Revolut Review 2023

Revolut review - Overall score: 4.4

Revolut is a digital bank. It started in 2015 as a travel card that provides cheap exchange rates, and it is now becoming a bank.

It is the fastest growing digital bank with the widest range of features. A top choice for those who travel frequently. However, in the UK it might not be able to fully replace your bank.

While at the time of writing it is not operating as a bank, it is slowly becoming one, having received a challenger bank license from the European Central Bank in December 2018. As a result, Revolut itself doesn’t store your money, it uses Barclays and Lloyds for that. In early 2021 it also applied for a UK banking license and a bank charter in the US. Since it is not yet a bank, it does not offer any deposit protection.

Pros

• Can top-up in and hold several currencies
• An expanding range of extra features (e.g. cryptotrading, disposable virtual cards)
• Premium subscription options with handy perks (e.g. travel insurance)

Cons

• Customer accounts can be frozen temporarily due to security reasons
• Has a banking license, but no current accounts yet (no deposit guarantee or standing orders, direct debits only in EUR and GBP)
• Poor customer support

Account opening and maintenance fee

Account opening and account maintenance has no cost.

Card fees

To get your first physical card delivered, you have to pay only the delivery fee. Replacement cards cost £5 on the Standard Plan.

ATM fees

Withdrawing money from any ATM has no fee of up to €200/£200 per month and it costs 2% after that.

Transfer fee

It has no fee to transfer money from your Revolut account to any other international bank with normal wire transfers, and transferring in the same currency has also no fee. However, there is a charge to use SWIFT.

Currency exchange fee

On weekdays Revolut offers competitive exchange rates with a tight spread between the buy and sell prices based on market rates sourced from third-party providers. This is true both when doing an international transfer and when you use an ATM to withdraw money.

Exchanging currencies with Revolut has no fee up to €1,000/£1,000 per month on weekdays, but it costs 0.5% above this amount.

On weekends the exchange rates are fixed and they include a markup both in the free and the paid account plans.

Top-up fee

Revolut does not charge a fee when you top up your account using another bank card.

Compare other digital banks

Opening an account at Revolut is super easy: it takes only a few minutes to do it via your phone, and you will receive your physical card just a couple of days later.

Revolut countries

Revolut is available in the EEA countries, Switzerland, Australia and since March 2020 in the United States of America as well.

Revolut currencies

When it comes to managing currencies there are differences in what currencies are available, what currencies they offer a current account in, what currencies you can hold in the app and what currencies you can use to top up your account.

Current accounts

Available in 28 currencies: AED, AUD, BGN, CAD, CHF, CZK, GBP, HKD, HRK, ILS, ISK, JPY, MAD, MXN, NOK, NZD, PLN, QAR, RON, RSD, RUB, SAR, SEK, SGD, THB, TRY, USD, ZAR.

Currencies in the app

There are 35 currencies you can use to exchange money within the app: 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.

Top-up currencies

You can top up your Revolut account in 15 currencies: AUD, CAD, CHF, CZK, DKK, EUR, GBP, HKD, JPY, NOK, PLN, RON, SEK, USD, ZAR.

Revolut cards overview

Revolut cards are available from Mastercard and Visa. You can’t pick your own preference, so which one you’ll get is going to be random. In both of the premium plans, though, you can pick a design for your cards from a couple of colors, like grey or rose gold, which is not available in the free plan (Standard plan).

Revolut Premium account benefits

Revolut comes with two premium tiers. The first is simply called Premium and it costs €7.99/£6.99 per month. The higher tier, called Metal, costs €13.99/£12.99. The additional benefit here is that the physical card is a metallic card, instead of a standard plastic card.

Revolut top-up methods

At Revolut, you can use the following top-up methods:

• Bank transfer
• Credit/debit cards
• Apple Pay

While Revolut is not a full-blown bank yet, in some aspects it works similarly or even better than your high street bank:

• You can see your spending categorized by the type of transaction (e.g. shopping, restaurants).
• You can set monthly budgets and spending goals, both overall and for different spending categories.
• You can send money to other Revolut users instantly and for no cost. You can also send a money request to another user.
• Smart savings are also available, where Revolut will round up the amounts you actually spend and store the difference as savings.
• These savings can also be stored separately for easier overview and management.
• It supports direct debits, but only in EUR.
• You can set up Apple Pay in some countries.
• You can set up Google Pay in some countries.
• You can use 3D Secure online payments.
• Revolut offers interest on your savings.
• Overdrafts are possible.

In does lack however some features that are common for its competitors:

• Joint accounts are not available.

While you can only use Revolut through your mobile app and it is not available on a desktop computer as a website, it does offer several other additional features:

• Personal loans
• Phone insurance
• Travel insurance
• Virtual cards
• Cryptocurrency purchase

You can contact Revolut via:

• Live chat
• Phone: The phone support is automated and can only be used for blocking your card.
• E-mail

Customer service is available 24/7. However, sometimes it's hard to get the relevant answers.