Anyone Used the Revolut app/bank for holidays

liamster

Just signed up with revolut and wonder if anyone has any advise on how to get the best out of it on holiday. Going away for just over a month and signed up for the standard account with no fee.
I see you can have different currency accounts,  does this mean buy the currency now at a good rate and when I use  the card on holidays there  are no fees. ?
any advise appreciated.
Liamster

Browntoa

Correct

There may be fees imposed by an ATM if you use one 

Always pay in local currency with your card 

400ixl

My advice would be don't. They are not a bank, have a poor reputation and poor ethics.

Beware of their fees to load money at certain times etc.

You can achieve far more reliable services with Credit and debit cards with no fees and spot rate exchange rates.

daveyjp

Revolut isn't a licenced bank in the UK.  If you want an alternative try Starling Bank.

flaneurs_lobster

400ixl said:

My advice would be don't. They are not a bank, have a poor reputation and poor ethics.

Beware of their fees to load money at certain times etc.

You can achieve far more reliable services with Credit and debit cards with no fees and spot rate exchange rates.

All that is true, however....

My partner has a Revolut card/account just for use while travelling/holidaying abroad. They have an everyday current account that does not offer a fee-free card for overseas transactions, and have no desire or intention to open/apply for any more accounts or credit cards that might.

It does the job.

400ixl

flaneurs_lobster said:

It does the job.

Until it doesn't and they decide they are going to freeze the account for no reason whilst abroad, effectively locking you out of your holiday money. As happens to hundreds of people every year.

You are also funding an organisation who take very limited action to not be used by scammers to empty peoples bank accounts.

Had a few friends who went to work for them and all quickly left having seen how the company operates from the inside. Its toxic and widely recognised as such.

There are so many reasons people should be boycotting this organisation. 

flaneurs_lobster

Browntoa said:

Correct

There may be fees imposed by an ATM if you use one 

Always pay in local currency with your card 

Just to be clear, you don't have to load up local currency to spend in that currency, if there's a balance in the local currency then that'll get used first, otherwise it will use your GBP balance and convert on the fly.

If you think the rate might move against you before or during your holiday then by all means load it up and convert beforehand. Congrats, you're a forex trader!

Sarahspangles

Revolut are an MSE pick as a prepaid travel card. There’s a summary here, including what to be aware of (like extra charges for weekends and frequent cash withdrawals)

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/credit-cards/prepaid-travel-cards/

Why not do a review of how it went when you get back? I’d be interested in a card that reduced complexity if I was e.g. interrailing and crossing in and out of the eurozone.

friolento

I would use a Chase debit card and a credit card with no foreign exchange fees. Plus a little bit of cash, either Euros or US dollars, depending on my destination(s).

Would never travel with only one source of money, and would definitely not use Revolut, for the reasons given by others who would not use Revolut

ColdIron

Last time I looked Revolut only allowed £200 free withdrawals per month which made it unusable for me so I used Starling at that time

Now I use Chase which works like any other debit card (£500 per day etc) and you get cashback on purchases. I haven't used it abroad yet but my Santander Edge CC looks great for larger purchases with 2% cashback and fewer restrictions than Chase

I can't think of any circumstances where Revolut would be a good choice

Blackbriar_040

I previously used a Revolut & Monzo as my main travel cards!

I remember how the Revolut app would display the live exchange rates which was useful!
Both were similar with a few different conditions of use!

Think Revolut was VISA & Monzo was Mastercard!


Still have each card for emergency's,  but last few years I've just used my Chase card!