# How safe is Revolut?



## Homer (10 Nov 2019)

A friend has been using Revolut for a while and has suggested that my wife and I should get the app and open accounts. I've been reading up on it and I find myself wondering, what's the catch?

I've generally found that if something sounds too good to be true....


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## Brendan Burgess (10 Nov 2019)

Hi Homer 

A good question,  but your exposure is limited in time and amount. 

I opened an account on  Friday and lodged €100.  

If it goes bust tomorrow, I am down €100. 

If I need to pay someone £1,000 I will lodge the euro and pay it out immediately.  So I would have to be very unlucky to lose my money. 

Brendan


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## gipimann (10 Nov 2019)

I've had a Revolut card and account for several years, and have had very positive experiences.  I use it a lot for online purchases (especially Sterling), I have used the card in bricks and mortar shops and ATMs abroad.  I save small amounts on each transaction because of the exchange rate.

The most common issue is the "service drop", when a transaction won't go through because Revolut are having problems. This happened me once when I tried to pay for a B&B in the UK. Payment wasn't authorised, but the debit from my card was frozen, which left me low on funds temporarily. Revolut recommend that you should always have an alternative source of funds.

Edit: As Brendan said, I don't keep too much on the card/ in the account, just top up when I need to.


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## theresa1 (10 Nov 2019)

I have been with them now for 4 years and never had any issues. My biggest balance at any one time would be a few hundred. I have my PTSB debit card linked with my account for topping up - this only takes a second or two if my balance is running low.

A lot off my friends also have it and it's great being able to send money instantly to them if you owe them. Very handy in work when somebody will grab you a sandwich and you owe them back. I also use Google Pay on my phone.


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## messyleo (10 Nov 2019)

If you are looking to take advantage of better exchange rate, I would go with N26 personally. It is a full, proper bank with the German bank guarantee in place.


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## NoRegretsCoyote (10 Nov 2019)

Many new financial products experience huge growth and then some sort of crash or failure.

I don't think that you can take on a million new customers a year without problems down the line.


I wouldn't rely on Revolut or N26 for all my day-to-day banking just yet.


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## NoRegretsCoyote (10 Nov 2019)

gravitygirl said:


> It is a *full, proper bank *



I don't think you can really say that.

Sure, it has a banking license but it has no branches and I wonder how robust its infrastructure is to be able to deal with 1 million new customers a year.

Go to their website and you won't find a balance sheet or anything about its business model.


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## theresa1 (10 Nov 2019)

Revolut interbank rate is 0.25% better during weekdays than N26. N26 is slightly better at weekends.


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## 24601 (10 Nov 2019)

I know someone who has their salary mandated into their Revolut account and uses it as his only current account. He has thousands in his account at any given time and I think he's bonkers. I'd say their probability of failure is quite high at this point in time. That being said, their functionality is fantastic and I use it the same way as others in this thread do. I have had three or four issues whereby the app or card wouldn't work temporarily and one or two issues with incorrect balances showing in the app, but other than this it has been pretty reliable for something I pay nothing for.


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## cremeegg (10 Nov 2019)

I know I am way behind the curve on this but how does Revolut differ from Paypal.


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## qwerty5 (10 Nov 2019)

cremeegg said:


> I know I am way behind the curve on this but how does Revolut differ from Paypal.



You have a debit card that you can use anywhere. Shag all fees (they outline their fees and they're easy to avoid, I haven't paid anything in 4 years) 
I top mine up just before I use it online. I've had mine several years with no issue.
It's handy being able to block the card as a security feature.


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## SparkRite (10 Nov 2019)

cremeegg said:


> I know I am way behind the curve on this but how does Revolut differ from Paypal.


Have you tried to use Paypal at an ATM or a POS ?


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## SparkRite (10 Nov 2019)

qwerty5 said:


> You have a debit card that you can use anywhere. Shag all fees.
> I top mine up just before I use it online. I've had mine several years with no issue.
> It's handy being able to block the card as a security feature.



There are fees, on the basic card, withdraw over €200 a month, exchange over €6000 a month, exchange currency  and exchange back .........etc.

Agree fully re. the security features, excellent. I always have proximity feature enabled and went to pay for an item and card refused. Went to check why on my phone and it was then I discovered I had left my phone at home. So I know if I lose the card, it can't be used, that is unless I'm standing beside the fraudster.


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## MrEarl (10 Nov 2019)

Hi,

They have a ECB Banking Licence don't they, so does that not give an additional level of comfort with regards to their financial position and their infrastructure ?

Am I not also correct in thinking that we are now covered by the European Deposit Insurance Scheme ?

Must admit that while I have an Account, I've been slow to use it regularly .. but with my Bank charging fees for absolutely everything these days, I need to start using my Revolut card a lot more.


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## Slim (10 Nov 2019)

I have been using Revolut for  awhile without much difficulty. It was particularly useful in Denmark when I forgot my cc PIN and I was able to transfer funds online to Revolut and make the payment that way. Just saw yesterday that the Data Protection is engaging with Revolut regrading their recent Privacy Policy changes so I checked my own settings last night and switched off the new cookies.


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## NoRegretsCoyote (10 Nov 2019)

MrEarl said:


> They have a ECB Banking Licence don't they, so does that not give an additional level of comfort with regards to their financial position and their infrastructure ?



Revolut is and  in Lithuania. I'll leave it up to you to decide whether the Lithuanian supervisor has the resources to deal with a bank adding accounts at the rate of tens of thousands a month.


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## 24601 (10 Nov 2019)

NoRegretsCoyote said:


> Revolut is and  in Lithuania. I'll leave it up to you to decide whether the Lithuanian supervisor has the resources to deal with a bank adding accounts at the rate of tens of thousands a month.



This article comparing N26 to Revolut is useful. And this one gives a good overview of some of the issues they've had. They seem a bit chaotic to say the least!


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## NoRegretsCoyote (10 Nov 2019)

24601 said:


> This article comparing N26 to Revolut is useful. And this one gives a good overview of some of the issues they've had. They seem a bit chaotic to say the least!



I don't think any bank in the world ever has opened 100k new accounts a month.

From an IT perspective it's feasible I guess, but I have no idea how they carry out anti-money laundering checks.


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## 24601 (10 Nov 2019)

NoRegretsCoyote said:


> I don't think any bank in the world ever has opened 100k new accounts a month.
> 
> From an IT perspective it's feasible I guess, but I have no idea how they carry out anti-money laundering checks.



Yes, I was wondering this too. Other than providing proof of ID and proof of address I didn't have to volunteer much information beyond this when signing up so I'm not sure how broad and thorough their customer due diligence on-boarding is from an AML perspective. With that kind of growth it would be very tricky to implement an effective IT solution for ongoing monitoring of accounts and they couldn't possibly have the compliance staff to deal with the sort of transactional volumes they must be generating already. I think they've has some executive level staff resign over compliance concerns already.

EDIT: Revolut CFO resigns as company grapples with compliance concerns


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## Brendan Burgess (10 Nov 2019)

24601 said:


> I'm not sure how broad and thorough their customer due diligence on-boarding is from an AML perspective.



But that is of no concern to an ordinary user who is not laundering money. 

I found that it was easy to satisfy them and open an account.   I think it was just my passport I had to send them. I don't think I gave them proof of my address even.

Brendan


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## NoRegretsCoyote (10 Nov 2019)

Brendan Burgess said:


> But that is of no concern to an ordinary user who is not laundering money.



Yes but it makes disruption to services more likely if a supervisor withdraws authorisation


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## Zebedee (11 Nov 2019)

I use it like a “prepay card” (like others above). Wouldn’t trust them to use as a main bank account yet.

The main problem I have had is customer service. When some funds didn’t arrive I only got a chatbot. We went round in circles. There didn’t seem to be a way of escalating it. (Funds did turn up about 2 weeks later).


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## MrEarl (11 Nov 2019)

Brendan Burgess said:


> ...I found that it was easy to satisfy them and open an account.   I think it was just my passport I had to send them. I don't think I gave them proof of my address even.
> 
> Brendan



That may be because they used the likes of the electoral register to evidence your address.


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## MrEarl (11 Nov 2019)

Zebedee said:


> .
> ...The main problem I have had is customer service. When some funds didn’t arrive I only got a chatbot. We went round in circles. There didn’t seem to be a way of escalating it..



I've had that problem too, there's a couple of key words you can type to get past the chatbot, can't even remember what they are, it took so long to figure them out - something like "service" if memory services. 

Slate their customer service on the likes of Google, is probably the best way to try and push them to improve on it.


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## Brendan Burgess (11 Nov 2019)

MrEarl said:


> That may be because they used the likes of the electoral register to evidence your address.



Are they allowed to access the electoral register? 

If they are, why don't the other banks do this.

Brendan


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## demoivre (11 Nov 2019)

If you want to speak to a human in Revolut chat type "live agent"  , but you could be forgiven for thinking the live agent has passed away such is the delay at times. 
Like others have said here I  only put on my card what I'm about to spend imminently and I would always carry an alternative card. Overall I like Revolut , especially the fx rates.


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## Thirsty (11 Nov 2019)

Brendan Burgess said:


> Are they allowed to access the electoral register?
> 
> If they are, why don't the other banks do this.
> 
> Brendan


Other banks do - I actually watched my name and address being checked recently.


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## TarfHead (12 Nov 2019)

I was in GB last week and loaded my revolut GBP 'purse' at a rate of 0.86.  I also used my BOI Mastercard while over there and was charged at 0.84.  When I transferred the GBP back to EUR, it was also at 0.86. 2p per EUR was no great saving for the out-of-pocket spending I was doing, but that may as well be in my pocket as anyone elses.
Earlier this year I went to Newry with my daughter to buy a phone using my revolut card.  The rate difference on that spend was material.  Not enough to cover my petrol, but enough for a coffee.


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## 24601 (12 Nov 2019)

TarfHead said:


> I was in GB last week and loaded my revolut GBP 'purse' at a rate of 0.86.  I also used my BOI Mastercard while over there and was charged at 0.84.  When I transferred the GBP back to EUR, it was also at 0.86. 2p per EUR was no great saving for the out-of-pocket spending I was doing, but that may as well be in my pocket as anyone elses.
> Earlier this year I went to Newry with my daughter to buy a phone using my revolut card.  The rate difference on that spend was material.  Not enough to cover my petrol, but enough for a coffee.



I find it can make decent savings for you if you keep Sterling in your account and pay in Sterling on Amazon. If you have Amazon Prime and free delivery it really adds up when comparing the comparative spend in an Irish store, especially for business/office items.


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## Peanuts20 (12 Nov 2019)

They have a very negative reputation as to how they treat staff, lots of complaints about overwork, 7 days a week culture and that would make me nervous as it leads to turnover which can become a vicious circle for a company. I'd also be concerned if they are not following AML rules as some posters have hinted on here.


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