What is Revolut and how it will save you money on your travels

In case you are not aware about Revolut – this is an online bank that operates just like the any regular bank but without the high fees and unnecessary charges. I have mentioned Revolut in previous posts here on this blog but mainly in connection to their Bitcoin and Ethereum buy/sell option on their phone app.

This time I will focus just on their plastic card and the free currency exchange which is probably the most useful and important feature of Revolut and why so many of my friends and myself are already using it for pretty much everything. By everything, I mean I started using it not just on my travels but almost completely replaced my HSBC bank account with my Revolut account. In fact, I haven’t used my HSBC card since last year as I am travelling all the time and have not been back home in more than 8 months.

So why Revolut instead of HSBC (or any other bank for that matter)?
For starters, I like the fact that I can swap my GBP into EUR instantly and with zero fee every time I choose to. I travel a lot in Europe and having GBP or using my UK cards incurs extra fees in shops as well as ATMs. On top of that, when I’m booking flights or paying for anything online, if it’s not in GBP, I get charged a non-sterling fee which is extra 3-5% depending on the service. Which is nonsense if you ask me.

With the Revolut card I am able to instantly swap any amount of my GBP into any of the 30+ currencies supported in their app and I can do that on the go, from my phone, just in the spur of the moment, when I decide to make a payment for something. The transaction is immediate and I see it in my balance straight away. How convenient. Did I mention there’s NO fee involved? Yes, that’s right. I might be repeating myself… but I have been living a digital nomad lifestyle for the past three years and I don’t stay in the same country for longer than 3 months so you can imagine the fees I was paying for currency conversions prior to getting this card. Stupid fees really, just not something I want to spend my money on.

You can find out more by going to their website here.

Anyway, these are some screenshots from my app so you can see how it looks and the different options.

I like the security settings where I am able to use fingerprint access to the app, I can also disable ATM withdrawals or online payments or even just freeze the card completely, in case I lose it.

I can trace my expenditure, not just have a list of transactions but actually do my budgeting like, control how much I spend on travel, groceries, dining out, shopping or cash I spend. There are third party services that provide such apps but it’s really convenient having this inside my app rather than making these entries manually in another app.

I can, of course, send money to friends or to my other bank accounts as seen on these screengrabs:

And if you’re a crypto enthusiast like me, their exchange option is the best. They beat the rates of their competition (services like Xapo, Coinbase, Bitpanda and Circle, all of which I have used in the past and can confirm that Revolut’s rates are better).

All in all, I am a fan and a loyal customer of Revolut, I have also put to test their customer service team and I must admit they were very helpful, one of my transactions had an ATM fee that I disputed and they helped me with getting my chargeback, something that was very much appreciated but that was a one-time incident and I did not have any other issues since. That was back in January 2019.

If you want to get a free Revolut card and give it a test run and see for yourself, all you have to do is use this link. Also you are welcome to ask me any questions about my experience with Revolut so add me on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter and send me a DM.

Lastly, here is my interview with Dimitris Litzikakis (regional manager) who was kind to spare some time with me for a quick Q&A about Revolut at the Malta Blockchain Conference a few months back: