Are Revolut a good bank?

woeestme

They seemed to have a lot of promotion in the last few years.  I believe they're popular amongst EU people?

Are they trustworthy?  How easy is it to set up with them?  Thx.  

[Deleted User]

Currently they are not a bank and any money you deposit is not protected should they go under.

I use them as a secondary account, never had any issues.

Band7

They have a banking licence in the EU but not in the UK.

They applied for their UK licence over 2 years ago. Check the Press for why they still haven’t got it.

flaneurs_lobster

I find Revolut handy as the only (virtual) card I've attached to Google Pay for the odd bit of cardless action on phone and watch.

The single use virtual card gets used for one-off payments. Destination for my £500 Halifax spend.

Runs with a couple of hundred quid tops.

Gets topped up with Euros for trips, never more than about a grand, it's the back-up card.

Wish they'd stop pushing their crypto accounts, even though I've got *checks phone* £15.65-worth of DOGE (off 20%).

Expotter

They're not a bank.
They are an Authorised Electronic Money Institution, a firm that has been given permission to issue electronic money (e-money) and provide payment services by the FCA. They are not covered be the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.

https://register.fca.org.uk/s/firm?id=001b000002zyAwNAAU

gary1312

woeestme said:

They seemed to have a lot of promotion in the last few years.  I believe they're popular amongst EU people?

Are they trustworthy?  How easy is it to set up with them?  Thx.  

As others have said, not a bank. But a lot of people seem to rate the Revolut cards for travelling.

I only discovered last week, from trawling and deleting old emails, that I opened a Revolut account four years ago. I had totally forgotten about this, it may have been for some kind of promo benefit, but I downloaded the app and sure enough there's twenty quid in there. I ordered a card as I decided to keep the account for the travel and forex benefits. I did have a bit of an issue verifying my ID and had to hit Live Chat......I wasn't hopeful of success as I'd heard horror stories about their CS but I was answered in minutes and the issue sorted promptly. No problems at all.

The card is nice too, although mine's yet to arrive so I'm not sure if it's Visa or Mastercard, I know they issue both but not sure what determines who gets which type.

datz

woeestme said:

They seemed to have a lot of promotion in the last few years.  I believe they're popular amongst EU people?

Are they trustworthy?  How easy is it to set up with them?  Thx.  

I wouldn't necessarily use the term trustworthy. They are fine until anything goes wrong, or accounts get frozen. Customer service leaves a lot to be desired. Their banking licence status is obviously a concern. Setup is easy though.

Someone in my family uses them as their main account, and keeps savings/investments on there (no problems for them so far), but that's a terrible idea.

I only use it for minor spending money and in specific circumstances. I do like their single use and multi-use virtual cards (e.g. I regularly create them for the MSE 1p Lyca/Lebara deals for some of my secondary devices, by setting ~5p/month limits).

Marchitiello

Band7 said:

They have a banking licence in the EU but not in the UK.

They applied for their UK licence over 2 years ago. Check the Press for why they still haven’t got it.

They do NOT have a banking license in the EU, if they had it would offer a similar level of protection to deposits like the UK scheme, but they are not covered at all.

Band7

Marchitiello said:

Band7 said:

They have a banking licence in the EU but not in the UK.

They applied for their UK licence over 2 years ago. Check the Press for why they still haven’t got it.

They do NOT have a banking license in the EU, if they had it would offer a similar level of protection to deposits like the UK scheme, but they are not covered at all.

They do. It is with the Lithuanian authorities. As this is an EU licence, it grants them passporting right to all other EU countries. Though I believe they are only operating in 10 out of the 26 EU countries.

Band7

Marchitiello said:

Band7 said:

They have a banking licence in the EU but not in the UK.

They applied for their UK licence over 2 years ago. Check the Press for why they still haven’t got it.

They do NOT have a banking license in the EU, if they had it would offer a similar level of protection to deposits like the UK scheme, but they are not covered at all.

As to deposit cover: their banking licence absolutely covers up to €100,000. Though this is irrelevant for UK customers of Revolut, as this banking licence does not apply to UK customers.

Marchitiello

I was genuinely not aware of this newer set up and I would be interested to understand the limitations to those 10 countries only what actually means . (Are they restricting bank account by residence?