Revolut upping its forex charges

Brendan Burgess

Founder
Messages
54,687
I got an email from Revolut just now with a lot of changes, but here are the key ones

1)Free forex is now limited to the first £1,000 per month - down from £5,000. After that it will be 0.5%.
2) The cost of weekend forex is increasing from 0.5% to 1%
3) Only one free payment per month outside the eurozone e.g. a sterling payment. After that, 50p per payment.

I have tended to buy stuff in sterling using my Revolut card.

If I do it at the weekend, it could be quite expensive.

Brendan
 
Forgive the stupid question but I am late coming to revolt cards due to middle age indifference around new things and I am sure it has been answered before but why is there different cost at weekends?
 
I got the same email, and almost ignored it because it looks just like their marketing emails. It starts about how they're launching a new app, and then the changes to charges are further down. A bank would be slaughtered if they tried to do that.
 
Sunny said:
but why is there different cost at
Click to expand...
Because there is no 'live' FX market open. They are giving you a rate, and taking the risk that rates might move by the time they get to close their position on Monday. For major currencies the movements are usually small, but there have been a few surprises over weekends in the last 18 months or so, particularly with Sterling.
 
Yes but higher forex risk over weekends also means higher opportunity as currencies can move either way. It should pretty much average out for them, so using this as a justification for higher charges isn't very convincing.
 
There was an article recently that suggested that forex was one of their biggest revenue lines.

They have had a big loss of revenue recently as so few people are travelling due to Covid.

I didn't get an email at all from them, having received seven in March and April.

Yes but higher forex risk over weekends also means higher opportunity as currencies can move either way. It should pretty much average out for them, so using this as a justification for higher charges isn't very convincing.
Click to expand...

It should average out over decades, but a sharp adverse event could ruin them in the short run. It presumably costs to hedge.
 
Most of the "hedging" is automatic. Every day some account holders whose base currency is GBP make purchases in Euro while others whose base currency is Euro make purchases in GBP, ect.
 
tomdublin said:
Most of the "hedging" is automatic. Every day some account holders whose base currency is GBP make purchases in Euro while others whose base currency is Euro make purchases in GBP, ect.
Click to expand...

Operationally, I am ignorant.

Theoretically, Revolut won't ever have a perfect balance between buyers and sellers in any currency pair, even in the long run.

A sharp swing across a lot of exposures can cost you a lot of money.
 
Since I got my Revolut card several years ago, I have always bought when I felt that the exchange range was satisfactory e.g. when sterling is .89 or nearing .90. I buy £200-£300 and use that balance for sterling purchases. I therefore never worry about the prevailing exchange rate or different rates at the weekend. I do this also for US Dollars, Turkish lira and South African Rand so I always have a wallet full of the currencies I constantly use. This included a top-up of US Dollars when the rate hit 1.23 in January 2018 (and which it has been nowhere near in the intervening period).

This seems to me to be one of the principal advantages of using Revolut by 'locking in' to an exchange rate that I am happy with. Obviously it is swings and roundabouts but as I am not dealing in thousands, I am no too worried with a minor shift up or down.
 
Brendan does this change mean taking FX in cash with you is now the way forward?
 
Is there any risk to Revolut from this Wirecard scandal?
I notice some prepaid Mastercard facilities are locked in Ireland this morning.
 
Allpartied said:
Is there any risk to Revolut from this Wirecard scandal?
I notice some prepaid Mastercard facilities are locked in Ireland this morning.
Click to expand...
You mean cards issued by wirecard have been frozen? Hardly surprising. Or are there other prepaid cards also frozen?
Nothing to do with Revolut.
 
RedOnion said:
You mean cards issued by wirecard have been frozen? Hardly surprising. Or are there other prepaid cards also frozen?
Nothing to do with Revolut.
Click to expand...
Is it true to say that Revolut has nothing to do with Wirecard?
They are being a bit vague this morning, saying that they are "transitioning" away from Wirecard.
Are there still a number of active Revolut cards issued by Wirecard?
 
Allpartied said:
Is it true to say that Revolut has nothing to do with Wirecard?
They are being a bit vague this morning, saying that they are "transitioning" away from Wirecard
Click to expand...
Maybe I misread the statement, but I thought it was clear that they'd stopped using them for the small services that they provided, and the "transitioning" language was from a statement back in 2019?
Did I misread it? Post a link to anything that might be saying the opposite.
 
@Allpartied
Apologies I was a bit snappy with my first response above. I knew Revolut had been issuing their own cards for a few years, but it looks like they were using wire card for other services until very recently. The whole wire card fraud shows how complex some of the FinTechs are. The An Post currency cards which have been frozen were issued by Wire Card. But there are some UK companies which were using them for payment services, so while the funds are safe there's no way of accessing them. Revolut might have dodged a bullet by the looks of it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Menu
Log in
Register