What is the best way to use my Revolut card?

Brendan Burgess

Brendan Burgess

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There are other discussions on the security and wisdom of it. But now that I have it, I am interested in working out how best to use it. Are there useful features I might be missing?

The main use is for foreign currency payments
  • Set the Revolut card as my default card for eBay and ABE books which tend to charge in dollars.
  • Use it on visiting countries outside the euro area
  • Make payments outside the euro area
Forex payments are free up to €6,000 a month and 0.5% over €6,000.
Forex payments are at the mid market rate
Revolut will mark up the exchange rate on weekends, adding between 0.5 and 1.5 percent to the Friday rate on Saturday and Sunday (when usage is higher). Obviously, you can avoid this by taking out cash or making more significant purchases during the week.

The other uses seem relatively minor

2) For paying people who have a Revolut card
  • When I told a friend of mine that I had a Revolut card, she transferred €1 to me immediately to show how quick it was
3) Paying for a group dinner.
  • Apparently it's very easy to split a bill with a Revolut card. I don't know how that works.
4) Security
LOCATION-BASED SECURITY
Turn on location-based security and, if your card is used in a different location from where you are, we’ll automatically block any payments and let you know.
 
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Keep an eye on exchange rates and when you think they are at a rate you are satisfied with, buy a decent amount to lock in the rate. For example, back in January 2018, I bought $1000 when the rate was €1=$1.20. This has kept me going for the various dollar transactions I have had since and the decline in the rate since has been an irrelevance to me. Similarly I have frequently exchanged for Sterling when it was around the 90p mark.

I never use my Irish Visa credit card (or indeed debit card) for foreign transactions. Interestingly, I see Ulster Bank now have a Black Mastercard that doesn't charge a percentage exchange fee which is an obvious response to the rise of the fintech companies.
 
Not sure if its still the case but i have my own UK bank account linked to the card (provided by them) so if someone wants to bank xfer me sterling it can go straight to the card.

also i used it for lunch coffee money during the month, transfer 200 on and use it for this kind of discretionary exp, keeps a real time track and also allows you put any 'change' i.e. rounds up your purchase into a savings account.

you can buy crytpo with it should you wish.
 
Brendan Burgess said:
Revolut will mark up the exchange rate on weekends, adding between 0.5 and 1.5 percent to the Friday rate on Saturday and Sunday (when usage is higher). Obviously, you can avoid this by taking out cash or making more significant purchases during the week.
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OR during the week use the exchange feature to 'buy' sterling or whatever currency you intend to go to. When you use the card in that country it will automatically use the local currency account and still have your euro account untouched.
 
tallpaul said:
Keep an eye on exchange rates and when you think they are at a rate you are satisfied with, buy a decent amount to lock in the rate.
Click to expand...

I see two big problems with this.

1) I can't foresee currency movements - the rates are as likely to improve as to disimprove
2) I would not leave a balance of €1,000 on Revolut for a year. I would only fill it before I was going to spend it.

How safe is Revolut?

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....
www.askaboutmoney.com
 
Hence why I said to lock at an exchange rate you are satisfied with. Personally once the dollar rate hit 1.20 I was happy to buy. Similarly when Sterling hit 90p. I guess I was right on both counts!! I think it is one of the major advantages of the card being able to hedge against exchange rate shifts. If you are only going to fill when spending, the only real saving is a marginally better exchange rate and no transaction fee against 'traditional' cards. And as I have said, the new UB Black Mastercard doesn't have a FX fee.

As for leaving money on it, each to their own...
 
Budgeting, you can quickly see how you are spending your cash. For example if you buy a coffee everyday at starbucks it will show you your monthly spend and total spend over time at starbucks. It also categorizes each spend into categories so you can see at a high level where your money is going.

There is a savings round up tool in the 'vault' you create a vault 'Save for Holiday' target $500 and everytime you use the card it rounds up the spend to the nearest euro and deposits it into your savings goal. I personally saved over 600 euros in the space of 9 months using this function.
 
You've mentioned the main benefits.

1. Paying in non-Euro currencies.
2. Splitting bills with other Revolut users
3. Instantly sending money to other Revolut users

The other use I have is similar to what others mentioned; using it as a sort of petty cash account. I never really use physical cash, but I'll load money on the Revolut card to pay for small stuff like coffees/beers. Doesn't make a financial difference, but means you don't end up with bank statements multiple pages long with €3 transactions.

An interesting other use is to get essentially free short term credit. Most banks don't charge you for topping up your Revolut card with a credit card (they treat it as a purchase). Hence, if for example you owe €1000 on your credit card bill next week, you can top up you Revolut card by €1000 using your credit card and then do a transfer from your Revolut card to your Credit Card Account. End result is the same balance on your credit card, but you now have a month longer to repay...
 
Hi Brendan,

I find it very good for the reasons outlined above. My bank statement is now really clean and easier to follow because smaller purchases like coffees etc aren’t there anymore. Transacting at the spot rate when outside the Eurozone is great. It’s easier to keep track of one’s spending as it gets grouped (e.g. restaurants). It can “round up” all your purchases and save the proceeds into a separate “vault”. It makes transferring money between friends and family a breeze. Splitting bills when you’re out is very easy; one person pays and the others can instantly Revolut it to him/her (assuming they all have Revolut which my friends do). I actually have the metal card which gives 1% cashback on purchases when I’m outside the EU, and 0.1% otherwise. It also gives the usual €600 of free ATM withdrawal, the ability to trade, a concierge service, and limited lounge access. The cashback pays for it for me though; it’s €13.99 a month.

I think it’s a great product I have to say.
 
The ability to freeze and unfreeze the card at will is a great feature. Say you lose it, you can just freeze it, but if you find it you can simply unfreeze it.

I think the key point is that bank products have evolved as dodgy systems on top of creaking systems, whereas products like Revolut are designed from scratch from the perspective of “what should this look like?”.
 
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5) Provides the ability to purchase cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin without having to go through a cryptocurrency exchange (and with that, go through another round of KYC/AML). In this respect, it's fulfilling a similar role to that of (Twitter founder) Jack Dorsey's Square Cash App in the US - which posted $148 million in quarterly bitcoin sales for the third quarter of 2019.
 
I use the vaults quite a bit especially for short-term "saving". For example I have vaults set up for my house and car insurance and tax and every week they get a regular transfer in. It has proved a very handy way of smoothing those expenses. Being able to mark off things that I know fall due every year and pay them off week by week in advance is very beneficial. I use the spaces on my N26 in a similar manner but as I haven't paid for the premium product in either instance, I am limited on how many spaces/vaults I can have.

In terms of using the card day to day, I generally keep a low balance on it. Initially I was using it a lot as a petty cash card but I have consciously changed from that, I made a conscious decision to revert to using cash for day to day spending as I found that I seemed to spend more using cards even with all the notifications. I use it in the UK always as it is so simple and straightforward having a sterling balance, means I don't have to be constantly mentally converting. I will do similar for other non-euro currencies I think. I have used it for sending and receiving sterling as well.

One thing I do is rather than keep an accessible balance on the card, I keep it in a vault and transfer before using, obviously when I was using it as a petty cash card I didn't do that but I didn't keep the main balance available in the account, I used a vault. This means that the balance available for tap was always low.
 
Hi,

There must be very few here paying any transaction charges on their current accounts, otherwise I'd have expected people to recommend Revolut as a way to keep the level of current account transaction charges down - by using their Revolut Card, rather than their Debit Card.

An interesting other use is to get essentially free short term credit. Most banks don't charge you for topping up your Revolut card with a credit card (they treat it as a purchase). Hence, if for example you owe €1000 on your credit card bill next week, you can top up you Revolut card by €1000 using your credit card and then do a transfer from your Revolut card to your Credit Card Account. End result is the same balance on your credit card, but you now have a month longer to repay...
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I didn't know that, but must check it out with my own credit card provider.

Thanks.
 
The fact that it allows you to add funds instantly from a debit/credit card is a great feature.
i Just have a virtual card but use it for most day to day purchases. I don’t keep a large amount in it. I can top up instantly as needed.
It supports Google Pay so I use my phone to pay for everything. The instant notifications are great too. Love that feature.
have it linked to my amazon account and pay in Sterling all the time. Some of the best rates from Revolut.

I pay for my Netflix with Turkish Lira and bought a lot of it(Netflix sub wise)when the currency crashed last year and that goes out every month from my Revolut.

The apps that the likes of Revolut and N26 provide are light years ahead of the Irish ones.
 
I like the Revolut app and would consider using the card exclusively for business use but I would like to be able to retain paper copies for tax purposes. How do I print from the app? Cheers, Slim.
 
Slim said:
I like the Revolut app and would consider using the card exclusively for business use but I would like to be able to retain paper copies for tax purposes. How do I print from the app? Cheers, Slim.
Click to expand...

You can generate PDF(or Excel) bank statements within the app that can then be printed off
 
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