Watch Monito's Video Review of Revolut Business

You may already be familiar with Revolut, and we have previously reviewed the company, so I won't go into too much detail of their history.

They're regulated by the FCA, have over 15 million personal customers and have accumulated over 500,000 business users. They're rated 4.4 on Trustpilot and have over 100,000 reviews, of which 76% are five stars. A Revolut business account is available to companies and those that are self-employed or sole traders, that are registered and have a physical presence within the UK and US, as well as Switzerland and the European Economic Area, which doesn't include every European country. 

You may also be wondering what I mean by physical presence. This doesn't mean you need to have a shop or a storefront.

It just means that the person applying for the account along with any beneficiaries must reside in either the UK, US, EEA or Switzerland. The address of the business must also be located within one of these areas. If your company is located in an area where Revolut business operates, then it's very likely you'll be able to open an account.

There are some types of businesses or activities that Revolut does not accept. This includes charities, funds, public sector companies, dating and escort services, cryptocurrency trading, as well as selling second hand cars. There are also a few others, so if you have any doubts, just check the Revolut website.

Revolut business has a lot to offer as a user. The first thing I would mention is that their app and web interface is wonderfully designed. In our opinion, the biggest attraction to this account is its competitive multi-currency payment functions.

Revolut’s main value proposition for businesses lies within their competitive payments and money transfer tariffs, as well as great foreign exchange rates. This account will enable your business to hold money in more than 28 currencies, although I should mention fees may apply depending on the currency. 

And you'll also be able to convert money from one currency to another at the mid-market real exchange rate, which is great for businesses handling multiple currencies, and if you are dealing with lots of different currencies and you're in the UK, you can benefit from Revolut's FX Forwards service. This basically allows customers to lock in great exchange rates.

For example, if today's exchange rate is of good value for your company and your currency exchange needs, then you can lock it in for three months in advance. Now, when it comes to inbound and outbound transfers, where you’re located and the currency will affect the fees you're charged. 

For inbound transfers, depending on the country the account is registered to. Revolut will issue local bank account details in the UK. This will be GBP and EU and if you're in the US, this would be USD and GBP.

And if you don't have local bank account details to receive money, payments may incur additional fees as they will have to be made via the SWIFT network to a multi-currency IBAN.

Basically, this is an address that accepts funds in 28 currencies when those funds are received Revolut will check the currency and deposit it into your account. For outbound, transfers can be made in up to 26 different currencies. Although payments in some of these currencies will be made via the SWIFT network and may incur additional fees.

These include payments in the Swiss franc, as well as certain high amounts. Revolut also offers scheduled transfers and a bulk payments feature that allows you to send a number of payments at once. I believe the maximum recommended amount per batch is 500 in the UK.

And for some Irish accounts, you can also link your Revolut account to your high street bank account, which basically means that within the Revolut app, you can see the transactions from the various accounts you hold outside of Revolut. Not only that, but you can combine these transactions into one list, giving you complete visibility over all of your finances.

You'll also be able to distribute both physical and virtual company cards, which can be used to spend in 150 currencies. For anyone from the UK, in 2020, Revolut unveiled a new feature allowing UK businesses to receive customers' online card payments directly into their account via payment requests.

What this basically means is that you can process a one off payment in a really convenient way. All that's required is a simple payment link sent by text or by email. 

At Monito ee use Revolut business, and one of the benefits that we love is that you're able to open as many accounts as you require.

We've issued various employees with their own virtual and physical business cards, so they're able to pay for things online or in-store from our Monito account. What's really cool about this is that with Revolut, you have complete control over these accounts and cards.

For example, you could create an account for an employee and then view and control every payment or transfer made by that account, as well as set spending limits. Not only that, but if employees spend with the card, they receive a notification to remind them to expense the purchase.

Most of the online tools we've subscribed to at Monito are in a foreign currency. As a Swiss company, it would be an expensive feat if we were to account for these subscriptions with a typical high street bank. However, thanks to Revolut's currency exchange benefits, we're actually able to save a lot of money on fees.

Not only that, but having all of these subscriptions means tons of transactions and invoices to report in different currencies, which traditionally would be an accounting nightmare. Except with the Revolut interface, it all comes together in one place, and it's actually really easy to automatically classify payments into the correct accounting categories.

Whether you're a company, a sole trader, freelancer or self-employed, Revolut offers a variety of pricing plans, and these are divided into two categories: Company and Freelancer. Now, as I'm in the UK, I'll quote prices from here. However, these will obviously vary depending on the country your business is located in.

Within the company plans, we have Free, Grow, Scale and Enterprise. Free is obviously the most limited and basic platform. It offers no international payments and five free local payments. Any foreign exchange will incur an additional exchange fee, which I'll touch on shortly, but this really does make the free plan not suitable for any companies trading abroad.

Also, there's no priority customer support. Don't let this put you off unless it's an absolute emergency Revolut has a pretty great FAQ’s section that would likely answer support queries. Grow is currently the most popular. You'll receive ten free international payments, 100 free local payments, a 10,000 pound limit of fee free currency exchange, as well as priority customer support, you'll also receive one free metal card.

If you're wondering what any of these benefits mean, the Revolut website has a handy pricing plans page, but for example, the fee free monthly foreign exchange limit essentially means that once you exceed the amount and exchange further currency, you'll incur an exchange fee, which is around 4%.

With scale these benefits greatly improve, although they do come at a cost of £100. However, if you're a company that frequently trades abroad, then that's a small price to pay for benefits such as these. Of course, there are more benefits and fees attached to each plan, and these are available on the Revolut Pricing Plans page.

For freelancers, the Free plan is exactly the same as the company Free plan. This offers five free local payments and not a lot else. However, if you are a sole trader looking for a straightforward business account with no need to trade overseas, then this could serve you perfectly.

The Professional account is an affordable £7 per month, and you'll receive five free international payments, 20 free local payments and £5,000 of currency exchange at the real mid-market exchange rate. You'll also receive priority support and have the option to purchase a metal card £49 all the currency equivalent. 

And if you're happy to pay £25, the Ultimate plan will give you greater allowances, including £10,000 of fee free currency exchange, as well as one metal card. Now, in case you want to go over any of your plans' monthly allowances, you will be charged fees.

For example, for international payments. Each transaction will cost £3, while local payments cost 20 pence. Foreign exchange will incur a .4% markup on the mid-market exchange rate and ATM withdrawals will always incur fees of 2%. There are some other fees that I haven't mentioned, so if you're curious to know more, do check out our written review of Revolut Business at Monito.com which I've linked below. 

This really depends on what you want from a business account. If you're looking to regularly trade abroad thanks to its competitive exchange rates and in the UK, the ability to lock in rates in advance revenue.

Revolut business is definitely worth considering. And for those in the US, if you're doing business in the UK and receiving payments in pound sterling, you could set up a GBP account and do business globally - but like a local. You would also benefit greatly if you do business with anyone else as using Revolut for payments and transfers between Revolut accounts are always free. 

While all of these are major plus points. Revolut loses points for not having fee free ATM withdrawals and for not allowing customers to pay in cash and checks.

Also, costs could work out to be fairly high, particularly when compared to competitors such as Starling Bank, Monese and Wise. For example, Wise is this a better option if you're getting paid frequently by foreign customers, They give you local bank details in ten currencies so you can receive and hold these currencies without having to incur a fee

However, Wise and Revolut do not offer cash deposits while Starling and Monese do. Starling also offers free ATM withdrawals, fee free local payments, an overdraft facility, and FSCS is protected. Although Starling isn't entirely free and depending on your account needs, Revolut may still be the better choice.

And if you do want to open a Revolut account, please click the link in the description box below. It's an affiliate link, which means by using it, you'll be supporting and helping us make more videos like this one.

Hope you enjoyed today's video, if you want to learn more about Revolut and their personal accounts, click this video here. And don't forget to click here to subscribe so you don't miss out on future videos like this one.

Goodbye.