Bunq vs Cash App
Bunq is a European alternative to Cash App — same payments & finance use case, built under EU data-protection law.
By the EU Alternatives team Last updated
- Jurisdiction
- EU / EEA
- GDPR by default
- Yes
- US CLOUD Act exposure
- No
- Open source
- No
- Free tier
- No
Cash App by Block.
- Jurisdiction
- US
- GDPR by default
- Requires DPA + TIA
- US CLOUD Act exposure
- Yes
About Bunq
Bunq is the Dutch mobile bank that makes banking feel as simple as any other app on the phone, with account opening in 5 minutes and savings rates up to 2.01%. Founded in Amsterdam in 2012 and now serving more than 20 million users, Bunq is one of Europe's largest neobanks and the first to be built on a genuinely mobile-first model.
The app bundles current accounts, multi-currency pockets, physical and virtual cards, term deposits, stock investing, crypto buying and selling, eSIM installation, and travel insurance into a single interface. Users split budgets across pockets, auto-save round-ups, and share joint pockets with family, while the underlying infrastructure is a full licensed bank rather than a reseller of someone else's rails.
Key benefits:
- Five-minute onboarding using phone and ID, fully from the app
- Money pockets to split budgets, savings, and shared expenses
- Up to 2.11% guaranteed on term deposits and 2.01% on savings
- Stocks and crypto investing integrated into the banking app
- eSIM and travel insurance built in for frequent European travelers
Bunq is headquartered in Amsterdam, Netherlands, with offices across Europe. It holds a full European banking license issued by De Nederlandsche Bank, and deposits are protected up to €100,000 under the Dutch Deposit Guarantee Scheme. All customer data stays within the EU, and the bank operates under full GDPR and PSD2 rules.
Trusted by more than 20 million users across the European Economic Area, making Bunq the second-largest neobank in the EU.
Why choose Bunq over Cash App?
The decisive argument is data jurisdiction. Cash App is headquartered in US, which means personal data processed through it can be subject to non-EU legal regimes — the US CLOUD Act, FISA 702, or similar laws depending on the provider. After the 2020 Schrems II ruling, EU organisations must carry out a transfer impact assessment for every such data flow.
Bunq removes that overhead. As a Netherlands-based provider, it operates natively under GDPR, and data stays inside the EU/EEA by default. For regulated sectors — health, public administration, finance — that's not a nice-to-have but a requirement. For everyone else, it's concentration-risk insurance: you avoid depending on a single non-EU jurisdiction that can change the rules without warning.