Revolut Review

Revolut is an up-and-coming financial technology company in the UK, with a focus on catering to the tech-savvy younger generation. While it has certainly gained quite a bit of publicity, Revolut can still be considered a fledgling company when compared to its competitors. Due to this, there is some confusion regarding how it actually operates its money transferring services. If you want to gain some insight into this agency, here is what you should know:

At a Glance

The startup was launched in July 2015 in the UK by Nikolay Storonsky and Vlad Yatsenko. Revolut’s services are primarily offered in Europe although the push to Northern America has already begun. The company plans to provide services to Australia and several Asian regions as well.

Currently, Revolut is valued at $1.7 billion and has 4.5 million customers throughout Europe. It is estimated that the company is responsible for processing $3 billion transfers a month. The company is slowly making the move to be established as a bank. Revolut currently has an EU banking license and is awaiting one from the UK.

Here are the features you can expect from this service:

• A mobile-based money transfer app
• Transfer money globally in 30 currencies
• Personal and Business Accounts
• International fund transfers at mid-level market rates

The Pros

Let’s take a look at the benefits of using Revolut to transfer money locally and internationally:

Affordable Accounts

The Standard account is actually free for anyone to open. Along with it, you will receive a free UK and Euro IBAN account. Naturally, there are limits to this account. For fewer restrictions, you can opt for either the Premium account at £6.99 a month or the Metal for £12.99.

Low Charges

One of the main advantages of using Revolut is that the charges involved are typically much lower than that of traditional banks. For instance, you can transfer up to £5000 at the interbank exchange rate each month. Customers with Standard Accounts will have to pay 0.5 percent for amounts above this. Premium and Metal customers, however, don’t have such limits.

Simple Transfer Procedure

As mentioned, the transfers all take place via the app. Due to this, you can setup a transfer within moments. This is true for transfers in any currency. The app also has a feature to help you send a transfer when you don’t have the account number. You can create a payment link that allows the recipient to fill in the necessary details.

Quick Transfer Speeds

To a certain degree, your transfer time will depend on the local or international bank you are transferring to. As a result, the transfer can take between 1 to 5 days to be completed. Revolut, however, provides the option of Turbo-boost that can increase the speed by at least 5 times.

Customers with Standard accounts will have to pay a nominal, additional fee for this service. This feature is free for those with Premium or Metal accounts.

FCA Authorization

As Revolut isn’t an actual bank, customers aren’t protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. Nonetheless, this firm does fall under the licensing and regulatory purview of the Financial Conduct Authority. Thus, customers are protected by the Electronic Money Regulations 2011. What’s more, client funds are segregated at Barclays/Lloyd’s.

Good Security Features

To begin with, Revolut gives you the option to log into your account using fingerprint verification. This keeps your account safe from a physical standpoint. At the same time, the Sherlock anti-fraud system works to alert the company of any fraudulent activity immediately. Last but not least, you can disable various features on the app, minimizing the risk of losses.

The Cons

There are some downsides to using this service as well. Here are a few:

Limited Transfer Locations and Destinations  

As mentioned, Revolut isn’t available all over the world. Currently, it is only widely used in Europe and certain places in the US. Furthermore, the firm limits the regions you can transfer money to, as well. This includes numerous African and Middle Eastern countries.

What’s more, customers can’t make USD transfers to Malaysia, Barbados, Jersey, Monaco, Malta, and a few other regions. This can be a deterrent to those who have family ties or business connections to these areas.

Transfer Restrictions

For the most part, Revolut is set up for individual customers and smaller customers. As a result, you will be unable to transfer more than £80,000 at a single time or £100,000 in one day. The weekly limit is £250,000. Customers also can’t make more than 15 transfers within 24 hours or 80 transfers in a week.

If you do wish to make such transfers, then the transfer will be re-routed to a third-party payment processor. This can lengthen the overall transfer time and can be rather inconvenient in emergency business situations.

Poor Customer Service

The customer service leaves much to be desired on the Revolut site. The majority of questions and complaints are handled by chatbots. This naturally limits your interactions with the company, especially when you’re dealing with serious or urgent matters. It can also be quite difficult to get hold of a live agent.

In Conclusion

There is no denying that the main lure of Revolut is the ease involved with the transfer process. You can send significant amounts of money with just the click of a button. What’s more, the transfer time can be speeded up further in emergency situations.

Another advantage is that Revolut offers up more affordable options for customers in terms of accounts as well as transfer fees. Particularly when compared to more established services, Revolut comes out ahead with their fair prices.

Nevertheless, Revolut isn’t just a money transfer service. As such, its features can sometimes be lacking in this department, especially for larger businesses. Thus, you may not want to use it as your primary fund transfer company. It may be a more viable service once it starts providing customers with the opportunity to send money to a greater number of locations across the world.