Receiving dollars from US to Revolut account

[Willows4]

Hi. I started working for a US company in November and just got paid by international wire into my Revolut account. The wire specified a dollar payment and I had used the IBAN and swift code from my Revolut Dollar account. When I received the money it came into my Revolut account as euros and it was roughly €400, or 4%, less than what I could have received if I had exchanged the same dollars in Revolut. I contacted Revolut and they said the issue was with the paying bank and their intermediary.

I should be paid monthly moving forward and would like to know the best way to receive a dollar transfer into my Revolut account. I would like to hold the money in dollars at times so I would prefer to receive it in dollars and decide when to exchange it myself. On that note, is it wise to leave sums up to €20,000 in a Revolut account? Thanks.

 

[Brendan Burgess]

is it wise to leave sums up to €20,000 in a Revolut account? Thanks.

No. If things go wrong, they can be very difficult, if not impossible, to resolve.

Brendan

 

[Brendan Burgess]

Can you open a US dollar account with a proper bank in the U.S. ?

I presume you don't need to be a US citizen or resident to open an account there.

That would be the easiest.

Brendan

 

[Willows4]

Can you open a US dollar account with a proper bank in the U.S. ?

I presume you don't need to be a US citizen or resident to open an account there.

That would be the easiest.

Brendan

I'm not sure of this. Would this not still cause the same issue when I want to send the money back to Ireland?

 

[time to plan]

Use Wise instead?

 

[S class]

I opened a US Dollar account with Lloyds International.

I transferred Dollars from this account a few years ago into Revolut.
The money was lodged into the Revolut Dolar account.
There was an amount of approximately $20 missing from the lodgement into Revolut.
I queried this with Revolut and they said this was deducted by some unknown US intermediary bank.
I reckon that you will end up paying fees for Dollar transfers whatever way the transfer is carried out.
As neither Lloyds nor Revolut could tell me how much these intermediary fees would be on a larger transaction, I didn't make any further Dollar transfers.

​

 

[Willows4]

Use Wise instead?

Thank you for the reply. I registered an account with wise. It said they do not offer a business account in Ireland. Is there any issue with receiving funds from a company payment to a personal account?

Can I receive the funds in dollars and then transfer dollars to my Revolut?

Also, I have been asked to deposit €20 before they will issue account details. Is this standard with Wise?

 

[Willows4]

I opened a US Dollar account with Lloyds International.

I transferred Dollars from this account a few years ago into Revolut.
The money was lodged into the Revolut Dolar account.
There was an amount of approximately $20 missing from the lodgement into Revolut.
I queried this with Revolut and they said this was deducted by some unknown US intermediary bank.
I reckon that you will end up paying fees for Dolar transfers whatever way the transfer is carried out.
As neither Lloyds nor Revolut could tell me how much these intermediary fees would be on a larger transaction, I didn't make any further Dollar transfers.

​

Thank you for the reply. There was a difference of around €400 on my transfer which equated to around 4% of a €10,000 transfer. That seems extremely high even for fees and currency exchange. I would expect to lose up to 1% on a transfer but not this much. I know it is not likely to receive total funds but I would like to keep fees to a minimum.

 

[S class]

Thank you for the reply. There was a difference of around €400 on my transfer which equated to around 4% of a €10,000 transfer. That seems extremely high even for fees and currency exchange. I would expect to lose up to 1% on a transfer but not this much. I know it is not likely to receive total funds but I would like to keep fees to a minimum.

I was charged $20 on an amount of $100.

Ask Revolut if they did the Dollar to euro conversion.
If they did then ask them what was the total amount in Dollars that they received.
You will then know who made the fees deduction from your deposit.

Can your employer not convert your pay to euro ?

 

[basilbrush]

Since you want to potentially hold the money in dollars and choose when to convert it into euros yourself, I think the desired approach would be to open a dollar account with Wise/Revolut. I haven't done it with Revolut, but with Wise you can get US bank details for your dollar account with them, that your employer can transfer money into using a normal ACH transfer like they probably do for their US employees, and for which there usually isn't any fee. The problem seems to be that you wish to open a business account (so I suppose you are not doing the work as an employee of the US company but instead as a self-employed business). Even if Revolut do let you open a business account, I don't know whether they let business accounts here have dollar accounts.

 

[time to plan]

Thank you for the reply. I registered an account with wise. It said they do not offer a business account in Ireland. Is there any issue with receiving funds from a company payment to a personal account?

Can I receive the funds in dollars and then transfer dollars to my Revolut?

Also, I have been asked to deposit €20 before they will issue account details. Is this standard with Wise?

Hmmm. Is it your money or your Ltd Company's money? If the latter then a personal account with Wise is probably far from ideal.

 

[Willows4]

Hmmm. Is it your money or your Ltd Company's money? If the latter then a personal account with Wise is probably far from ideal.

At the moment I am operating as an individual. I may set up a limited company later.

Since you want to potentially hold the money in dollars and choose when to convert it into euros yourself, I think the desired approach would be to open a dollar account with Wise/Revolut. I haven't done it with Revolut, but with Wise you can get US bank details for your dollar account with them, that your employer can transfer money into using a normal ACH transfer like they probably do for their US employees, and for which there usually isn't any fee. The problem seems to be that you wish to open a business account (so I suppose you are not doing the work as an employee of the US company but instead as a self-employed business). Even if Revolut do let you open a business account, I don't know whether they let business accounts here have dollar accounts.

I have a dollar account with Revolut. I have a Revolut Pro account which is a basic business account for individuals. The US company did specify the payment in dollars but it got converted to euro before I received it. I didn't give specific intermediary bank details for Revolut as the only details available are the Routing number from Revolut. This wasn't enough information for my client to use for payment.

I'm not specifically looking to open a business account with Wise but I thought it may be an issue with Wise that I am receiving payments as an individual. I'm not sure if there is a different fee structure for a business account. I am just looking for a secure way to transfer funds and hopefully minimising costs.

 

[time to plan]

So a personal account should be fine. Do you want to hold dollars or do you want to exchange them to Euros as cheaply as possible? Either way, I expect the Wise would be competitive.

 

[Dr Strangelove]

The wire specified a dollar payment and I had used the IBAN and swift code from my Revolut Dollar account.

The issue is that for all intents and purposes you don’t have a dollar account with Revolut!

You have a dollar balance with Revolut that you can use in the US with your Revolut card but that’s about it. Your Revolut dollar balance has zero direct integration with the US banking and payments system as Revolut is very much based in Lithuania. I imagine you are being charged big fees and commission by your employer’s bank to make the payment as Revolut is very much a non-US bank.

I know next to nothing about the US banking system but I imagine opening a dollar account with a US bank as a non-resident, non-citizen is not easy. There is a lot of regulatory risk involved for low reward.

 

[mustang01]

The issue is that for all intents and purposes you don’t have a dollar account with Revolut!

You have a dollar balance with Revolut that you can use in the US with your Revolut card but that’s about it. Your Revolut dollar balance has zero direct integration with the US banking and payments system as Revolut is very much based in Lithuania. I imagine you are being charged big fees and commission by your employer’s bank to make the payment as Revolut is very much a non-US bank.

I know next to nothing about the US banking system but I imagine opening a dollar account with a US bank as a non-resident, non-citizen is not easy. There is a lot of regulatory risk involved for low reward.

Exactly this. Your Revolut is first and foremost a euro account with a few currency bells and whistles but not separate currency accounts per se. Wise is what you need - they are very easy to deal with and it is indeed possible to receive money as an individual and to open a biz account separately if needs be. I use them all the time for ongoing receipt of payments from the US.

 

[Dr Strangelove]

Your Revolut is first and foremost a euro account with a few currency bells and whistles but not separate currency accounts per se.

I looked at my own Revolut euro, sterling, and dollar balances and they all have the same Lithuanian IBAN.

For the dollar balance Revolut provides a correspondent BIC for JP Morgan Chase in London. This is I assume the entity that has a correspondent banking relationship with Revolut so they can facilitate customer transfers with the US.

 

[Dr Strangelove]

Wise is what you need - they are very easy to deal with and it is indeed possible to receive money as an individual

I’m not a customer so curious how it works with Wise.

Do you get a separate IBAN than for your euro balance. Do you get a US routing and account number? Are the funds covered under the Belgian Deposit Guarantee Scheme?

 

[basilbrush]

Do you get a separate IBAN than for your euro balance. Do you get a US routing and account number?

No IBAN I think (I don't think they use them in America), yes US routing and account number.

 

[Willows4]

Thank you for all of the replies. I will set up a Wise account and see how straight forward the process is. I will update how it goes next month.

 

[clinteastwood]

I receive modest quarterly dividends to Revolut in USD. No fees between the broker or Revolut ..ie 1000 USD arrives without any deduction.

Just provide your Revolut IBAN. Its an IE nowadays, but it also worked 100% fine with the prior Revolut LIT IBAN.

Regardless of how many currencies you have in your App, you only have one IBAN.

Its very simple.