Revolut Review 2020

Besides trading stocks for free with Revolut, you also don't have to pay any inactivity or withdrawal fees. It only charges a 0.01% annual custody fee.

We ranked Revolut's fee levels as low, average or high based on how they compare to those of all reviewed brokers.

To get things rolling, let's go over some lingo related to broker fees. What you need to keep an eye on are trading fees, and non-trading fees.

• Trading fees occur when you trade. These can be commissions, spreads, financing rates and conversion fees.
• Non-trading fees include charges not directly related to trading, like withdrawal fees or inactivity fees.

Below you will find the most relevant fees of Revolut for each asset class. For example, in the case of stock investing commissions are the most important fees.

We also compared Revolut's fees with those of two similar brokers we selected, Freetrade and Robinhood. This selection is based on objective factors such as products offered, client profile, fee structure, etc. See a more detailed rundown of Revolut alternatives.

To have a clear overview of Revolut, let's start with the trading fees.

Revolut trading fees

Trading fees are low both for stocks and for cryptos.

You can choose from three different account types at Revolut; each charges different fees for stocks:

• the Standard account is free and includes 3 free stock trades per month;
• the Premium account costs $9.99 per month and includes 8 free stock trades per month;
• the Metal account costs $14.99 per month and allows you to make an unlimited number of free stock trades.

Once you have exceeded your monthly free trade limit, each trade costs £1, or its approximate equivalent in your base currency.

Crypto fees

Revolut provides cryptos from the Bitstamp crypto exchange and charges a 1.5% markup on the cryptocurrencies' bid or ask price.

Gold and 'Precious Metals' 

Gold (XAU) can now be traded with Premium and Metal accounts if you add an XAU account through the Commodities widget. The product's costs are derived from the XAU market with a 0.25% markup by Revolut during market hours and a 1% markup during non-market hours.

Non-trading fees

Revolut has low non-trading fees; it charges no inactivity or withdrawal fee. However, it charges an annual custody fee of 0.01%.

Revolut has an easy, fast, and fully digital account opening, requiring no minimum account balance.

Can you open an account?

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Stock trading is not available in all of the countries where Revolut's basic service is available. Use our handy tool above to find out whether stock trading is available.

What is the minimum deposit at Revolut?

There is no required minimum deposit. You can move even just a couple of dollars to your trading account from your Revolut account to get started with buying shares.

Account types

Revolut has three account types: Standard, Premium and Metal. All three account types offer commission-free trading; the difference among them lies mainly in the amount of monthly free stock trades they offer:

• the Standard account allows 3 free stock trades per month;
• the Premium account offers 8 free stock trades per month;
• while the Metal account places no limit on the amount of free trades.

Your trading account with Revolut is a general investment account. Other account types usually offered by traditional brokerages such as corporate, joint, IRA or ISA accounts are not available.

How to open your account

Revolut account opening is user-friendly and fast. Our account was verified within one business day.

The 5 steps of Revolut account opening:

1. Download the app and create a Revolut account 
2. Go to 'Dashboard' and click 'Trading'
3. Add some personal information, like your nationality and tax number
4. Answer a few questions about your employment status, annual income, and investment objectives
5. Accept user and market data agreements

Revolut offers several deposit options, and both deposits and withdrawals are free even when using wire transfers. On the negative side, you can only use a USD-based account for trading.

Account base currencies

You can have many base currencies when using the Revolut app but you can only trade from a USD-based account, as you can only trade on the US stock market.

It takes only a few seconds to create a USD account, but you need to exchange the amount you wish to trade into USD before you place an order. It would be more convenient if you didn't have to exchange the money yourself and Revolut made the currency conversion automatically.

Deposit fees and options

Revolut charges no deposit fees. In addition to bank transfer, you can top up your Revolut account by using credit/debit cards, Apple Pay, or Google Pay.

A bank transfer can take several business days, while topping up your Revolut account with a credit/debit card is instant. You can only deposit money to your trading account from your Revolut account.

Revolut withdrawal fees and options

Revolut charges no withdrawal fees. You can move money from your Revolut trading account to your Revolut account instantly and for free. From there, though, similarly to Revolut's competitors, you can only use bank transfer to withdraw money to your standard bank accounts.

How long does it take to withdraw money from Revolut? We tested the bank transfer withdrawal and it took 1 business day.

How do you withdraw money from Revolut? You can withdraw money from Revolut by following these steps:

• Go to 'Payments'
• Select 'Bank Transfer'
• Add your bank account
• Choose the currency and the amount you wish to withdraw
• Initiate the withdrawal

Compare to other brokers

Revolut does not offer a web trading platform, as it's available only on mobile. This is a drawback, as web-based applications are convenient to use and accessible from all devices.

Revolut does not offer a web trading platform.

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Revolut offers a great and user-friendly mobile trading platform, with Touch/Face ID login and good search functions. On the other hand, there is no two-step login.

Revolut offers a mobile trading platform developed in-house. Similarly to other mobile-first services, Revolut offers a great interface catering mostly to the average user. It's available in 24 languages.

Look and feel

Revolut's mobile trading platform is user-friendly and well designed. You can familiarize yourself with the platform in just a few minutes.

Login and security

You can log into Revolut's platform by typing a four-digit passcode, or using TouchID on compatible devices.

Search functions

The platform's search functions are easy to use; simply begin to type an asset's name or ticker to view relevant hits.

One thing we missed was categorization. It would be great to be able to filter companies based on industry, market capitalization, price level, etc.

Placing orders

As of August 2020, new order types have been introduced, such as limit order, stop-loss and out-of-hours (also known as outside market hours) orders. Unfortunately, options are still very limited when it comes to order validity, as you cannot set good-till-cancel or good-till-date type of orders. 

Alerts and notifications

There is a price alert function on the Revolut mobile platform that lets you know whenever the price of an instrument surpasses or drops below a pre-set level. 

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Revolut does not offer a desktop trading platform.

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Revolut has a limited product portfolio, as you can only trade certain US stocks, cryptos and gold. It lacks other popular asset classes like mutual funds, bonds or options.

Stocks and ETFs

You can trade more than 850 stocks listed on the NYSE and NASDAQ exchanges. Freetrade has a similar offer, the difference being that you can access the London Stock Exchange as well. Robinhood's offering is much wider.

Cryptos

Revolut offers Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, Ripple, Stellar lumens and Litecoin cryptos. Revolut's crpypto offering is slighty worse than Robinhood's but you can still trade the most popular ones. Freetrade doesn't offer cryptos.

Starting April 2020, Revolut extended the availability of cryptocurrencies to Standard accounts as well, in addition to Premium and Metal accounts. As of September 2020, Australian residents also have to the opportunity to trade cryptos.

Gold and 'Precious Metals' 

In March 2020, Revolut introduced gold trading for Premium and Metal Accounts. As of now, only Gold (XAU) is supported on the platform, but later on, Revolut will add more metals to their selection.

Favourites - Converter, Auto Exchanges

Tapping on the top right corner's star symbol, you'll be greeted with the 'Favourites' page, in which you can create watchlists, alerts, converters and auto exchanges.

With  'Converter', you can simultaneously check multiple currencies' value in comparison. You can also set automatic exchanges between currencies with the 'Exchanges' feature.

Revolut offers live market data, but other research tools are very basic or unavailable.

Trading ideas

Revolut does not provide trading ideas.

Fundamental data

Revolut does not offer fundamental data.

Charting

Revolut has poor charting tools. There are no technical indicators, and some other charting tools are also missing, such as a trendline editor. You can only use a basic chart and view some limited key information, such as changes in the the stock price during the past week.

Newsfeed, Watchlists

Thanks to constant updates, Revolut now has watchlist and a newsfeed.

The newsfeed is available from both the overview trading page and under any product you choose. If you check the latter, it'll be filtered to show only what is relevant to the given product. They are provided by 3rd party news sites, like Zolmax, CNBC, Investing, and Yahoo.  

Under the Favourites tab (star symbol in the top right corner) you can create Watchlists. They are grouped by asset types - juts tap on 'Add new'. 

Compare research pros and cons

Revolut has a great chatbot and a useful FAQ, but phone support offers only pre-recorded answers, while live chat is slow and its responses aren't always satisfactory.

You can contact Revolut via:

• chatbot
• live chat
• phone

The chatbot is great, although it can answer only basic questions. For example, it gave clear answers about what stocks are available or what order types are offered.

We also tested live chat, which was slow and we didn't get clear and useful answers to our questions.

Revolut phone support was fast, but all you get is pre-recorded answers. It's great if you have some basic questions, but it is not suitable for more specific queries.

We also missed email support.

All in all, there is certainly room for improvement in Revolut's customer service options.

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There are no education materials or a demo account available at Revolut.

Education is not a particularly strong suit of Revolut. They do offer some how-to videos on their Youtube channel, but these focus mainly on the use of the Revolut mobile app.

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Revolut is overseen by top-tier US and UK regulators, and it also has a banking license. However, it is not listed on a stock exchange and does not disclose its financial information.

Is Revolut regulated?

Yes, it is regulated by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the US Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), and by the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

Is Revolut safe?

To be certain, we highly advise to check two facts:

• how you are protected if something goes wrong
• and what the background of the broker is.

How you are protected

Revolut transmits client orders to DriveWealth LLC, a company that provides the trading platform and services for Revolut Trading. Sometimes Revolut refers to them as "Third Party Broker". 

This company falls under US federal regulation by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). DriveWealth acts as an agent, executing orders by transferring the orders to a floor broker at the NYSE. Revolut's clients are protected up to $500,000 (including up to $250,000 cash) under the Securities Investment Protection Corporation's (SIPC) insurance. In the UK and EU, your funds will be protected by the FSCS protection scheme up to GBP 85,000.

Background

Revolut is a relatively young company, established in 2015. The longer track record a broker has, the more proof we have that it has successfully survived previous financial crises.

Revolut has a banking license (in Lithuania), which makes it subject to tougher regulations than brokers.

Being regulated by a top-tier regulator and having a banking license are all great signs for Revolut’s safety.

Find your safe broker

Revolut's fees are great. With all three types of accounts, you can trade US stocks for free (though monthly limits may apply). Account opening is easy, fully digital, and fast. You can use an awesome and user-friendly mobile trading platform.

Revolut has some drawbacks though. The product portfolio covers only US stocks and some crypto currencies. There are only a few research tools, while it offers no educational material at all. Customer service could also be improved. 

If you want to trade US stocks for free and are looking for an easy-to-use mobile platform, Revolut is a great choice.

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