Revolut Mobile esims

ruflonger

A cautionary tale of roaming using Revolut Mobile esim.

Having seen the discounted offer for Revolut Mobile esim I thought I would give it a try.

It was £12.50 for unlimited calls, unlimited SMS and roaming in the EU. Included was also the USA and the channel Island and the Isle of Man which can require additional cost on other sim plans. It also has a Messaging Pass providing approximately 250MB of roaming data apparently designed for text-based messaging app use, such as WhatsApp, Facebook which should automatically connect when in an included country outside of the EEA. It also allows you to discount the cost with points accumulated whilst using the Revolut card. This seemed reasonable value.

The esim is delivered to your phone and managed in the Revolut app.

The Revolut app is installed in the secure folder of my Samsung phone. On receiving the esim I could not install the esim either automatically or manually. To get it installed I had to uninstall the Revolut app from the secure folder and reinstall it on the phone. Then, once the esim was installed, uninstall the Revolut app and reinstall it in the secure folder. A bit frustrating but their support via AI helped sort the problem out.

The esim was working well in my home location without issue.

I then went for a break on the Isle of Man. When I arrived I received a text ‘Welcome to the UK you can add data to your esim via the app’, roaming was not working and neither was the messaging app. After a frustrating experience getting to the hotel which not having the use of the internet or being able to make a call from my phone did not help I was then able to contact Revolut support via the app on the hotel WiFI. The Messaging Pass also did not work.

The AI chat assistant was no help as it told me - Based on your current UK unlimited mobile plan, your general 20GB roaming data allowance (which covers the USA and 'EEA38' countries) does not include the Isle of Man’ but ‘did include ‘Messaging Pass’ Then proceeded to give me possible fixes for the Messaging Pass. I spent the rest of the evening with the AI chat assistant going back and forth with things to try to fix the Messaging Pass issue. After about 30 mins I finally got connected to a person.

The person agreed my mobile plan, is supposed to cover the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. I was eventually send a new esim which I installed. After a lot of messing around data stated working and I could make call but not receive calls nor could anyone leave voicemails and in the sim manager showed no number for that sim.

I spent the rest of the break providing the details Revolut requested. Although providing them with details of a callers number and what time they called was challenging as I could not receive calls.

It was not until I landed in the mainland did my number reappear in the sim manager and I could make calls.

flaneurs_lobster

Would have got ten minutes of my time trying to fix it before giving up and either sourcing a local solution or just not bothering.

Then hassle Revolut for a refund after the trip.

Those weird tax haven 'countries' like IoM, Jersey have always been outliers when it comes to broad roaming deals. With some they're in, others - not. And some just tell porkies about the coverage.