a renewal, start once you have an accepted original in hand. bunq lists scans, photocopies, printouts and photos of a screen among the reasons it rejects a document.

Separately, bunq’s own guide to opening a Dutch account lists the baseline as being “over the age of 18”, owning a “Dutch ID or international passport”, and having “proof of address” (bunq: How to Open a Bank Account in the Netherlands).

Step 3: Pick a plan (there is a free one)

The current personal plans, per bunq Help: What plans are available and bunq’s plan pages, checked 4 October 2026:

Business plans run alongside: bunq Free €0.00, Core €7.99, Pro €13.99, Elite €23.99 per month. If you are registering as a freelancer, that is the column to read.

Two numbers worth knowing before you choose. On bunq Free, foreign-currency spending sits at bunq’s rate only up to €1,000 per year; beyond that bunq states “a fee of 3% of each further transaction amount applies” (bunq Free plan page). And the interest bunq advertises on its plan pages, “3.01%* annual interest paid out weekly”, carries an asterisk in bunq’s own copy, which adds that rates are subject to change at any time. Do not plan around a fixed figure.

One way to approach it: start on the free plan, confirm the account works with your employer and your landlord, and upgrade to Core when you want the physical card and the extra Pockets.

Check bunq’s current plans and start the sign-up

Step 4: The sign-up itself

bunq describes the online route in four moves: “Provide personal details (email, address etc.)”, “Choose an online banking plan”, “Prove your identity”, “Receive your card in the post” (same bunq guide as above).

In practice that means:

1. Download the app and register with your phone number and email.
2. Enter your details, including the address where you live. Be exact: bunq lists information that doesn’t match your ID among the reasons it rejects a verification.
3. Choose your plan. You can change it afterwards.
4. Verify your identity with your original document, following the in-app flow.
5. Wait for the card if you chose a plan with a physical one. This is post, not software, so it takes what it takes.

On timing, bunq’s help centre talks about getting an account in less than five minutes, but its own guide says that “Opening a Bank Account can take anywhere from a few minutes to several days.” Both can be true: the form is quick, the checks behind it are not always. Do not give payroll a date you have not been given yourself.

Step 5: The 90-day tax-ID clock

This is the part expats most need to get right.

bunq’s expat page says “No BSN required to start” and “Start banking right away and provide it within 90 days.” Its help centre puts the same rule in terms of the tax identification number: “we give you up to 90 days to submit it”, and you provide a TIN for each country where you are a tax resident. For the Netherlands, bunq names the BSN as the TIN.

The consequence of missing it is specific: bunq states that if you miss the 90-day deadline, “your account will be temporarily restricted” until you provide your TIN and a valid document showing it (bunq Help: Where’s my Tax Identification Number?). Restricted is not closed, but plan to add the number well before day 90.

So the practical sequence is: open the account now, book your BRP appointment at the gemeente as soon as you have an address, and add the BSN in the app the day it arrives. If you are unclear on how the BSN itself works, getting a Dutch bank account step by step covers the registration order, and Dutch bank accounts for non-residents covers what to do if you are not registering in the Netherlands at all.

What bunq does not do

The limits, from bunq’s own pages.

• Support is remote. bunq’s contact page lists in-app chat, which it calls usually the quickest way to get help, plus email, X and an automated emergency line for urgent card blocks (bunq.com/en-nl/contact). A disputed transaction or a restricted account is handled through those channels too.
• App-based. Sign-up and identity verification run through the app on your phone, with photos of your original document and a selfie.
• The free plan has real edges. Three Money Pockets and a €1,000 annual foreign-currency allowance at bunq’s rate, then 3% per transaction. If you spend abroad regularly, the free plan is not the plan.
• Investing has its own conditions. bunq Stocks runs through bunq’s trading partner Ginmon and is open to verified Personal users on any plan who are 18 or older, live in one of the listed countries (the Netherlands is one) and hold a nationality Ginmon accepts. bunq states it currently can’t “provide stock trading services to nationals of the United States” (bunq Help: Who can use bunq Stocks?). bunq adds that it doesn’t give trading advice and that investments carry a high risk of total or partial capital loss.
• Document rules refuse things that feel valid. A Danish or Irish ID card, a UK driving licence, a scan of your passport: all normal, all refused.
• Advertised interest can change. The asterisk on “3.01%*” is bunq’s own, and so is the note that rates are subject to change at any time.

None of that rules bunq out for a new arrival. It means checking the document rules and the support channels against what you need.

Who this suits, and who should look elsewhere

Good fit: you have just arrived or are about to, you have an accepted original ID document, you are resident in a supported EEA country, and you need a Dutch account working before your BSN comes through.

Look elsewhere: you are not moving to one of bunq’s supported EEA countries, your only ID is a document type bunq refuses, or you specifically want a branch and a phone number when something breaks. In that last case a traditional Dutch bank, opened after your BSN arrives, may suit you better as the primary account, with bunq alongside it.

For the fuller assessment of bunq as a bank rather than as a sign-up process, see the bunq review for expats, and for how it stacks up against the other app banks, N26 vs bunq vs Revolut.

Open a bunq account

Sources checked 4 October 2026: bunq Help (What plans are available; Who can open a bunq Personal account?; What ID documents are accepted for my identity verification?; Where’s my Tax Identification Number?; What kind of IBAN will I get?; Who can use bunq Stocks?), the bunq Free, Core and Pro plan pages, bunq’s contact page, bunq’s expat page and bunq’s guide to opening a bank account in the Netherlands. bunq changes plan names, prices and eligibility rules — verify in the app before you rely on any of it.