Revolut - Ultracheap FX (prepaid Mastercard)

irishgeo

flangemeistro wrote: »

Right lads looking for a bit of advice. I'm heading to the UK Friday for three nights and will be transferring more funds to it tomorrow.

I have my ID verified and have changed my pin and drawn money to make sure it's working.

Just wondering would I be better to leave the money in euros and draw sterling from their ATMs or would I be better off to transfer the money to sterling before travelling or is it a case of 6 of on and half dozen.

Basically I'm asking which way will I pay less fees.
Thanks.

You be better off leaving it in euro. You get the rats on the day which could be better on the day of the ATM withdrawal rather than change it back. Also if you don't spend it all you won't lose out on transferring it back to euro.

There is a little bit 6 of 1 and half dozen as the it depends on the exchange rate.

brian_gall85

One thing you might want to consider is that the Euro to sterling exchange rate is at the lowest that it has been since the first few months of the year at present so you might get more sterling if you change it to sterling now....the rate could fall further though. Just something to consider.

duffman13

Pulse8 wrote: »

Have seen lads in here talking about using it in Thailand etc
Am headed to Kuala Lumpur myself in a few weeks & thinking about trialing this, so basically you just lodge money to your € balance & then use in an ATM there to withdraw the local currency & it should give you the best rate minus fees, have I got that right?

Am just a bit unclear of using it in countries that arent based in £/$/€ as per the app

Used it yesterday in Kuala Lumpur with no fees at all. Gives 5 ringgit to a euro which is excellent. Only here for two days passing through but it's an amazing city. Wish I'd stayed another two days

tregan

well awaiting my card ... only ordered a few days ago. hope all goes well. i live in Wexford so will try it out to see that it works ok. reason i got the card as was looking for the best value way of exchanging money for my new york trip in 21 days (i'm not counting at all!) exchange rate is crap though.

hope it works .... seems a great card and its FREE!

Irish Halo

mik_da_man wrote: »

Just going to sign up today, so people put in a UK or Irish address for buying from the UK?

meolwan wrote: »

Was going to ask the same question ??

Couple of issues. The first is that is where they will send the physical card so if you need the physical card soon it could be an issue. The second is that the card you top up with needs to be registered at the same address as the revolut.

soirish wrote: »

Did anyone try to book rent a car with Revolut? Since it's treated as a credit card it might work..

I think they tweeted about having issues for rentals and at gas stations i.e. situations where a hold has to be put on funds. I paid for a car rental with my revolut but they had a hold on my normal card during the rental.

s_carnage

Also if you have money in Euro and Sterling on your card and you use your card in England, will it automatically take the money from your Sterling balance??

MiskyBoyy

s_carnage wrote: »

Also if you have money in Euro and Sterling on your card and you use your card in England, will it automatically take the money from your Sterling balance??

That's actually a really good question!

Only one way to find out I guess!

_dof_

s_carnage wrote: »

Also if you have money in Euro and Sterling on your card and you use your card in England, will it automatically take the money from your Sterling balance??

Yes, if there's enough sterling on your card to cover it, if not, it will try to take it from your euro balance, but only if it has enough. It won't combine your sterling balance and your euro balance to make up the amount if it turns out that you don't have enough in either balance on its own, but you would have enough if you combined them.

s_carnage

_dof_ wrote: »

Yes, if there's enough sterling on your card to cover it, if not, it will try to take it from your euro balance, but only if it has enough. It won't combine your sterling balance and your euro balance to make up the amount if it turns out that you don't have enough in either balance on its own, but you would have enough if you combined them.

Great, cheers. Signed up last week and converted some euro to sterling but probably don't really need to do that at all as can just leave everything in euro. Although with exchange rates the way they are I might change a bit more over.

Yggr of Asgard

I am skeptical if this card will survive past 1 December when they can only earn 0.3% of the transaction as fee.

As this is coded as a credit and individual pay card they can't get much out of each transaction anymore which used to cover their cost and exchange fees.

If I look at similar cards, they have all changed their fee (some now charge for loading in the main currency of the card, some charge transactions fees and some a small % on the conversion).

lotmc

Yggr of Asgard wrote: »

I am skeptical if this card will survive past 1 December when they can only earn 0.3% of the transaction as fee.

As this is coded as a credit and individual pay card they can't get much out of each transaction anymore which used to cover their cost and exchange fees.

If I look at similar cards, they have all changed their fee (some now charge for loading in the main currency of the card, some charge transactions fees and some a small % on the conversion).

Agree that its hard to see how they will make a commercial return, without charging fees. No return means no future, unfortunately.

I cant see in their FAQ's who owns the business? They say that they are not regulated by the UK FCA (Financial Conduct Authority), which is a pity - that would give a bit more comfort.

The only way that I can see this working is if it is financed by someone who wants to build a business, can fund / withstand losses in the first year, but will seek to charge fees after that. The business model will not work long-term without fees, unfortunately. There are costs that they will have to fund are very significant (fraud and bad debt on chargebacks being two big ones).

I love the product and the smooth / slick application. I sincerely hope that it does survive and thrive, and that the fees (when they start) are low.

In the meantime, I am only putting funds into it as I need to draw down funds, in order to avoid getting caught if it does not survive.

Cyrus

so whats the main use for this?

if i want to say buy an iphone in the uk, im better off loading euro onto this converting to stg and buying that way as its giving me the best rate possible?

StaticNoise

Cyrus wrote: »

so whats the main use for this?

if i want to say buy an iphone in the uk, im better off loading euro onto this converting to stg and buying that way as its giving me the best rate possible?

Nailed it.


Also, if you're travelling, it works in any ATM as a native card, therefore cutting fees and giving you a great rate too.

Irish Halo

lotmc wrote: »

I love the product and the smooth / slick application. I sincerely hope that it does survive and thrive, and that the fees (when they start) are low.

In the meantime, I am only putting funds into it as I need to draw down funds, in order to avoid getting caught if it does not survive.

Same here on both counts.

If they move to a fee structure like Transferwise it would mean a minimum top up to get the best rates (€200, £200, $300 in the case of Transferwise) so could make it probably less likely to use it for small FX impulse buys.

Yggr of Asgard

lotmc wrote: »

I cant see in their FAQ's who owns the business? They say that they are not regulated by the UK FCA (Financial Conduct Authority), which is a pity - that would give a bit more comfort.

A guy called Nikolay Storonsky had the idea behind it and he is using Optimal Payments as the provider for the card etc. (that is the same company that owns neteller/skrill).

They position themselves as technology service provider and clearly point out that they don't issue the card etc. Same way that uber says they are not a transport provider but a technology service provider.

The money is covered under the electronic money regulations via Optimal , so no bank guarantee there.

So what happens if they go bust is a complete different story.

lotmc

Yggr of Asgard wrote: »

A guy called Nikolay Storonsky had the idea behind it and he is using Optimal Payments as the provider for the card etc. (that is the same company that owns neteller/skrill).

They position themselves as technology service provider and clearly point out that they don't issue the card etc. Same way that uber says they are not a transport provider but a technology service provider.

The money is covered under the electronic money regulations via Optimal , so no bank guarantee there.

So what happens if they go bust is a complete different story.

Thanks - I did a bit of googling and can see that Nikolay Storonsky raised $2.3M earlier this year to set up Revolut. That is a lot of money, but will it be enough to cover start-up losses until it starts to make a profit????
Hopefully.

Storonsky has an investment banking background, so should be able to access more funds provided the business model remains attractive.

Anyway I am more comfortable with it having done the googling, but I will still only lodge funds as I need to.

Aquos76

lotmc wrote: »

Thanks - I did a bit of googling and can see that Nikolay Storonsky raised $2.3M earlier this year to set up Revolut. That is a lot of money, but will it be enough to cover start-up losses until it starts to make a profit????
Hopefully.

Storonsky has an investment banking background, so should be able to access more funds provided the business model remains attractive.

Anyway I am more comfortable with it having done the googling, but I will still only lodge funds as I need to.

Hopefully they do indeed survive and grow from strength to strength, I asked them about my money been protected in the event of something happening to Revolut, here's their response,

martyos121

Aquos76 wrote: »

Hopefully they do indeed survive and grow from strength to strength, I asked them about my money been protected in the event of something happening to Revolut, here's their response,

I've had no reason not to trust them yet, but the misspellings in those messages from them are a serious red flag. Very unprofessional.

MiskyBoyy

martyos121 wrote: »

I've had no reason not to trust them yet, but the misspellings in those messages from them are a serious red flag. Very unprofessional.

They can't even spell their own company name lol.

All Indian type names too. I'm guessing outsourced as usual.

thehairyone

Used this card on a recent trip to the states. Mostly satisfied. Transaction fees charged by some atms ranged from free to 3.99 dollars. However, i would imagine that would be the same whatever card you used. So maybe do some research before you go and stick to the major banks.

I had an issue with them not being able to get money out of a couple of the 'independant' type atms, cost me a couple of hours one day trying to find an atm that would work. However, this may be because it was a credit card, my 'real' credit card wouldnt work in one of the atms either.

Stick to the main bank atms and you should be fine.

Rockin

anyone have any issues with delivery - ordered on the 18th - roommate same day. His arrived - mine didnt

Delta2113

Finally got around using the app to get my Identity approved. Tried using my passport and driving licence.

Eventually got it to work using my passport. It's a nightmare trying to get the four green lights.

Delta2113

Rockin wrote: »

anyone have any issues with delivery - ordered on the 18th - roommate same day. His arrived - mine didnt

- This Post dispute is really going to mess things up for people waiting on the card.

meolwan

just downloaded this app and tried to top up but it wont let me. I get message that my debit is in $ and that "I am trying to top up in Euro do I wish to continue ?"
When I click on yes I get a message saying there is a problem.
My Visa Debit card is with Ulster Bank anyone else have this problem and if you did how did you solve it ?

Aquos76

meolwan wrote: »

just downloaded this app and tried to top up but it wont let me. I get message that my debit is in $ and that "I am trying to top up in Euro do I wish to continue ?"
When I click on yes I get a message saying there is a problem.
My Visa Debit card is with Ulster Bank anyone else have this problem and if you did how did you solve it ?

You sure you are clicking the top-up option on the euro screen rather than the $ screen?

meolwan

Aquos76 wrote: »

You sure you are clicking the top-up option on the euro screen rather than the $ screen?

yes

ceroc81

meolwan wrote: »

just downloaded this app and tried to top up but it wont let me. I get message that my debit is in $ and that "I am trying to top up in Euro do I wish to continue ?"
When I click on yes I get a message saying there is a problem.
My Visa Debit card is with Ulster Bank anyone else have this problem and if you did how did you solve it ?

Had the same problem, using Ulster Bank as well, finally figured out that my problem was the address field was incorrectly filled, the first field is the postal code whereas I had the full address, changing that to just a number and filling all the other fields it worked for me.

Sono

Delta2113 wrote: »

Finally got around using the app to get my Identity approved. Tried using my passport and driving licence.

Eventually got it to work using my passport. It's a nightmare trying to get the four green lights.

I can get the 4 lights for passport and licence but nothing happens them, it's a pain in the hole.

ceroc81

Sono wrote: »

I can get the 4 lights for passport and licence but nothing happens them, it's a pain in the hole.

Getting the 4 green corners, and then you need to maintain that for 4-5 seconds, its painfully difficult to keep it still, was considering using some kinda of stand to keep the phone stable.

Sono

ceroc81 wrote: »

Getting the 4 green corners, and then you need to maintain that for 4-5 seconds, its painfully difficult to keep it still, was considering using some kinda of stand to keep the phone stable.

I held it still for nearly a minute and still wouldn't work!