Opening a basic totally free bank account with Revolut will give you a UK existing bank account with a UK account number and sort code, a Euro IBAN account, and a blue-ish, pink-ish bank contactless card that allows you to withdraw cash at ATMs, make contactless payments of up to £45 in the UK, and utilise Apple Pay and Google Pay via the mobile app to make money transfers. You can also set up standing orders and direct debits to pay those bills.
Revolut Account Features
One of Revolut’s most attractive features is that it lets you spend fee-free at the interbank exchange rate in 150 currencies up to £5,000 each month, amounts over this are charged at a flat 0.5%. When you send money abroad, you usually get stuck with deal costs, inflated exchange rates or concealed charges. That’s because a lot of banks will either charge you additional fees to use your card abroad, or they exchange cash in multiple currencies at a less competitive rate, or more often both of the scenarios meaning you effectively pay higher fees. The Revolut card gives you a handy £200 a month in respect of international ATM withdrawals for free. Again, over this amount and the fee is a flat 2% fee.
Which countries do Revolut cater for? Many countries in mainland Europe are catered for along with the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland
Revolut is readily available to homeowners in Europe covering all of the biggest countries including France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands. Other countries also catered for include Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Republic of Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden and Switzerland.
Also, Revolut in partnership with the Metropolitan Commercial Bank proudly announced on the 24th March 2020 the availability of their service in the United States. New Customers can apply for a Revolut debit card with all deposits up to $250 insured by the FDIC.
There are 30 currencies you can transfer money abroad within the app, these include: AED, AUD, BGN, CAD, CHF, CZK, DKK, EUR, GBP, HKD, HRK, HUF, IDR, ILS, INR, ISK, JPY, MAD, MXN, MYR, NOK, NZD, PHP, PLN, QAR, RON, RSD, RUB, SAR, SEK, SGD, THB, TRY, USD, ZAR.
Another key feature liked by customers is notifications when you spend on your card. This is not only useful to keep a record of your transactions including sending money abroad but also alerts you to possible fraud.
All customers are provided with a Vault meaning you can put cash aside in a Vault and set a costs goal for it.
You can get take a trip insurance coverage straight from the app, at a competitive price.
At weekends, when the markets are closed, Revolut uses a mark up of 0.5% on major currencies and 1% on other multiple currencies on its rates.
With the increasing popularity of cryptocurrencies around the world, customers can choose from Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, Litecoin and XRP to instantly exchange any of their standard currencies. There is added features such as cryptocurrency graphs showing rates along with the ability to set up price alerts.
Revolut offers all three types of banks account eg Standard, Premium and Metal discounts from brands such as Booking.com, Expedia, Get your Guide, Gousto, National Express, Tiqets, Treatwell and Turo via the Revolut Perks Plus loyalty scheme.
Revolut Fees, Charges and Interest
Revolut offer the consumer three different types of current account offerings, these are as follows;
Standard Account – Zero fees per month including Free UK and Euro IBAN account, spend in 150 currencies at the Interbank exchange rate, exchange in 30 flat currencies up to £5,000 per month. Amounts above this are charged at 0.5%. Free Revolut card ATM Withdrawals of up to £200 per month. Amounts above this incur a 2% flat rate charge. This Revolut account also includes free membership of Perks Plus to receive generous discounts at top brands.
Premium Account – £6.99 per month. Includes everything listed in the Standard Account except there is no fee for exceeding exchanging in 30 flat currencies plus you can use withdraw up to £400 fee free at ATM’s using the Revolut card. Other benefits from this Revolut account include International Medical Insurance, Delayed flight and baggage insurance, global express delivery, instance access to cryptocurrencies, LoungeKey Pass access if your flight is delayed by more than 1 hour and the ability to set up to Revolut account juniors up to maximum of two.
Metal Account – £12.99 per month. Includes everything listed in both Standard and Premium Account with the following notable exceptions eg fee free ATM withdrawals limit using the Revolut card is increased to £600 per month, set up a Revolut account for up to 5 children, disposable virtual cards, receive a 1% cashback on all card payments outside of Europe and 0.1% cashback within Europe. Lastly, benefit from a concierge service to help you day to day living.
Revolut Business Account
Similar to the Revolut account for individuals, businesses can hold, receive and conduct money transfers utilising up to 25 currencies using the real interbank exchange rates. They can also benefit from transferring fee free to other Revolut business accounts. Business employees can benefit from pre-paid multi-currency debit card Mastercards that allow the business to set spending limits. The ‘Connect’ feature allows full synchronisation with accounting platforms along with receiving real time alerts. There is also an Open API that can be configured to send money abroad plus recurring payments automatically to employees, clients or suppliers.
Revolut App
Their advanced, feature-rich mobile app lets you send money quickly, receive alerts and split expenses. Revolut presently serves around 20,000 companies. In addition to multi-currency accounts, Revolut offers fast worldwide money transfers to other organisations, corporate cards, combination with accounting software and platforms, instantaneous settlements and expenditure reports.
Revolut Customer Reviews
Over 60,000 Revolut reviews are available on Trustpilot to read. Of these using Revolut, 79% rated the service, excellent, 12% great and 2% average meaning 93% of reviews are satisfactory. The remaining 7% of reviews are rated either poor or bad. Considering review sites often attract disgruntled customers, this ratio is impressive given 11 million people use Revolut. In respect of poor or bad reviews, some complaints consisted not being able to access customer support and others complained of delays in money transfers using the Revolut card or App. Other complaints were attributable to alleged poor customer service.
Revolut Security
Unlike some banks, Revolut offers its customers the ability to freeze their bank cards within the App in case of theft or loss. In the case of the latter, you login to the app and simply unfreeze the Revolut card to use instantly.
Another great feature is the ability to turn on location-based use, in other words, if your Revolut card is used in another country and the location-based security is turned on, it will be automatically blocked.
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