All about Revolut

Life Hacking
425

I’ve contacted support and they’ve (after my pressing) have assured me that my account should be OK and UK terms should apply, due to them not having “an official presence” in Switzerland. Which obviously doesn’t properly explain it, because they surely aren’t having such presence in most countries. I mean… Iceland, Greece, Danmark, Liechtenstein?!.

Ultimately they have boiled down their list of European countries to the EEA again.

In my interpretation, this might mean - in the best case - that they can’t or don’t want to actively market their product outside of the EEA (as an offer from their UK entity, for the non-European countries they’ve probably set up shop there with a separate entity), though otherwise nothing is going to change.

In worse actual experience, I’ve been burned previously by Revolut canceling all their cards for all non-EEA residents literally overnight, back in 2016 or so (including all Swiss users).

PS: After a quick glance at their terms and conditions, I also found a restriction to EEA countries in (chapter 26) their “refund rights for Revolut Card payments”. Taking the wording at face value, you don’t enjoy their refund / protection for card payments in Switzerland, as they’d be in a non-European country.

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426

Thanks.
I won’t leave more than 200chf on it for the time being (aka forever apparently)

427

Personnally, I am moving to N26 as soon as possible, i.e. next week.
5 free cash withdrawal in eurozone is perfect for vacation. Better than Revolut for my use.

428

Anyone using NEON over Revolut?

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429

What about Monese? Anyone using it over Revolut?

430

Monese is available in Switzerland now. I didn’t know that. Do they have a CHF IBAN? How’s their FX rate?

431

Having multiple cards, online card control (in-app), Apple Pay and free cash withdrawals is nice to have with Revolut. Especially for riskier situations like foreign travel or online transactions with unknown merchants.

That said, since I am using to Neon to receive my monthly salary, I would bother less and less to transfer funds and convert currency, when I can have the MC exchange rate with the card on my salary-receiving account.

Are they?

432

I think if you actively offer banking services to swiss customers you get in trouble with FINMA. For me, what N26 does is a la limite…

433

Well, they accept swiss phone numbers on their home page at least… :slight_smile:

434

If I had one 1 CHF for every EEA financial service provider that would accept Swiss phone numbers (and even my address, often) but ultimately not let me open up an account… :wink:

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435

Quick question I wasn’t able to answer through google:

If I want to send money to a non-revolut IBAN from Switzerland to e.g. the Netherlands or Germany, will the reciever or I have to pay any cost?

Such transactions are usually free within the EEA but I’m not sure what applies to this, since Revolut is based in the UK but my IBAN is swiss.
I know there will be currency costs if it’s exchanged on the weekend but I’m not sure if the normal foreign payment costs from swiss banks, typically around 2CHF, also arise.

436

Only for SEPA transfers, which are exclusively available in EUR.
Non-EUR cross-border transfers in the EEA are often charged.

Virtually always. With few exceptions (intra-bank transfer to foreign branch of same bank/banking group, having a premium account with free “OUR” transfers, or the payment service provider bearing the costs for international transfers as a "marketing marketing). someone has to pay at least some costs or fees.

The one quite likely exception I can imagine is having a EUR bank account in Switzerland that provides free SEPA transfers.

Otherwise, the amount of costs and fees can vary. It depends.

First, on the outgoing side: Check your sending bank’s fees.

Sending SEPA transfers costs a few cents with many Swiss banks. Probably the least expensive transfer. But it is available in EUR only, so there might be charges for currency conversion (0.5 - 1.5%?) from CHF to EUR.

Sending a non-SEPA transfer, like CHF via SWIFT usually costs more - more than the 2 CHF at PostFinance (I believe UBS prices it a 5 or 10 CHF). Also, generally there might be fees deducted “in transfer” (correspondence banks) - unless you chose to bear all the costs, to have the desired amount credited in full to the beneficiary’s account

Second, on the incoming side, at the receiving bank:

Banks may charge for incoming SEPA transfers (as long as they do it non-discriminatory within the EEA), but most don’t for personal accounts. They might also discriminate between intra-EEA transfers (DE to NL, for instance) and others - that is, charge more for an incoming SEPA transfer from Switzerland than within the EU. Again: Most won’t for SEPA transfers - but I have seen it in fee schedules.

For incoming non-SEPA transfers, like a CHF transfer via SWIFT: Many banks will charge to process the transfers (unless the sender bears all costs by sending as an “OUR” transfer, usually making it more expensive for himself). And then, possibly costs for currency exchange as well, when crediting incoming CHF to a EUR account, for instance.

For a recommendation, you might want to give more details about currency and approximate amount (as well as the currency that the sender’s and beneficiary’s accounts are held in). :wink:

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437

Hey San_Francisco

Thank you for your detailed information, this is very useful.

Do you know how this applies to Revolut. Is a bank transfer through Revolut SEPA? And would a German or Dutch bank consider such a transfer to be intra-EEA or not? (Conceding that they could charge the reciever even with an intra-EEA transfer.)

Best regards

438

A EUR transfer to another SEPA country should indeed be processed as a SEPA transfer - and usually is. Everything else would be a wrong and a glitch (which Revolut, in their reliance on third-party payment providers like Currency Cloud might be more prone of)

Probably still considered within EEA, due to the Brexit transitional agreement currently in force.
In any case, banks charging more for incoming SEPA transfers originating in non-EEA countries is really rare at least in Germany (though I’ve at least seen it in a price schedule once or twice).

Banks don’t seem to bother charging separate fees on this but rather seem to prefer a uniform policy and price/fee structure across all SEPA countries - including the ones which aren’t EEA members in the EEA. And other than Switzerland, there aren’t really many anyways and isn’t much to “bother” about (Monaco, Andorra, San Marino and Vatican, I believe).

PS: AFAIK the UK might drop out of SEPA altogether at the end of 2020 - but I still doubt it.

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439

I am comparing the exchanges rates between Revolut and Swissquote.
Swissquote 0.9527 vs Revolut 0.9434 in the par CHF-EUR.

Have you notice it before? Revolut states that their exchanges are among the best, but I was negatively surprised to see this. Any thoughts? I hope I am missing something! :slight_smile:

440

You mean you have to pay 0.9527 eur at swissquote to get 1 chf? And only 0.9434 eur at revolut? Seems legit to me. Swissquote takes about about 1% markup like every swiss bank.

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441

Yes, Sq is about 1% more expensive than Revolut.
That’s their Gebühren.

Screenshot_20200507-231618~2(1)
Screenshot_20200507-231618~2(1)946×1232 94.9 KB

442

Is cheaper at Revolut. At least with the figures you show.

443

It was the opposite, to convert 1CHF to Euro. SQ gaves 0.9527 and Revolut 0.9434.
Which is why it is confusing to me, since SQ indeed is about 1% and Revolut states it is 0.40% approx.

However, this morning it is opposite and favorable to Revolut. Revolut 0.9440 and SQ 0.9354.

Conclusion, do not take always by granted which one will be cheaper! good to check the real exchange rates of the different options. For 6000CHF, it is a difference of 52CHF.

444

Revolut is way more expensive on weekend :wink: than during the week (monday to friday). As mentionned on their website FAQ :

On weekdays (Mon-Fri London time) the interbank exchange rate is applied to all transactions.

On the weekend (Sat-Sun London time) the provided rates are fixed to protect against fluctuations, this means there are markups of +0.5% to all major currencies (ie. USD, GBP, EUR, AUD, CAD, NZD, CHF, JPY, SEK, HKD, NOK, SGD, DKK, PLN, and CZK)

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