Revolut v Chase for spending abroad

Sunshine_and_Roses

I have used Revolut for a number of years for spending abroad, keeping the majority of funds in the £ account and exchanging when the rate is good.  I have now seen that Chase offer Mastercard exchange rate and also give 1% cashback on purchases with no fees (apart from local bank fees which I assume is for using a cash machine).

I have checked the Euro rates and at the time of writing Mastercard is 1.1368 and Revolut is 1.1338.  

The only downside of using Chase is not being able to set the rate when it is higher, and also not being able to see the rate on the Chase app and needing to check on the Mastercard app first (not that the rate would change significantly).  Upside would be keeping money in the Chase savings pot and transferring when I need it, and also getting cashback.

Has anyone had any issues using Chase in Spain?  Thanks for any advice.

adindas

clareski said:

I have used Revolut for a number of years for spending abroad, keeping the majority of funds in the £ account and exchanging when the rate is good.  I have now seen that Chase offer Mastercard exchange rate and also give 1% cashback on purchases with no fees (apart from local bank fees which I assume is for using a cash machine).

I have checked the Euro rates and at the time of writing Mastercard is 1.1368 and Revolut is 1.1338.  

The only downside of using Chase is not being able to set the rate when it is higher, and also not being able to see the rate on the Chase app and needing to check on the Mastercard app first (not that the rate would change significantly).  Upside would be keeping money in the Chase savings pot and transferring when I need it, and also getting cashback.

Has anyone had any issues using Chase in Spain?  Thanks for any advice.

What you might not be aware of is that, today is weekend and Revolut is adding some spread during the weekend where there is not any exchange activities. Also, normally you can not see the mastercard exchange rate until after the closing hours, so the one you see today might be the yesterday, previous working day exchange rate.

In majority of cases interbank exchange rate, mid market exchange rate is better than the MasterCard Exchange rate without fees.

Although it is unlikely but it is not impossible that mastercard beat Interbank in a few occasions due to the time when conversion is done.

Futuristic

Life is too short to be worrying about 0.2%s, also as above Revolut has 1% weekend markup and not a 'proper' fscs protected bank to hold meaningful amounts. Chase also has £1500/mo (£500/day) foreign ATM withdrawals highest than any bank.  

You may also wish to check HSBCs offering: Global Money | Travel Money Card – HSBC UK

Olinda99

As I expect you know, chase cashback ends at the end of Feb.

Sunshine_and_Roses

Olinda99 said:

As I expect you know, chase cashback ends at the end of Feb.

Is it at the end of Feb for everyone?  I thought it was for a year from opening the account, which for me is April.  Trying to see if it says on the app....

k_man

clareski said:

Olinda99 said:

As I expect you know, chase cashback ends at the end of Feb.

Is it at the end of Feb for everyone?  I thought it was for a year from opening the account, which for me is April.  Trying to see if it says on the app....

The end of the Cashback offer term should be shown in the Active Offers section in Rewards (bottom of the start page).

Sunshine_and_Roses

k_man said:

clareski said:

Olinda99 said:

As I expect you know, chase cashback ends at the end of Feb.

Is it at the end of Feb for everyone?  I thought it was for a year from opening the account, which for me is April.  Trying to see if it says on the app....

The end of the Cashback offer term should be shown in the Active Offers section in Rewards (bottom of the start page).

That's great, thank you.  Cashback until 7th April so I think I will take both cards with me, use Chase for purchases and Revolut as a back up and to withdraw cash

adindas

clareski said:

k_man said:

clareski said:

Olinda99 said:

As I expect you know, chase cashback ends at the end of Feb.

Is it at the end of Feb for everyone?  I thought it was for a year from opening the account, which for me is April.  Trying to see if it says on the app....

The end of the Cashback offer term should be shown in the Active Offers section in Rewards (bottom of the start page).

That's great, thank you. Cashback until 7th April so I think I will take both cards with me, use Chase for purchases and Revolut as a back up and to withdraw cash

Revolut is good to accumulate cash in foreign currency and to be transferred to a Euro Account. But if you want to withdraw cash using revolut card, just be aware of this

"Free withdrawals up to 5 ATM Withdrawals or €200 per rolling month (whichever comes first), then a fee applies. That fee is 2% of the withdrawal, subject to a minimum fee of €1 per withdrawal."

https://www.revolut.com/en-AT/legal/standard-fees/

EUR 200 might not be enough for your need. That is one of the limitation of Revolut.

After EUR 200 you might  be better using your chase debitcard as there is no fee attached.

Sunshine_and_Roses

adindas said:

clareski said:

k_man said:

clareski said:

Olinda99 said:

As I expect you know, chase cashback ends at the end of Feb.

Is it at the end of Feb for everyone?  I thought it was for a year from opening the account, which for me is April.  Trying to see if it says on the app....

The end of the Cashback offer term should be shown in the Active Offers section in Rewards (bottom of the start page).

That's great, thank you. Cashback until 7th April so I think I will take both cards with me, use Chase for purchases and Revolut as a back up and to withdraw cash

Revolut is good to accumulate cash in foreign currency and to be transferred to a Euro Account. But if you want to withdraw cash using revolut card, just be aware of this

"Free withdrawals up to 5 ATM Withdrawals or €200 per rolling month (whichever comes first), then a fee applies. That fee is 2% of the withdrawal, subject to a minimum fee of €1 per withdrawal."

https://www.revolut.com/en-AT/legal/standard-fees/

EUR 200 might not be enough for your need. That is one of the limitation of Revolut.

After EUR 200 you might  be better using your chase debitcard as there is no fee attached.

Sounds like a good plan, think EUR 200 will be enough for taxis etc then use Chase for card purchases.  Thanks for your help 👍

jbrassy

Chase every day of the week. Chase is a proper FSCS protected bank account, Revolut is not. Revolut offers fee-free foreign spending up to £1000 a month for the free account while for Chase it's unlimited fee-free foreign spending. Chase offers £500 fee-free foreign ATM withdrawals a day while Revolut offers £200 fee-free ATM withdrawals a month. Finally, Revolut customer service is terrible. 

Marchitiello

Chase is my go to account to spend abroad from my GBP funds. I have used it all over Europe, US, Africa and never had issues. For the last 18 months circa I have also benefitted from the cashback offer on forex spend.

@Clareski however, specifically for Spain, please note that ATM operators over there will charge you for each withdrawals. For this, there are certain Santander UK accounts that allow you to use Santander Spanish ATM
for free (without the local operator charges as well as additional Forex charges by them). The Select account definitely allow this but I believe there others . On similar note, if you find yourself in US (aside of Alaska or Hawaii) remember you can use Chase US ATM without incurring in the local ATM operator fee that US banks apply to non customers.