Revolut Review

Introduction

Revolut is a UK-based fintech company offering mobile-only banking services, including a prepaid debit card, currency exchange as well as peer-to-peer payments. The mobile app supports spending and ATM withdrawals in 150+ currencies and holds money in 30+ currencies. There is a zero-fee policy for most of its services and uses interbank exchange rates for currency exchanges.

Opening a Revolut account is relatively simple. Once you have downloaded the app, verify your identity and proof of residence, add funds to your account by bank transfer or card, then order your new Revolut card.

Banking Features

Multi-currency account

Hold and send money in 30+ currencies with real-time foreign exchange to 150+ currencies.

Accounts

You create a default account when you register, based on the currency used in your location. You can create up to 24 different accounts for different currencies with the default account included.

Payments

Pay, share bills with your contacts, transfer money.

• Split bills with any of your contacts.
• Transfer money globally, with low fees and the interbank exchange rate.
• Schedule recurring payments.
• Payment links for sending or requesting payments.

Freeze/Unfreeze your card

In case of a lost card, freeze it in the app. Unfreeze it again when you find it, or report it as lost and get a new one.

Security settings:

Easily adjust what your card can do from the app, i.e. contactless and swipe payments, ATM withdrawals, online transactions, etc.

Spend abroad:

In over 150 currencies with the interbank exchange rate, with a small 0.5% fee above the €/£6.000 per month mark.

Withdraw money:

€/£200 (amount depends on a plan) in international ATM withdrawals for free.

Revolut PRO

Revolut Pro is tailored for freelancers, contractors, side-hustlers, sole traders, and more. It offers a suite of simple and convenient tools designed to streamline financial management and empower individuals in various self-employed professions. These tools are available to you for free within your Revolut app!

• Earn 0.8% cashback* on all Pro debit card purchases
• Accept quick payments via QR codes, payment links and card reader
• Send customisable invoices

Revolut Account Types

As a Revolut user, you can choose from three different personal account types and another four business account types to choose from.

Personal account types

	Standard	Plus	Premium	Metal
Price per month	€/£0	€/£2.99	€/£6.99	€/£12.99
Free Euro IBAN account	✓	✓	✓	✓
Spend in 150+ currencies at the interbank exchange rate	✓	✓	✓	✓
No fee exchange in 30+ fiat currencies	up to £1,000 p/mo	up to £1,000 p/mo	No monthly limit	No monthly limit
Card Spending (foreign)	✓	✓	✓	✓
Virtual debit card	✓	✓	✓	✓
Google Pay / Apple Pay	✓	✓	✓	✓
No fee on ATM withdrawals	Up to €/£200 p/mo	£200/mo	Up to €/£400 p/mo	Up to €/£800 p/mo
Purchase protection	X	£1000/y	£1000/y	£10,000/y
Refund protection	X	£600/y	£600/y	£600/y
24/7 customer support	X	✓	✓	✓
Discounted international transfers	X	X	20%	40%
Cashback on card payments	X	X	X	✓
Cashback on Stays bookings	3%	3%	up to 5%	10%
Overseas medical insurance	X	X	£10 M/y	£10 M/y
Flight insurance	X	X	£5,000/y	£5,000/y
Baggage loss, damage or delay	X	X	£1000/y	£1000/y

Business account types

To learn more about Revolut business accounts, read our full Revolut Business Review.

Security

Revolut’s policies and procedures are designed to protect users’ confidentiality as well as the security of their information, including their non-public personal information. Personal information is stored using third-party servers located in secure data centers protected by firewalls and a ‘restricted access’ policy, in compliance with applicable regulations. All data passed between Revolut’s mobile apps, its servers, and third parties are 2048-bit SSL encrypted.

On top of that, Revolut employs several security settings that can be applied to each of your Revolut cards. Change these at will in the app’s ‘Cards’ section.

• Location-based security: when activated in the app, your phone’s GPS location is used to determine if your card has been compromised and to prevent fraudulent transactions. In suspicious circumstances transactions will be blocked.
• Magstripe Payments: magstripe card payments are generally considered unsafe. Disable this type of payment to help prevent your card from being cloned or used fraudulently. Chip and PIN methods, when available, are strongly preferred.
• Contactless Payments: disable contactless payments in case you’re not paying via contactless methods.
• ATM Withdrawals: disable ATM withdrawals to prevent transactions being carried out at an ATM terminal.
• E-commerce transactions: disable e-commerce transactions to prevent any payments being completed online.

Using the Revolut app abroad

Revolut aims to make traveling abroad as pleasant as possible for its users. For users traveling abroad, Revolut offers:

• Spend in 150+ currencies at the interbank exchange rate.
• £200 a month in international ATM withdrawals for free with the Standard plan which is free. The amount that you can withdraw for free depends on the plan you chose.

Revolut Support

The Revolut Support Center consists of two main parts: Community and the Help Center. The Help Center is a searchable knowledge base that covers all aspects of Revolut’s service, with an obvious special focus on the app, categorized into different sections, each covering a specific aspect of the service.

The community is a Q&A forum that has a number of conveniently chosen subcategories that make it easy to navigate, with additional options to check the latest posts, or the most popular ones. Getting information from other users can be of great help to someone just getting started. In any case, these two support pillars offer a lot of tips, tricks and general knowledge about Revolut’s service and the app.

If you are still left with questions after checking the Support Center and the Community forum, you still have the option to contact Revolut’s customer service. You can call them, but the In-App chat option is much preferred over the automated phone line. The chat is available 24/7, but since Premium users are entitled to priority support, waiting times could be longer than expected for standard users.

Conclusion

Revolut offers a very solid app with a wide variety of great features. It is easy to use and works in a very intuitive way. You can hold different currencies and spend like a local abroad. Revolut values security and, besides encrypting data streams with state-of-the-art encryption, offers a very useful set of security features users can benefit from to keep their Revolut account safe and secure. With Revolut, digital banking is a fee-free and great alternative to traditional banking solutions, with relatively low fees for basic accounts and even lower fees for premium accounts.