Revolut Review (2023) Revolut PROS & CONS – Will It Save You Money?

Do you currently use more than one platform to manage different financial aspects? Revolut may be able to simplify things for you. In this Revolut review, I will shows you what it offers, who can benefit from it, and Revolut pros and cons.

Revolut is a one-stop financial resource with many helpful functions. It can help you make better decisions for spending, saving, sending, and investing your hard-earned funds. You can transfer and spend money stress-free without having to worry about any unusual or exorbitant fees.

Revolut is one of the most-used international online payment platforms. Its ease of use and impressive feature set have helped it become one of the fastest-growing finance applications in recent years.

NOTE: Be sure to also check Revolut card review, Revolut business account pros and cons, and Revolut vs. Wise comparison to see how these two options are different.

 

Revolut Review

Revolut was launched in 2015. and is headquartered in the United Kingdom. It’s a private company similar to Wise. They offer money transfer services that people can use to send funds to bank accounts and other Revolut account holders.

You can buy goods and services using a Revolut card and even get access to cryptocurrency trading and virtual cards.

Busy travelers and international business people are the company’s primary market. Users can transfer funds and exchange money quickly and affordable with the Revolut multi-currency card. Money can be exchanged in the Revolut app while using your card to pay for items or withdraw using ATM.

Sending money to bank accounts is simple with Revolut. A few minutes at the most is all it takes for most transfers from one Revolut account to another.

 

 

Once you’ve signed up for a Revolut account, you’ll receive a Visa or MasterCard virtual card or prepaid debit card. You can use your card for withdrawing money or account charge-offs in more than 120 different nations. The Revolut app can be used for direct transfers in 26 different international currencies.

Revolut even provides a sort code and an account number, much like a traditional bank account. This information will help you receive funds. Your Revolut account can be funded via Apple Pay, bank transfers, standard credit or debit cards, and Google Pay.

Only residents of the United States, Canada, Japan, Singapore, Switzerland, and European Economic Area (EEA) nations can open a Revolut account. Businesses currently registered and have a physical presence in the EEA and Switzerland can open Revolut Business accounts.

 

How Revolut Works?

The standard paperwork that most brick and mortar banking solutions require is unnecessary to open a Revolut account.

You will need to decide what type of account you want. You can open a personal or business account. If you go with personal, you can choose from the following options: a free account, plus account for £2.99 per month, premium account at £6.99 monthly, and a metal account, which costs £12.99 per month.

The app will ask if you want to top-up your account during the initial setup phase. This serves as a beginning security check for Revolut by adding money from an account that’s already verified under your name.

Revolut will ask you for scan proof of ID, driver’s license, or passport, which is standard procedure. Verification is done very quickly and easily in few minutes. They will also ask you to use their camera function to take a photo of yourself. They can then compare that photo with the photo from your ID.

Physical or virtual debit cards can be ordered from Revolut. Their physical cards are pre-paid contactless either Visa or MasterCards. Placing an order for a physical card is free on the Revolut app. The only associated cost may be a delivery fee, which can vary based on the delivery method you select. Premium account holders can receive a physical card at no charge.

The next thing to do is to assign a PIN number for your physical card once it arrives. This number allows you to use the card at ATM payment terminals to withdraw cash. Both magstripe and contactless payments can be made with your physical Revolut card.

 

 

Customers can turn on the ‘location’ security feature. This means Revolut will use GPS location from your cell phone to help avoid potential fraudulent transaction attempts.

eCommerce and ATM transactions, as well as contactless and magstripe payments, can also be disabled at any time as a security measure so that your physical Revolut card won’t be cloned or used by anyone else. Just use the app to select the freeze or unfreeze option whenever you wish.

You can conduct transactions in your base currency and other international currencies with your physical Revolut card. Any funds added to your account can be converted into another currency at the current exchange rate.

You can also keep your cash balance in a particular currency. If this option is chosen, Revolut will apply the active exchange rate if you’re traveling in another country. The respective amount will then be deducted in that currency for each transaction made in that country with your Revolut debit card.

 

Are Revolut Paid Plans Worth It?

Revolut has paid plans for multiple interests. You may want to consider a Revolut paid account because of the added protection benefits and insurance. Most of the features are the same for all Revolut accounts. But paid subscription levels provide perks such as purchase protection and device insurance at reduced rates.

The cash withdrawal limits are increased with paid accounts. However, I don’t know why you’d need to worry about this unless you’re going to a country where you need a lot of cash on hand or if you’re traveling abroad frequently.

 

 

Paid plans can be ideal for people who conduct high volumes of foreign exchange transactions or live an international lifestyle. Take a look at your current device and travel insurance to see how they match up with what Revolut has to offer. Do those products meet your needs, and are they a good value for the money?

 

Revolut App

The Revolut app helps you manage your Revolut account. The app can be downloaded to your tablet or smartphone for free. You should be accustomed to using your smartphone or mobile device to oversee your account if you’re going to be a Revolut customer, as all is managed via the app.

The app is very well designed and intuitive though you can be overwhelmed with all options displayed.

 

Revolut Account Review

There are no fees for using bank transfers to add funds to your Revolut account. Third-party fees may apply to those particular transactions. International transfers can be completed in the following currencies:

United Arab Emirates dirham (AED) Australian dollars (AUD) Bulgarian lev (BGN) Swiss francs (CHF) Canadian dollars (CAD) Czech korun (CZK) Danish krone (DKK) Euros (EUR) British pounds (GBP) Hong Kong dollars (HKD) Croatian kuna (HRK) Hungarian forint (HUF) Israeli New Shekels (ILS) Iceland krona (ISK) Infinity Pay (IPY) Japanese yen (JPY)

Moroccan dirham (MAD) Mexican pesos (MXN) Norwegian krone (NOK) New Zealand dollars (NZD) Polish zloty (PZN) Qatari riyal (QAR) Romanian leu (RON) Serbian dinar (RSD) Russian rubles (RUB) Saudi riyal (SAR) Swedish krona (SEK) Singapore dollars (SGD) Thai baht (THB) Turkish lira (TRY) United States dollars (USD) South African rand (SAR)

Al money transfers that are within your Revolut foreign exchange limit allowance can be conducted free of charge. Cross-currency transfers above the limit amount will have a 0.5% fee. You can upgrade to a Revolut Premium or Revolut Metal account to avoid those extra charges.

You’re allowed one free transaction per month for any payments made outside of the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA). Each additional transaction will incur a fee of £0.50.

GBP transfers to UK banks normally take a few seconds to complete. However, it can take as many as three working days for these transactions if the receiving bank doesn’t have quicker payment receipt procedures.

Banks based in the SEPA region usually only need a few seconds to process for EUR transfers. If the particular receiving bank doesn’t have faster payment processing methods, such transfers can take up to two working days to complete.

Banks located in Indonesia, India, and Malaysia handle most money transfers in a single business day or less. Certain international transfers could take as many as five business days before the recipient will receive money.

You can transfer as much as you want in particular currencies in most cases. Some of Revolut’s payment partners impose certain currency limits.

 

Your Revolut account balance works much like a traditional bank account. Once a transfer hits your account, your account balance will be updated accordingly.

Most transfers are fast, but there may be times when you’ll have to wait a bit to receive your funds. The type of transfer and the type of currency being transferred can affect the transaction time. Domestic transfers are usually completed in two business days or less. International transfers can take up to five business days.

You can send the following currencies via bank transfer to Revolut accounts: USD, ZAR, SGD, SAR, RON, QAR, TRY, SEK, RUB, PLN, JPY, ILS, HUF, HRK, CZK, CHF, CAD, THB, NZD, NOK, MXN, HKD, GBP, EUR, DKK, BGN, AUD, and AED.

 

How Much Are Revolut Fees & Costs?

You can always open a free Revolut account at any time. However, it doesn’t have many features. If you want more functionality, you may want to open a Premium (at £6.99 per month) or Metal (at £12.99 per month) subscription account.

Revolut offers free transfers for the same currency and mid-market exchange rates for most currencies. There is a 0.5% markup for these transactions on weekends.

Eurozone cross-currency transfers over the £5,000 monthly foreign currency exchange allowance are charged a 0.5% fee by the provider. Transfers under that limit are processed for free. Money transfers made outside of the SEPA region may have international wire transfer fees charged by respective third parties.

There are no fees for paying for items with your Revolut card in currencies that are already in your account. If you don’t have enough of a particular currency in your account, the mid-market rate is used to convert currencies for you.

 

 

ATM withdrawals can be made for free for up to £200 (or the equivalent currency). A 2% fee will be charged for all ATM withdrawals above that limit.

You can exchange up to £1,000 (or the equivalent currency) every month at no charge. Any transactions above that amount will be charged a 0.5% fee (the fees section has additional details). A maximum of £1,000 (or the equivalent currency) can be withdrawn from your account one time per 24 hour period.

 

Which Currencies Does Revolut Support?

Revolut card will use the best available exchange rate and automatically convert funds into the particular currency that you’re spending at the moment.

You can currently hold and exchange the following currencies: BGN, HUF, RON, PLN, GBP, SAR, TRY, QAR, NOK, DKK, AED, SGD, NZD, ILS, EUR, CAD, THB, SEK, JPY, CHF, ZAR, RUB, MXN, HKD, CZK, USD, and AUD.

 

 

Revolut won’t withdraw funds from multiple currencies if there aren’t enough funds in one currency wallet to cover a transaction. Revolut will decline the transaction instead, even if there is enough money spread across your wallet currency accounts overall to cover it.

 

How Revolut Card Works?

Your Revolut account is tied with your Revolut physical and virtual debit cards. You can order a virtual card for free, and it can be set up in a matter of moments.

Virtual cards won’t have a PIN. They won’t be valid at certain online payment terminals and can’t be used at ATMs. Virtual cards also lack some of the features that physical cards have.

Virtual cards are used for online payments and can help to avoid possible fraud. Virtual cards can be deleted every several months and replaced with new cards.

The disposable card option has been added as extra security for Revolut Premium subscribers. Whenever a payment is made, the card number is changed automatically to prevent fraud.

Revolut offers 4 different types of cards. Your Revolut card will depend on the type of account that you have. You can have one of the following four types of accounts:

1. Free account. All free accounts will have a standard plastic card.
2. Plus accounts (£2.99 per month). Plus accounts will receive the Revolut plus card.
3. Premium accounts (£6.99 monthly). Premium account holders get the Premium Revolut card.
4. Metal accounts (that cost £12.99 each month). Metal subscribers have the Revolut Metal card.

All Revolut cards can be used at any place that accepts Visa and MasterCard. Unfortunately, you can’t choose a MasterCard or Visa card. Cards are assigned to customers based on the country where they live.

Each card will allow you to make contactless payments. There are more than 140 countries around the world that currently support Revolut card payments and ATM withdrawals.

You can convert funds from one currency to another at the mid-market rate for free. You can also pay for items online and in physical stores with the Revolut multi-currency card free of charge.

 

 

Revolut implements a currency fair change policy. Clients who use GBP as their main currency can exchange up to £1,000 (or the currency equivalent) for free every month.

Transactions for standard Revolut customers that are over that limit will be charged a fee of 0.5%. Any account holder without a Revolut Metal or Premium account is considered a standard customer. Fair usage fees are not charged for Premium or Metal members.

Adding money to your Revolut account is free for the most part. There may be certain circumstances where a nominal fee is applied. Revolut will let you know about any such applicable fees before the funds are added to your account.

You can have up to five virtual cards and three physical debit cards connected to your Revolut account. Disposable cards don’t count toward those restrictions, no matter how many times they are used.

The Revolut app is the only place where your virtual cards can be accessed safely. They can be used as soon as they’re generated. You can use them to make payments online. Once they’ve been added to Apple Pay or Google Pay, they can also be used for contactless payments.

The app is also used for creating disposable cards. They are designed to be used only once. They are a secure alternative when paying at unknown or untrusted sites or at merchant websites. The card’s information is automatically blocked after it’s been used.

You pay £4.99 (or the equivalent currency) for an extra Revolut card, along with any applicable shipping charges. You can also upgrade to Revolut Premium or Metal account. In that case, you will receive two more cards for free via express delivery. If you upgrade to Revolut Plus, you also receive two additional cards at no extra cost via standard delivery.

The Revolut app can be used to manage your virtual and physical cards. You can block and unblock cards, order replacement cards, and cancel cards as you see fit. Revolut has both Visa and MasterCard cards.

 

Revolut Bank Review

Companies need to have a physical presence and be registered in either Switzerland or in a country that’s in the European Economic Area before they can sign up for a Revolut Business account. There are different pricing plans for companies, each of which has its own unique pricing structure and associated fees.

Revolut is looking at possible future collaborations with charities, foundations, cooperatives, and public sector companies. Revolut does not currently support those businesses.

 

 

Business customers can have two default local accounts in British pounds and Euros. These accounts can contain up to 28 different international currencies. There aren’t any limits to the amount of fund transfers or how much money you can send in those transfers.

Additional information may be needed in certain transactions. If more information is required, a Revolut team member will contact you to obtain that data.

SEPA instant credit transfers have a cap of 100,000 Euros on incoming transfers for Revolut business accounts. Any transaction that’s above that limit will be handled as a standard SEPA credit transfer.

 

Revolut Other Services

Revolut offers more than just money transfers. They started allowing cryptocurrencies back in 2018. There’s a separate fee for this service, but you can hold cryptocurrencies in your Revolut account if you want.

A 2.5% fee is added to each cryptocurrency sale or purchase. Revolut Premium and Metal paid subscribers are charged a 1.5% fee on such transactions.

Revolut considers “high frequency” clients who exchange more than £1,000 per month (or the equivalent currency). High-frequency clients are charged an additional 0.5% fee for any cryptocurrency exchanges that they make using Revolut.

Cryptocurrencies can’t be retrieved from Revolut accounts. They can’t be moved to another cryptocurrency wallet, either. You can purchase various types of insurance from Revolut, and the Vaults feature is something similar to Wise jars.

 

 

Revolut can work with Apple Pay and Google Pay. You can also pay for items with your Revolut debit card via smartphone. Slack, QuickBooks, Xero, and Free Agent are some of the third-party software solutions that can be integrated with Revolut Business accounts.

Additional Revolut features:

• Vault – Vault is comparable to traditional savings accounts. You can use it to save up for something. You can make one-off contributions, set recurring payments, or round up transactions and deposit your spare change. The primary difference between this and other savings account is that Vault doesn’t generate interest.
• Budgeting – The app can be used to set monthly budgets so that you can control your spending.
• Revolut perks – Selected users can take advantage of this cashback reward program.
• Cryptocurrencies – You can buy and sell cryptocurrencies from your Revolut app.
• Insurance – Accidental damage coverage insurance can be purchased. Insurance plans begin at £1/week.
• Travel medical insurance – Medical and dental coverage is also offered at £1 per day (or the equivalent currency) when you are traveling abroad. Revolut uses geolocation technology to determine the currency.
• Donations – You can donate to your favorite causes at any time. Spare change can be rounded up for donations. You can also configure recurring or one-time donations.
• Recurring payments – Recurring payments don’t take much time to set. They can be easily canceled whenever you wish.
• Direct debit – You can set up direct debits to pay for things you buy or regular bills.
• Loans – Customers residing in the UK are the only ones who can take advantage of this feature at this time.
• Lounge pass – This perk is available to Revolut Premium and Metal subscribers. They can purchase airport lounge passes to spend their time waiting for their next flight in comfort.
• Concierge – Revolut Metal customers can use this feature. Concierges can reserve event tickets, book flights and hotel rooms, reserve tables at restaurants, and much more.
• Group bills – This feature lets Revolut users divide charges between friends and family members. You control how group expenses are added, separated, tracked, and divided. The same central location can be used to accomplish all of these tasks. You can create your own group if you need to separate expenses amongst your roommates or travel companions.
• Revolut Junior –  These are accounts designed for children. Parents’ accounts will be linked to their children’s Revolut Junior accounts.
• Stocks – You can trade with stocks through the Revolut app.
• Commodities – Gold (XAU) and silver (XAG) are some of the precious metals that you can buy and sell on the commodities market.

 

Revolut Support

Revolut’s help section is handy. There are answers to commonly asked questions and explanations of fees and features. You can reach their customer service department by phone call or chat.

All chat sessions begin with Rita the bot, so if you need additional assistance or want to chat with a live person, you can always type”Live Agent” to be transferred to a live operator. You can join the Revolut community or get in touch with them via their social media pages if necessary.

 

Revolut Pros & Cons

Here are some of the advantages and disadvantages of using Revolut.

PROS:

• Their ever-growing list of features. Disposable virtual cards and crypto trading are some of the latest offerings that you can take advantage of.
• Travel insurance and other convenient perks are available to premium subscribers.
• You can hold up to 29 international currencies in the same account using the virtual bank.
• Starting and setting up an account is simple.
• Free ATM withdrawals wherever you go. This is very convenient for people traveling abroad.
• Medical and travel insurance can be purchased.
• Affordable international money transfers.
• Travelers can save significantly.
• All exchange rates are transparent—no hidden costs or fees to worry about.

 

CONS:

• Customer accounts can be frozen temporarily due to security reasons.
• Poor customer support.
• On weekends, you can be charged an additional 0.5 – 1.5% on exchange rates.
• Certain services can only be accessed with premium subscription memberships.
• Although some regular money transfers are free, certain transfers will attract a fee.

 

Revolut Review Conclusion

You can use Revolut to send money free of charge in more than 140 countries around the world. Transfers are sent using SWIFT if the transfer isn’t in Euros or if the beneficiary bank isn’t in the EU. International wire transfer fees may be added as a result.

Revolut clients don’t need to worry about paying commissions because the interbank exchange rate is used. I would recommend Revolut to people looking for a great card to use on their next vacation or holiday.

The budget spending limits and analytics that Revolut provides can help control daily expenses. Their savings vaults can help you set aside funds for donations or a larger purchase.

One potential drawback is the daily ATM withdrawal limits. This can be a cause for concern for anyone going to be in a particular country where they’ll need a lot of cash on hand.

Revolut states that its primary focus is on its customers. I am optimistic that this will continue in the future.

If you are seeking a good Revolut alternative, I suggest you check my Wise review. And if you need to integrate Revolut with your WooCommerce store, then be sure to check the best Revolut WooCommerce payment gateway and integration tools.

If you are from US, then you might be interested in Chime. For further info, you can check Chime review.