Revolut Review 2023: Revolut Banking, Card, Plans, Fees, and Alternatives

In this in-depth Revolut Review, we will take a look at Revolut banking, how Revolut works, Revolut Card and Revolut account plans.

We would also review Revolut on many factors such as, fees and exchange rate, customer support, service quality, transfer speed and is Revolut a good alternative to a traditional bank account?

Revolut Overview

🏦 Established	2015, London (UK)
💁 Revolut Banking	Personal and Business
💱 Currencies available	28+ currencies
💱 Currencies for spending	140+ currencies
💻 Revolut Availability	Web and Mobiles
📱 Revolut App	Android and iOS
⚖️ Revolut Regulation	the UK, the US, EU, Australia and more
🔒 Security	Login, OTP log in, Single-use virtual cards
⭐ Revolut Reviews	“Excellent” – 4.3/5 with 124,000+ reviews on Trustpilot
💰 Revolut Fees	Based on plans
🌐 Revolut Website	Visit Revolut

Revolut is Available In

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What is Revolut?

Revolut is a London-based mobile bank, that was launched in July 2015 by two former traders – Nikolay Storonsky, and Vlad Yatsenko, who previously built financial systems at Lehman Brothers and Credit Suisse.

Revolut allows you to manage your money in different currencies via bank account (personal and business), international money transfer, and currency exchange. Revolut has a banking licence in the EU, making it a better alternative to traditional banks. 

Revolut is a mobile-first bank that aims to change the way people manage their money. Revolut aims to “revolutionise” the banking industry with mobile-first banking via the Revolut app, instead of opening physical branches. 

Revolut is best defined as an “alternative to digital banking” which wants to change the way of “traditional banking” and how people manage their money.

Revolut started as a prepaid card and app that focused on international travellers, allowing them to easily switch currencies and pay locally. And now Revolut offers a range of accounts for personal and business users.

The Revolut card lets you spend in 140 currencies, and converts your holding currency to the currency you are paying in.

In this Revolut review, we would explore all the Revolut banking accounts such as Revolut personal banking, Revolut for business, Revolut for teens and Revolut card and compare the plans and features.

But we would mainly focus on the Revolut Personal Account, which comes with three pricing plans:

Revolut Review: Pros and Cons

Is Revolut a Bank?

Yes, Revolut is a bank that offers many services like a usual high-street bank, for example, money transfers (local and international). But Revolut doesn’t provide some of the things that you can get in a local traditional bank, for example, creating standing orders.

Just like traditional banks, you get a linked Revolut debit card (Visa or Mastercard) that can be used to pay in 140+ countries. You can use Revolut card to pay via contactless payment, PIN, Apple Pay, and Google Pay. Revolute doesn’t offer authorized overdrafts, which means if you spend more than what you have in your Revolut account, you must pay back in 7 days.

How does Revolut work?

Revolut is a mobile-first bank, which means it offers all the banking features of a traditional bank without a physical branch. But due to the different Revolut plans, to enjoy some features you may have to pay for the Revolut paid plans. 

Revolut offers bank accounts for both personal users and business users. You can use Revolut to hold and manage your money in 30+ currencies and use your account to spend in 140 countries using the Revolut card. You can also use Revolut locally and overseas. 

You can try the Revolut standard plan to check some basic Revolut features. The free account has some fee-free spending limits of £1000 per month. You get a free Revolut card that allows you to spend in 140 countries (within the monthly limits). If you exceed the limits, Revolut charges a 0.5% fee for the transaction amount. 

There is always an option to upgrade your account to Revolut Premium and Revolut Metal. In this Revolut review, we will explore all the plans and help you find the best account that suits your needs.

You can use the link below to get 3 months of Revolut premium for free.

Revolut Banking

Revolut banking offers 4 major types of bank accounts – Personal, Business, Freelancers, and Revolut <18 (for teens).

Each type of Revolut account has different pricing plans and perks that will be explained to you below.

Revolut Personal Review

Revolut personal banking comes with 4 pricing plans. We have summarised all the key features offered in different plans in the comparison table below to help you find the right account based on your needs.

	Standard	Plus	Premium	Metal
Monthly Fees	FREE	£2.99	£6.99	£12.99
Revolut Card	✅	✅	✅	✅
Revolut Virtual card	✅ Unlimited	✅ Unlimited	✅ Unlimited	✅ Unlimited
Fee-free currency conversion	£1,000/mo	£1,000/mo	✅ Unlimited	✅ Unlimited
Fee-free ATM withdrawals	Up to £200/mo (or 5 withdrawals)	Up to £200/mo	Up to £400/mo	Up to £800/mo
Daily £ savings interest	Up to 0.87%	Up to 0.95%	Up to 1.65%	Up to 1.95%
Revolut metal card	❌	❌	❌	✅
Travel medical insurance	❌	❌	✅	✅
Flight insurance and baggage	❌	❌	✅	✅
Priority customer support	❌	✅	✅	✅
Purchase protection	❌	£1,000 per year	£2,500 per year	£10,000 per year
Event ticket protection	❌	✅	✅	✅
Refund protection (up to 90 days)	❌	✅	✅	✅
Revolut <18 account access	1 child	2 children	2 children	5 children
Airport lounge access	❌	❌	✅ You +1	✅ You +3
Cashback on Revolut card	❌	❌	❌	0.1 % in EU, 1% outside EU
Revolut rewards	✅	✅	✅	✅
Cryptocurrency withdrawals	✅	✅	✅	✅
	Try Revolut Standard	Try Revolut Plus	Try Revolut Premium	Try Revolut Metal

Revolut Business Review

Revolut offers business accounts that have extended features that are suitable for businesses of all sizes and types. Revolut business banking also comes with 4 pricing plans – Free, Grow, Scale, and Enterprise. 

Each Revolut Business plans have some features and perks that may benefit your business in many ways. Here are some of the top features of Revolut business banking:

• Hold, manage and convert 28 currencies at the real mid-market exchange rate
• International money transfer services that are much cheaper than the banks
• Prepaid Revolut card that allows you to spend in the UK and 150+ countries overseas
• Put spending limits for employees 
• Integrate the business account with third-party tools such as Quickbooks and Xero. 
• Powerful APIs to automate the payments process, send money abroad, track and monitor the business tractions

You can choose the 4 different types of Revolut business banking. There is a free basic account that comes with standard features to a tailored made plan for Enterprise size businesses. 

One of the most popular Revolut business plans is the “Grow” plan which comes with a monthly fee of £25 (along with a Revolut metal card) 

Depending on the business plan you choose, you would get a certain amount of free local and international payments. On top of that, you can hold, manage and convert 28 currencies at the real mid-market exchange rate

With each Revolut business plan, you would get a local GBP, USD, and EUR bank account (with a Euro IBAN account, and US routing number).

All the accounts would be linked to your Revolut cards (a physical card for you and virtual cards for your employees). You can also set limits to the virtual card for employees. Revolut card lets you spend in the UK and overseas in 150+ countries.

Revolut Business Account for Freelancers

If you are a freelancer, Revolut offers another type of business account that is suitable for self-employed people. These accounts are a bit cheaper than the usual Revolut business account, with a range of features.

Revolut freelancer account features

• Business account made for freelancers
• Free local payments (depending on the plans)
• Free international payments (on paid plans)
• Hold and exchange in 30 currencies
• 1% cashback debit card
• Team management with unlimited team members
• Unlimited virtual cards for employees
• Spending limits management on employee cards
• Local Euro IBAN account, 
• Local UK bank account
• Create, track and send invoices

Revolut <18 account Review

Revolut also offers a bank account for children aged between 6-17 years old. It is often called “Revolut for Teens”. Revolut <18 accounts come with all the Revolut basic features. 

Revolut <18 account features

• Track pocket money
• Instant notification for spending alerts
• Custom card controls

Revolut Review: The Final Verdict

4.4/5

Final Score

Revolut Review: Fees and Exchange Rate

In a nutshell, Revolut offers a free and paid account that offers free international transfers and good exchange rates – but there are limits! 

First and foremost, Revolut standard account (free account) offers very a small quota on most of the key banking features and most of the premium features are not available with the free account.

Revolut charges extra fees if you go over your monthly spending quota. Such as:

• Revolut charge 0.5% on international money transfers, after exceeding your monthly limits (check out the monthly limits below)
• Revolut also charge an additional fee if you send money during the weekends (between 0.5 to 2.5%)
• 2% extra charge after exceeding the ATM withdrawals monthly limit of the Revolut Card
• Some currencies like the Thai Baht have extra conversion fees.

	Revolut Standard	Revolut Premium	Revolut Metal
Monthly fee	Free	£6.99/mo	£12.99/mo
Fee-free currency exchange	£1,000/mo	Unlimited	Unlimited
ATM withdrawal limits	Up to £200/mo (or 5 withdrawals)	Up to £400/mo	Up to £800/mo
ATM fees (after limits)	2%	2%	2%
Revolut card delivery	Paid delivery	Free	Free
Additional physical card	£5	Free	Free
International transfer fee	Standard fee	Standard fee	Standard fee

Visits the Revolut price comparison page to compare all the Revolut plans and the fees associated with them.

With a fee account (Revolut standard plan), you can certainly enjoy some small perks that might be enough for you, but for some, the free quota can be too small for their needs. To save some money on money transfer fees, make international transfers during the weekdays and watch out for your monthly limits.

Revolut Review: Transfer Speed

The transfer speed to send money overseas with Revolut depends on the currency pairs. But a transfer between Revolut users is instant. 

How long it takes to send money with Revolut is based on the currency you are sending and the recipient’s currency. The transfer speed also depends on the payment method you pick to send money abroad.

If you want to make International transfer via bank transfer, Revolut takes around 1 or 2 days to deliver your money (on average). Whereas card-to-card transfers with Revolut usually take around 30 mins to deliver.

Here is a quick breakdown of the Revolut transfer speed and fees

Currency pair	Transfer speed	Payment method
🇬🇧 GBP to 🇺🇸 USD	1 Day ⚡	Bank transfer
🇬🇧 GBP to 🇦🇺 AUD	2 days	Bank transfer
🇬🇧 GBP to 🇪🇺 EUR	In seconds ⚡⚡	Bank Transfer
🇬🇧 GBP to 🇮🇳 INR	1 Day ⚡	Bank Tranfer
🇬🇧 GBP to 🇨🇦 CAD	1 Day ⚡	Bank Tranfer
🇬🇧 GBP to 🇯🇵 JPY	2 Day	Bank Tranfer

If you want to transfer money to Europe from the UK, Revolut delivers your money to the EU in seconds and the transfer is totally free. 

Revolut takes around 1 business to transfer money in most of the major currencies in the world.

Revolut Review: Service and Quality 

Revolut customer support offers a range of FAQs and live chat that is available to users (of all Revolut plans) but customer support over the phone is lacking.

There is no priority customer support available to the free users (Revolut standard). 

Revolut offers one of the best-designed Revolut mobile app that is one of the best-rated in the market In terms of quality, design, and user interface. 

Revolut card supports all type of payment options such as online payments, contactless, Apple Pay, and Google Pay and offer a range of features such as pay your friend and bill-splitting.

Revolut Review: Credibility and Trust

At the time of writing, Revolut is rated “excellent” with a final score of  4.3/5 on Trustpilot with over 123k reviews and 92000+ 5-star ratings.

9 of 10 users rate Revolut highly and with a lot of positive reviews on service, quality and ease of use of the Revolut app. Only 8% of the reviewed were rated “poor”.

Most of the negative reviews were about issues with account verification, cashback, and disabled accounts due to various reasons.

Can you use Revolut abroad?

Revolut users can use the Revolut card in over 150 countries. You can card payments in the holding currency or Revolut automatically converts your holding currency to the local currency at the mid-market rate (the real rate that you see on Google). 

Free account users (or Revolut Standard plan) can withdraw £200/month or a maximum of 5 transactions. After spending your monthly limit, Revolut charge a fee of 2% of the withdrawal amount. You can spend, convert, or transfer a maximum of £1000 per month with the Revolut free plans. 

Revolut Premium can withdraw £400/month fee-free, and Revolut metal users can withdraw £800/month at the mid-market exchange rate. 

Remember: Revolut charge 1% to 2% markup fee on the currency conversion and international transfers on all Revolut plans during the weekends.

Revolut Alternatives

In this Revolut Review, we will also compare Revolut with other alternatives in terms of multi-currency accounts and international money transfers.

One of the better alternatives to Revolut is the Wise (ex TransferWise) multi-currency account. The biggest advantage of Wise over Revolut is that it’s totally free with no monthly fees or paid plans.

Wise multi-currency account lets you hold or exchange up to 54 currencies.

You also get a local bank account in 10 currencies (including USD, GBP, AUD, and EUR). This means that you can have your own local bank account including account number, and SWIFT/BIC code (such as IBAN account, US routing number, Australian BSB number etc.).

With Wise (ex TransferWise), you can send money to more than 80 countries at a mid-market exchange rate and a low transparent fee.

You can send money to 150+ countries with a Wise debit card, and there are NO LIMITS on Wise card spending. However, you can only withdraw £200/month same as Revolut.

Here is a full comparison of Revolut vs Wise

	Revolut Standard Plan	Wise (ex TransferWise)
Fees	FREE	FREE
Available Currencies	28+	50
Local UK account	❌	✅
Local EUR account	✅	✅
Local USD account	❌	✅
Local AUD account	❌	✅
Linked Debit card	✅	✅
ATM withdrawal limit	£200/month	£200/month
Card fees (after monthly limit)	2%	2%
Fee-free spending limits	£1000	Unlimited
Exchange rates	Mid-market (markup on the weekends)	Mid-market
International transfers limit	£1000/month	Unlimited
	Try Revolut	Try Wise

Revolut Review: Summary

No doubt that Revolut is a better alternative to traditional banks. Revolut offers a range of banking services at the mid-market exchange rate. If you compare bank rates with Revolut fees, you can save up to 2x to 3x on international money transfers and currency conversions.

However, the ATM withdrawal limit is too low (even with the Revolut metal plan) which can cost you some money if you prefer travelling with cash. The free Revolut plan also has a monthly spending limit of £1000/month, which might not be enough if you are travelling abroad.

Revolut offers the real exchange rate (also known as the mid-market rate) but adds a 1% to 2% markup on the exchange rate during the weekends. This is also why Wise (ex TransferWise) is a better alternative to Revolut.

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