Its name suggests that it’s revolutionary. It also makes it sound like a vodka brand. For frequent travelers and those with friends overseas, this may be the ideal.
Its name suggests that it’s revolutionary. It also makes it sound like a vodka brand. For frequent travelers and those with friends overseas, this may be the ideal.
Its name suggests that it’s revolutionary. It also makes it sound like a vodka brand. For frequent travelers and those with friends overseas, this may be the ideal.
There are a lot of things to like about Revolut. But, is it for you?
Here’s our ‘at a glance’ guide to some of the benefits and drawbacks of a Revolut account.
Read on for our in-depth Revolut review.
✔️ Easy currency exchange using real-time rates
✔️ Store your money as cryptocurrency
✔️ A free basic account for all your standard finance needs
✔️ Optional premium accounts with useful extra features
✔️ Real-time spending notifications
✔️ Customisable card payment security
❌ You’ll have to pay if you want a physical card
❌ You can’t pay in with cash or cheques
❌ Revolut does not have a UK banking license
❌ There is no option to include an overdraft facility
With more than 25 million customers worldwide, Revolut pitches itself as an e-money institution for the modern world.
It’s designed to let you spend money globally with ease and with real-time exchange rates. So, whether you’re shopping in your local supermarket or jetting off to Australia, it should be simple for you to see what you're spending.
Because today’s hyper-connected world deserves a financial partner just as progressive.
Revolut
If you’re a new user, you can use a virtual card to do all your shopping online. Or, you can use your Revolut account completely card-free, for storing and transferring funds.
If that’s not enough, you can trade up. You can surrender your virtual card, pay a delivery fee, and receive a contactless VISA Debit card.
It’s easy to add money to your Revolut account using another credit or debit card, a bank transfer or Apple / Google Pay.
Revolut’s services will mainly appeal to frequent travellers and overseas students.
It might also be the perfect account if you have family members in other countries, or frequently do business outside of the UK and get paid in foreign currency.
Though there’s nothing stopping you from using Revolut as your UK account, there are undoubtedly more feature-packed and convenient UK accounts.
Revolut’s main focus is on keeping things easy for people that spend across borders. It’s a top account if you want to take advantage of real-time exchange rates.
Revolut offers app-based money dealing. To get started, all you need to do is download the Revolut app. It’s compatible with iOS and Android devices.
Once you have your Revolut account, you can load it with funds for spending.
Money can be kept in GBP, or changed to a different currency.
Revolut customers can easily change their funds into one of 29 foreign currencies. They can also spend abroad in more than 150, using the real exchange rate.
Storing your money in another currency might be the ideal solution if you’re preparing for a holiday, or want to lock in a good exchange rate.
Premium accounts include cryptocurrencies, like Bitcoin and Ether. Revolut was the first financial technology company to offer cryptocurrency support, starting in 2017.
As well as an app-based account with easy currency conversion, you can access:
Revolut gives you the option of using a disposable virtual card to reduce the risk of fraud.
A disposable virtual card gives you brand-new card details, to use for one transaction. It'll be automatically deleted, once the transaction is complete. Fraudsters can’t store your card details or use them for extra spending.
As soon as money leaves your account when you’re shopping, you’ll receive a notification on your Revolut app. In most cases, you’ll know that your payment has been approved before the in-store card machine.
It’s easy to save for a rainy day with a virtual vault (annual interest paid daily) that separates your savings from your spending money. You can make one-off deposits into your vault, or round up every transaction. You can also set up a regular deposit, to hide excess money on payday.
Tell Revolut how much you’d like to spend on the essentials, like groceries and car maintenance. Revolut will watch your transactions, and alert you if you’re overspending.
If you lose your card, you don’t have to immediately cancel it, then wait for another to arrive. You can freeze your card in-app so that it can’t be used by anyone else. If you find it down the back of the sofa, just defrost it again.
You control how your card can be used. Turn off contactless payments or ATM withdrawals, if you don’t want those options available. Or, get transactions to decline automatically if your card is nowhere near your phone.
From within the Revolut app, you can buy mobile phone or overseas medical insurance from as little as £1 per day.
Cover begins almost instantly. You can file a claim through the Revolut app.
Charity donations are simple when they’re made with Revolut. You can round up your purchases, sending your spare change to your choice of good cause. Or, make a one-off or recurring payment easily through the app.
Charities receive 100% of donated money. Revolut will not take a fee.
A free package offers a UK account complete with a European IBAN, for cross-border money transfers. You can withdraw up to £200 fee-free, from ATMs each month.
For most users, the free Revolut account will be sufficient.
If you want to upgrade, you’ll pay monthly for additional features.
Paid features include cryptocurrency access, overseas medical insurance, and a LoungeKey Pass that's ideal for long waits at the airport.
A Premium account will set you back £6.99 per month.
Or, choose a Metal account for a £12.99 subscription. Metal users have access to a concierge service, cashback on purchases and, of course, a fancy metal debit card.
Revolut customers can change their funds into one of almost 30 foreign currencies. You can also spend abroad in more than 150, using the real exchange rate.
If you’ve paid for a premium account, you have the option of storing your money like Bitcoin or another cryptocurrency.
ATM withdrawals have limits. If you go over your monthly withdrawal limit, then you can expect to pay a 2% fee on all additional withdrawals. Limits range from £200 per month with a free account to £800 on a Metal one.
Currency conversions are at the real exchange rate, for your first £1,000 each month (without an exchange fair usage fee). After that, an exchange fair usage fee of 1.0% applies for Standard and 0.5% for Plus plans. You can avoid this completely by upgrading to a Premium or Metal plan, which don’t have any exchange fair usage limits.
Revolut, as an e-money institution (EMI), protects your money through “safeguarding”, which differs from how your money is protected by banks in the UK through the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS).
In the UK, Revolut is not a bank but an e-money institution, authorised under the UK Electronic Money Regulations. This means, in particular, that FSCS protection does not apply to the e-money or payment services Revolut provides.
Without a physical branch, you’ll reach out for help online. The in-app support chat service is available at all times, with a priority service for Premium and Metal customers.
Revolut is an e-money institution for the digital user.
You can’t pay in cash or cheques. You’ll also have to pay for a debit card unless you’re happy to use the virtual one. Your virtual card is provided when you open the account. You can use it for online spending, transfers and currency conversion, but not to buy things in shops.
You won’t need a physical card to buy your groceries in the supermarket, as long as the tills support Apple and Google Pay. To use either of these, you'll need a compatible phone. If that's not enough, you’ll have to pay for delivery of your Revolut card.
If you have any doubts, keep your existing bank account open. You can always close it later if you realise that you haven’t used it.
If you spend in various currencies, then you’ll probably love the simplicity of using Revolut. If you don’t, this might leave you a little disappointed.
Revolut offers excellent services for travellers, from lounge access and travel insurance to real-time currency conversion. But, it’s not the easiest UK account to use.
There are definite restrictions. Revolut provides no way to deposit cheques or cash. Some other providers will let you scan or post your cheques. Others have linked up with PayPoint for occasional cash deposits. With Revolut, there’s absolutely nothing. Most people will find that they won’t miss these facilities. But if you do, you’ll need an account elsewhere.
If you want a physical card, you’ll have to pay for the privilege. If you don’t need to spend your money offline, a physical card isn’t necessary. Great features like disposable virtual cards will increase security for online shopping. You can always transfer money back to another account to spend it.
Overall, Revolut is an e-money institution with a clear target audience. It’s unlikely to be suitable as a primary account, but might be one to add to your arsenal.
Most customers will open a Revolut account as a secondary facility, alongside another current account.
Revolut is a digital-only alternative founded in London by Nikolay Storonsky and Vlad Yatsenko. It was launched in 2015, aiming to allow users to use and manage their money around the world by offering real currency rates.
Revolut became a ‘unicorn’ (a privately owned startup valued at more than $1billion) in April 2018 and hit 2 million registered users in June.
Revolut customers are sent a pre-paid debit card (MasterCard or VISA) that can be topped up using their debit card. Customers can then, if they choose, exchange that amount into a foreign currency to be spent abroad or leave it in their home currency.
Revolut also supports cryptocurrency exchange for the following cryptocurrencies:
Of these cryptocurrencies, Revolut offers instant access to Bitcoin Cash, Ripple, Ethereum and Litecoin by exchanging to and from 25 flat currencies. All cryptocurrencies are locked into the Revolut app and cannot be moved to another app or wallet.
The Revolut current account was introduced in early 2017 and offers full current account facilities including direct debits, payments and transfers. Customers can also set up direct debits in Euros if they wish and can use the EUR IBAN to receive payments in other currencies.
Revolut Premium, costing £6.99 per month, offers customers unlimited foreign exchange and doubles the value of free ATM withdrawals abroad from £200 to £400 (a 2% charge is applicable over this amount).
Revolut introduced a further premium service, called Metal, in August 2018. So named because the card is mostly made of steel, it costs £12.99 per month and includes benefits such as a concierge service that makes bookings on a customer’s behalf, cashback and travel insurance.
Revolut has a range of security settings that can be adjusted by the customer in-app. Customers can disable or enable functionality including magstripe payments, ATM withdrawals and contactless payments if they choose, or enable GPS locators that can find their card in the event it is lost or stolen.
Revolut Limited
4th Floor
7 Westferry Circus
London
E14 4HD
Telephone: 0203 322 8352
Email: support@revolut.com
Find answers in Q&As and ask your question
I sent a referral link to a friend on May 5th, the friend immediately ordered a physical payment card for £5 and the card arrived 11th May. The final steps to complete the referral offer was for the invitee to make three £5 purchases with the card.
I checked the status of the referral at that point and saw that the referral deadline had expired in the app! I contacted Customer Service who informed me that the deadline to fulfill the offer was 9th May, two days BEFORE the friend even received the card. The offer was therefore literally impossible to fulfill and is an absolute scam.
Revolut refused to honour the offer.
If anyone else has had the same experience I would suggest they get their friends/family/invitee to chargeback the £5 fee for the physical card to the original payment method, close their Revolut account, and look into Monzo or Starling both of whom offer far superior service.
I was called by a number that had the exact same number as the ministry of justice in the UK. Unfortunately, it was a scam and they claimed that I was found guilty because of tax violations. Importantly, they knew everything about me such as my postcode, address details, etc. Being suspicious at that moment, I got convinced when they let me verify the number from gov.uk's website. Unfortunately, I have done a sequence of payments in the amounts of 2000-2500 pounds and I lost more than 10K pounds. The scammers told me that my bank accounts in the UK have been warned regarding the matter and while doing these huge chunks of payments, there was not any warning given by revoluts application at all. I called the same number 15 mins later and when I called it back, I was connected to the real ministry of justice and then, I spotted that it was a scam. Contacted revolut and from the online chat, made a chargeback request because of not being warned at all. Provided all the screenshots regarding the calling number and the documents to them and I was told by them I will receive a response in 3-5 weeks which was like a joke. After some research, issues related to scams have been resolved by local banks in just a couple of days and they get reimbursed most of the time. After some time, someone appeared in revoluts chat and told me that they will not reimburse the money for not specifying any reason. I told them that I lost my entire money and had a very tough situation because of having a wedding in 2 months as well. In short, revolut accounts are not safe and their fraud detection mechanisms are lacking security and they do not offer any help once you are subject to fraud. The only thing that they ask for is to provide a chargeback form and keep you waiting which ends up with misery in the end. It is absolutely clear that their fraud prevention and customer service are extremely poor. Highly suggest you use a local bank or more reliable ebanks that do not leave you alone in cases of fraud. I will provide you with further information if anything positive or negative happens with revolut and the situation.
So grateful they refunded my weekend charges!!!! I mean it's kind of my fault for not noticing there're weekend charges, and even if they don't refund, I can't do anything about it as it's all stated in their T&C. Yet I was not exchanging a small amount of money, but a huge sum, so making the weekend charges very high. When I complained to the customer support and demanded a refund or revert of currency exchange, they replied straight away and refunded me immediately as a good will!!! I'm so happy! FYI, I'm a metal premium card user, not sure if it's relevant with quick replies.
Gotten worse and worse, they sent 3 cards, 2 of them to a completely different country to where I am located and wrote down as delivery address, they are unable to take feedback, and the support is garbage, with wait times of sometimes 15 min, even though I have exchanged messages previously with the agent
Clearly unable to deliver a card to a customer, and if a bank can't do that, what can they do?
