Revolut - International Fees for Transferring GBP from UK Revolut Account to UK Bank

Tim_Arpino

Hi, I thought I should warn other users of Revolut charging international fees, despite money not leaving the UK or being transferred into another currency. It seems it all depends on where you set up your initial Revolut account.
The full circumstances are:
I initially opened a Revolut French euro account, as navigating the French banks has been a nightmare. After setting up the French Revolut account I was also able to set up a British counterpart account, which has all of its banking details, sort code, account number and IBAN in the UK. I was intending to transfer directly from the UK Revolut account to the French Revolut account for security and what I initially believed were competitive exchange rates. Accordingly, I transferred GBP to the UK GBP account and started the transfer process. At the last point I found there was a large transfer fee, a lot worse than other methods of currency exchange, so I stopped the transfer.
I now wanted to transfer the GBP in the Revolut UK GBP account to a currency exchange account in the UK. I received a warning on the app that this was subject to an international transfer fee, so I queried this on the chat line. Plainly the app was a bot and I went through all the circumstances as detailed above, but importantly that the money in GBP was in the Revolut UK GBP account and being transferred to a UK GBP account. The bot believed this an error and encouraged me to complete the transfer and see if I was incorrectly charged the fee. I completed the transfer and was charged the fee. I informed the chat of this, and it became very evident it was a bot because it just encouraged me to do the same thing again. I asked to speak to a human and was shortly transferred. After a while, the advisor said that I had been charged a fee as my main account was a euro account and that I had transferred money to a UK bank account. I pointed out that the money had not ever left the Revolut UK account and had always been in GBP. Also, that the chatbot had encouraged me to complete the transfer. They said that they could not help further. I then queried how I could transfer the remaining GBP from the Revolut UK GBP account without being charged fees. They advised that I could transfer the money to a friend who had a Revolut UK GBP account or used the bank card to buy in GBP.
I have raised a complaint with Revolut and will also make a complaint to the UK financial ombudsman once that process is complete. I will also update this post with any outcomes to the complaints.
In fairness to Revolut, their banking in France has been good and far easier to navigate than the French banks, but I will not be using them to transfer GBP to euros or be using the UK Revolut account again. Even with the erroneous fee charged by Revolut, I still saved a lot of money using an online currency exchange firm.

lon_don

Very surprising that Revolut allows you to keep 2 separate accounts, a Revolut France (with LT or FR IBAN) and a Revolut UK (with GB IBAN / UK style sort code etc..). With all the ID checks they do nowadays, they ought to be able to tell that you are the same person. 

DoboChopSueyBar

Never been charged anything for sending GBP from my Revolut UK account to any UK bank.

retiredbanker1

DoboChopSueyBar said:

Never been charged anything for sending GBP from my Revolut UK account to any UK bank.

But did you open the account in UK or France as the OP?
It will make a difference.

Hoenir

Tim_Arpino said:

 despite money not leaving the UK 

I initially opened a Revolut French euro account, as navigating the French banks has been a nightmare. After setting up the French Revolut account I was also able to set up a British counterpart account,

Therein lies the root cause of your issues I suspect. Not as simple as you are assuming .