Revolut Review

About Author: Hi, I’m Quinn Askeland. In 2014, I started Transumo after experiencing expensive, slow, and frustrating international money transfers and payments through banks. Once I discovered how to manage my own international currencies much better, I became driven to help others improve their transfers and payments. Fortunately, today, there are many excellent options. See My Full Bio.

I have been using Revolut App and card for over year now and I was immediately blown away by how much you can do. Revolut is far more than a way to make payments with a cool card! In this review, I will show you what Revolut can do (and can’t do) as well as make it clear where there are some good alternatives.

Revolut is a great way to manage money from prepaid debit cards, instant payments, and currency exchange – all via the app or other device.

But here’s the deal:

While Revolut is designed to a heck of a lot, I am also going to uncover situations where Revolut is NOT your best option and point you in the right direction to who might be.

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. For more information, see my disclosures here. This Review is for general information purposes only and does not constitute financial advice.

1. Quick Take

On Trustpilot, Revolut is 4.3/5 with over 121,000+ reviews, which is considered “Excellent.” The reviews indicate that Revolut is a great alternative money app, for traveling, and offers fast transfers.

They say – “One app, All Things Money”. And I think they are right. Check out this screenshot from my phone!

Truth is they can do an awful lot – but not everything. First let’s talk briefly about the many subscription plans they offer;

Getting paid, paying others with a revolut card (review) or the app, saving money (through “vaults”) is all made possible through an app or online.

But each Plan (below) is different and the “standard” option which has no monthly fees has fees once you hit certain limits.

So a paid option could be better for you – even cheaper, especially if you travel overseas, freelance, run a business or are just a frequent user.

With Revolut, the key is to match you usage with the best option.

Click here to see the options and pricing available in your country (opens a new tab so you can keep reading).

2. When Revolut Works (and When it Doesn’t)

2.1 When it Works

Manage money easily, inexpensively and with joy?

First check if Revolut is available for you here (personal) and here (business).

Revolut offers many money management options for individuals (both local and international). From receiving your salary, splitting bills to tracking all your accounts (even high street banks) and spending.

Revolut is pretty comprehensive.

But how can they help you?

For saving, you have the option to create saving vaults and make savings through cash back and discounts.

For spending, you can connect your card to tap and pay with your phone. You also get a prepaid debit card for travel, but the app is where it is at. You can freeze the card and even create single-use cards for safety online. You can also spend in 150+ currencies with low conversion fees.

For international people, getting paid and making payments in different currencies is both inexpensive and easy.

For parents, opening an account (with card) for your child on the back of your account is a welcome addition.

For businesses, Revolut offers payment gateways, payroll, and a multi currency account to pay and get paid like a local (as well as hold 30+ currencies).

2.2 When it Doesn’t Work

International Money Transfers

While Revolut does enable money transfers they can be limited by relatively expensive and complex fees. Also possible frozen accounts.

The reality is dedicated money transfer services can do better and save you more money.

The fees and limits vary based on the country where you live and the plan you have.

As they say, “fees include a variable transfer fee and a 0.5% fee on exchanges above your plan’s monthly allowance. “

The easy way to see what you will pay is to go to their calculator.

In addition to this, regulations can make money transfers relatively complex and as we discovered in the negative reviews (below) one of the biggest complaints people have is frozen accounts.

However, if money transfers is important to you, we personally think you are better off choosing a money transfer service that has few restrictions, charges low fees for transfers and (possibly most importantly) has top ranked customer service to help guide you through any issues you might face (due to regulations).

Customer Service

While Revolut scores strongly when it comes to 3rd party reviews (below) this is a low cost service and that means they use an in-app chat box (instead of telephone service). In some situations, a human with specialised knowledge is something worth paying for – especially money transfers.

Specific Needs

Some folks need the ability to tailor solutions for money management and travel insurance. For example, loans and more travel insurance options.

3. Costs + Features (Real Costs)

Personal

Because of the many options you can choose with Revolut, it helps to start with the right country: Select your country here.

In it you will notice they ALL have the following:

• Standard (no-fee) account option
• Spend in over 140+ currencies with Revolut rate
• Exchange in 28+ fiat currencies
• No fee ATM withdrawals (Limits apply based on the plan, then fees apply. Third-party providers may change a withdrawal fee)

There is a long list of additional benefits for Premium and Metal users. Like medical insurance, baggage and flight insurance, priority customer support, LoungeKey Pass (at airports) and fancy-looking premium cards.

For money transfers here are the 7 cheapest international money transfers

Business

The business account also has different tiers and you can (check out the comparison chart here).

Generally paid plans will get you:

• A multi-currency account
• Local accounts in global currencies
• A global IBAN
• Physical and virtual cards
• Unlimited team members
• Payroll
• Bulk payments
• Payment Gateway
• Payment QR code

Account Plans

Other Costs

• International transfers at the mid-market rate

• Mark-up of 0.5% on the exchange rate on weekends

• Small delivery cost for the first debit card and for the replacement cards.

• For out-of-network ATM withdrawals fair usage fee applies on amounts over limits based on Plan

International money transfer comparison is a good idea especially for larger amounts of if this is something you will be doing a lot of.

FX fees: Standard + Plus: Fair usage limits apply – Premium + Metal: unlimited and fee-free in 30+ currencies (as exotic currency mark-ups apply, and only fee-free on weekends)
All plans: Weekend mark-ups apply

4. How to Use Revolut

With Revolut, it really is a “choose your own adventure” type situation. It kind of depends what you want. For some people, Revolut will be a travel companion, for others a business solution and for others still an alternative to traditional banking.

The good news is that you can ease yourself in regardless and upgrade as you you see fit.

However despite their “One app, All Things Money” tag line we don’t think Revolut is a 100% substitute.

While they may appear to do everything, it is worth considering how they do it – and if that is what you really want.

Sign Up

Download the app, create a profile, and choose a personal or business plan that works for you. You can upgrade or downgrade your account anytime. You can also select the card as per your requirements.

Get Verified

Provide an ID for verification. The eKYC takes no longer than a few minutes. However, sometimes you may be asked for additional documents for verification.

Fund and Start Using

You can fund your Revolut account using any of the supported methods and start transacting.

5. What do Revolut Customers Say (including Negative Reviews)?

Revolut gets great reviews on most review sites.

On Trustpilot, Revolut are rated 4.3/5 on over 124,000 reviews, which is considered “Excellent”. We analysed 100s of reviews, and 85% gave 4 or 5 stars with a relatively low 10% giving 1 star. Compared to their peers this is very respectable especially given their size and low cost operation. Most high street banks score below 2/5.

But there’s a lot to be learned from the negative reviews.

6. Is Revolut Safe?

Revolut is not a full-fledged bank in many countries, so your money is not necessarily protected under the deposit guarantee scheme.

However customers in Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Lichtenstein, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden is a real bank.

Regardless of the country where you are a customer of Revolut they do protect money in “Saving Vaults” and other ways.

For example, in the UK they partner with banks that are part of the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). This means that, if you are eligible, your Savings Vaults deposits are protected up to £85,000 per user. But this insurance may only protect you from failure of the banks that hold the funds, not if Revolut fails.

In the Europe, it is the Deposit Guarantee Scheme (DGS) which means protected up to €100,000 per person.

In the USA, Revolut is a financial technology company. Banking services provided by Metropolitan Commercial Bank (Member FDIC).

Compliance Issues

Recently revolut has been in the media for a possible lapse in compliance. Reports indicate the FCA is involved, which could be seen as a good thing long term as they no doubt face further scrutiny and (if required) will pull their socks up. Important to note that the compliance issue relates to prevention of financial crime and not security. Revolut from what we can tell is fully secure.

Active Security

The app gives you complete control over your card and transactions. For example, you can freeze and unfreeze your card instantly. The app also lets you turn on and off features such as swipe payments, ATM withdrawals and contactless payments. It comes with GPS based security, which means, if your card is used in a different location from your current smart phone location, the card will be blocked.

Bottom Line

Verdict

Revolut is a modern, convenient way to manage money from an app. You get a prepaid debit card/s, can make instant payments and exchange currencies.

It has various plans for individual and business users. You can use the one that suits your needs the best.

Click here to see the options and pricing available in your country (opens a new tab so you can keep reading).

But as we discussed above in our section on When Revolut Works (and When it Doesn’t) it might be better for you to use specialised services for insurance and other services they offer.

We think it is also important to use specialist money transfer services where things can get complex due to regulations in different countries. Using a service geared towards money transfers can mean less chance there are any hold ups.

Check out our reviews for Wise (was TransferWise) for smaller transfers below £4000 GBP / $7000 USD or OFX for larger money transfers.

Happy Money!