Jonny Pease
Guide
A Youtube Creator at Monito, Jonny helps you understand all you need to know about hidden fees, exchange rates and the best services to move your money across borders.
Byron Mühlberg
Reviewer
Monito's Managing Editor, Byron has spent several years writing extensively about financial- and expat-related topics.
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Read moreThis video is a review of the popular neobank Revolut. In it, we take a close look at the various plans Revolut offers, as well as their benefits and fees.
Today, we're going to be reviewing Revolut with the goal to help you answer questions like should you get a Revolut account? And how will it benefit you? And to do this, we'll be looking at how Revolut rated on our Monito score and what led to us giving them a 8.6.
This will help us decide whether we can trust Revolut with our money, as well as get a clear picture of their services and benefits, their fees and exchange rates, and also see how their customers rated. Established in 2015, Revolut is a private company with over 2000 employees.
They're an award winning company, and in 2020, when the UK Tech Awards for Company of the Year as of December 2021, their accounts and cards are available to customers living in the UK, US, EU and EEA countries Australia, Singapore, Switzerland and Japan.
Unfortunately, no Canada or New Zealand. However, New Zealand is looking likely in the near future. If you visit their website, they say they have a banking license, which was granted by the European Central Bank in Poland and Lithuania.
This allows them to offer banking services in a number of European countries, including Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania, Slovenia as well as France, Italy and Portugal, and more. However, they are yet to be granted a banking license in the UK, the US or anywhere else they operate.
But just because they're not a traditional bank and don't have a banking license in certain countries doesn't mean your money isn't safe. Revolut are actually required to safeguard your money with larger financial institutions with a bank like Lloyds Barclays.
So if Revolut were to go bust your money would be safe. And because of this and the fact they're fully regulated by the FCA in the UK and licensed as a bank in certain European countries, we scored Revolut, an 8.9 for trust and credibility, with over 16 million customers already trusting Revolut with their money.
We think you can definitely trust them with yours. Revolut has been very innovative when it comes to banking. Their mobile app, unlike traditional banks, is unique, beautifully designed and really stands out for its various features and offerings. When you initially sign up, you'll be asked to select a plan.
There are four available standard, which is free plus premium and metal. These are their prices in the UK, but they may vary depending on where you're located. The fundamental offerings of Revolut are available across all plans, which includes a Revolut current account with its budgeting tools, currency exchange, international spending, ATM withdrawals, fast and simple money transfers, including bill splitting so you can easily send and request money. However, the various plans will offer you greater benefits within each of these fundamentals. For example, the more expensive the plan, the more money you can withdraw from an ATM without incurring a fee with the standard free plan, depending which comes first, you're either limited to a total of £200 or five ATM withdrawals per month with plus premium and metal. You are not limited to a number of withdrawals, however, you do have a maximum amount you can withdraw without incurring a fee.
There's also no 24-7 priority customer support for the standard free plan. But don't be fooled by this it doesn't mean you won't be able to speak to someone if you need help.
I'm on the standard plan and I jumped on there yesterday. I think it was like 9:00 a.m. and I was immediately able to reach someone. I've really only briefly touched on the various plans and what they offer. There's a lot more available to you, and they also may vary depending on where you're located.
So I definitely suggest checking out their pricing plans page, which is available on their websites. Spending and sending money internationally with Revolut is generally a good choice. Like I mentioned earlier, when it comes to sending money internationally with Revolut, if you have standard and plus you will be charged a fee with premium and metal, you get one and three monthly transfers without a fee. You'll also receive a good exchange rate. Regardless of your plan, as Revolut typically uses the mid-market, a.k.a. official exchange rate, however, at the weekends when you transfer money, you will incur a slight markup on the exchange rate, which I'll talk about shortly.
But this means even if you have an allowance of fee free transfers, you will in some way be charged a little extra on the weekend. And if you are going to send money with Revolut or any provider for that matter, I firmly recommend you visit Monito dot com and use our comparison engine just to check who will be the best provider for you. It won't take a moment, and it might just save you some money. Using the Revolut card to spend money abroad is really convenient. You can spend in multiple currencies and get automatic money conversion at the mid-market exchange rate.
This is basically the base rate used by large banks and is typically far better than the rate consumers like you and me are offered by banks and other providers like PayPal. And this is exactly what makes Revolut one of the most attractive current account cards for spending abroad.
If you're in the UK and of course, this will vary depending on where you're located with the standard or plus account, you'll be limited to spending £1,000 a month without a fee premium and metal unlimited. It's also worth mentioning on the weekends.
Revolut typically applies a markup to the exchange rate, and this will depend on the currency, and they usually apply between 2.5 and 2.5% markup. So regardless of what plan you're on, you will incur some sort of fee on the weekends.
If you intend to use Revolut to spend money frequently abroad, then the higher tier more expensive plans would probably be the better option for you. They also offer free travel insurance, such as medical and even free lounge access if your flight is delayed for more than one hour.
The metal plan also offers car hire excess for 31 days of your trip. So if you were to rent a vehicle while you're abroad, you would have the additional insurance. All of this makes them metal products a great plan for any travel using.
Revolut has excellent reviews on Trustpilot, with a satisfaction score of 4.4 out of five. Over 91,000 people have left reviews, with the majority of positive reviews saying that customer service is responsive. With clear communication and are good at dealing with issues and solving problems, their mobile app is also frequently touted as being easy to use and convenient. There were some reports of delays when sending money internationally and customers also complaining that their accounts were blocked due to cards expiring and not being replaced, as well as some difficulty contacting customer service. Generally, though, Revolut has received excellent customer feedback, it's clear they're loved by the majority of their customers, and that's why we rated them a 9.4 for customer satisfaction. If you're looking for a current account that offers you a range of interesting and beneficial features such as budgeting, and spending, all presented on a savvy, well designed app, then Revolut could be a good choice for you if you're looking to spend money abroad, perhaps up to £1,000 or any currency equivalent and specifically on the weekdays. Then Revolut again, could be a good choice for you. However, with just the standard free plan, if you intend to exceed the limit and perhaps frequently need to spend money internationally on the weekend, you can expect to incur fees.
That's the thing with Revolut. If you have something specific that you need from this account, such as frequent international spending or withdrawing large amounts of currency from an ATM, it's likely you will need to pay for a plan or compare alternative providers.
With this in mind, though, the plans aren't too expensive, and Revolut does offer some great benefits and features that would typically be more expensive for high street banks. If you found today's video useful, make sure to give it a light.
Also, check out this video where we've recently reviewed the Wise Multi Currency account. And if you have any questions about Revolut or anything regarding money transfer or similar, please feel free to comment below. Thanks for watching. Goodbye!
You’re probably all too familiar with the often outrageous cost of sending money abroad. After facing this frustration themselves back in 2013, Monito co-founders François, Laurent, and Pascal launched a real-time comparison engine to compare the best money transfer services worldwide.
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