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.
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…
Well, they accept swiss phone numbers on their home page at least… 
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… 
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.
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).
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
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.
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!
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.
Is cheaper at Revolut. At least with the figures you show.
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.
Revolut is way more expensive on weekend 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)
Good catch! way more expensive than usual.
Thanks! CASE CLOSED
Their new UI is really, really bad.
It is, as you said, geared to upsell you.
After all, Revolut will have to become profitable at some point - or might be unable to sustain their cash burn rate in current economic conditions.
Has anyone thought of uninstalling Revolut after all the bad press they receive?
Not yet, tbh. I got Transferwise and Neon as a plan B but didn’t have the opportunity to deinstall Revolut - it works like a charm.
No, so far it still works pretty well for our needs, but in the last months we reduced the transfer amount (now 500 CHF, prior we did 1k) when the account balance approx to 0.
