I use Revolut for a couple of bills (you can pay a recurring card payment/cpa from a pocket no problem - something Monzo have made a hash of) - use a group bill for household things and travel with my partner. A currency ‘pocket’ can be used whilst on holiday. Took cash out of ATMS with 0 DCC to a tee of £150 a few weeks back. Topped the Euro account up direct from another non fx fee debit card account - loss loss for Rev but I suppose they’ve factored it in!
I don’t mind buying the odd stock on there either as the commission isn’t far off the Freetrade fx fee if it’s a large enough order (and I’m buying in dollars)
I even have a few hundred earning a shred of interest in a vault separate to my main savings just so that it’s available to a card in emergency without a 15 minute wait.
Apart from one transfer which was delayed due to a review - it took 4 days and they compensated me - I’ve not had any other issues on this end. I was going to move everything over at one point but refrained. I’ve had to raise complaints about one referral not being paid (they paid it in compensation). You also can’t set a direct debit back under the same mandate (can cause issues if you need to reinstate one) nor can they process direct debits under £1. This for me limits it from being a main account. They said this may be fixed with a banking license and I was offered 3 months premium in the meantime. Following this Chase have nicked some of the day to day spending I was happy to run through Revolut previously.
That said & I’ve referred people to a total of £215 with no credit checks, switches or the like
Won’t go into much detail about the uses of virtual cards that can be terminated as I’m sure you’re well versed.
That’s my experience of using it pretty extensively, but not yet exclusively…
Theoretically, DCC can be offered on Revolut cards as they identify as U.K. cards from the BIN, the currency is inferred to be pounds from that, and Revolut manage the multi-currency element so the card reader or cash machine has no way of knowing that it includes the underlying currency.
It is a prepaid card, still, so there is a lower chance of being offered DCC for that reason, but I don’t think it meets the narrow set of Mastercard rules as discussed above.
So long as you don’t pick to convert it, and the ATM doesn’t have a general fee - it will just come out of your Euro pocket at the amount you withdrew - so it does the job
Same as if you have you use your PIN but I just keep resetting the contactless limit in the app
Actually, if you have a Prepaid Mastercard ( also issue Visa, and more recently are issuing Debit cards) it should meet their rules. However, as also mentioned, there’s still a risk of DCC due to the country of the card, even in the scenario that it shouldn’t be offered.
There was some discussion about this on the Revolut forum.
You are right about the Visa/Mastercard problem, but also since Revolut allows for both on-the-fly conversion and operating “accounts” with currency, it doesn’t meet the rule strictly speaking. I don’t know if they treat the card as if it does in practise or not, but the prepaid cards exemption from DCC was supposed to be specifically for travel cards where you had pre-exchanged the money (which you can do with Revolut, of course, but you don’t have to). This is where it differs from something like the Monese Euro account.
All of that will, presumably, be academic anyway in the medium term as Revolut plan to get a banking license and issue their own debit cards, rather than prepaid cards, so the rule definitely won’t apply then.
Whilst I agree, Mastercard do list Revolut under their Travel card section on their website, and the original rules were for Prepaid Travel cards, for which Revolut would seem to meet based on that. However, I agree about the point that most travel cards are for a predetermined currency.
I thought I’d better put that in the interests of transparency (I was thinking of your experience as reported here before) but the account is decent once open and, if looking for a truly separate Euro account with it’s own card, etc, it is a viable option worth considering.
For people who don’t want or need a separate card, a Starling Euro account probably does the job - or even HSBC or Barclays, if you don’t mind having no card at all.
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Mainly open banking related things (linking accounts into Monese app, instant bank transfer) also they recently bought Trezeo so I assume we’ll see some credit / lending soon
Eh, Revolut did this a while back. It’s just to try increase customer onboarding. They’ve worked out that LTV of a customer is a lot more than 70, apparently
also issue Visa, and more recently are issuing Debit cards) it should meet their rules. However, as also mentioned, there’s still a risk of DCC due to the country of the card, even in the scenario that it shouldn’t be offered.