Revolut Megathread.

Zardoz

Dodge wrote: »

You said two months ago you couldn't trust them. Why do you still have any money with them at all?

Have a guess ?
It's frozen .

Its a common occurrence
https://www.zdnet.com/article/revoluts-clumsy-automated-fintech-bank-compliance-results-in-frozen-accounts-and-lack-of-customer-service/

Dodge

So why would there recent results matter at all then? Your first post today seemed to spur you into action...

Zardoz

Dodge wrote: »

So why would there recent results matter at all then? Your first post today seemed to spur you into action...

I want to get what remaining balance I have out and put it in a proper bank who have guarantee protection and won't freeze my account for lodging a paltry 1000 euro.

The big losses by Revolut have accelerated this .

Yggr of Asgard

There are loads of different reasons why Revolut limits accounts.

Like the account only used to generate miles (load with a miles generating credit card and than withdraw the funds shortly afterwards)

Like using the account to get cash advance by loading with credit card and than immediately taking the cash out.

Like making spending that is outside the normal pattern.

Like asking for additional documents at usual 35K, 85K or 115K loads limits until such documents are there.

Like only using the account for bank transfers and hence not making them money.

Usually if there are no indications for unusual behavior than freezes can be lifted quickly. Well they let some staff go in Poland who does the validations so they are a little slower these days.

Sheep Shagger

Mr.S wrote: »

And I really think that's the bulk of cases. Revolut make money by you using your account so...

Genuine question, how do they though outside of FX?

I've said this before, they have to start monetising it soon enough. They make no money off balances etc sobekne has to pay for the app, their staff which is growing even here in Ireland and ongoing R&D.

Yggr of Asgard

Sheep Shagger wrote: »

Genuine question, how do they though outside of FX?

I've said this before, they have to start monetising it soon enough. They make no money off balances etc sobekne has to pay for the app, their staff which is growing even here in Ireland and ongoing R&D.

You using the card brings a small amount of kickback to them as they now issue the card.

Beside that it’s the premium subscription that make the money. Also any referral fees they get for the 3rd party service they resell.

When they started the kickback was significant but the EU regulated the fees down which is why that is no longer making the money originally planned.

Zardoz

Zardoz wrote: »

I want to get what remaining balance I have out and put it in a proper bank who have guarantee protection and won't freeze my account for lodging a paltry 1000 euro.

The big losses by Revolut have accelerated this .

I pass 1000’s though my Revolut every month and have never had a single issue, you are taking rubbish and scaremongering.

carrotcake

Claire Shaggy Denim wrote: »

Zardoz wrote: »

I want to get what remaining balance I have out and put it in a proper bank who have guarantee protection and won't freeze my account for lodging a paltry 1000 euro.

The big losses by Revolut have accelerated this .

I pass 1000’s though my Revolut every month and have never had a single issue, you are taking rubbish and scaremongering.

It's not unheard of. It happened to me.

carrotcake wrote: »

My account was frozen last year, after I tried to transfer €1000 to a bank account in my name. From my usage pattern, this was just a normal transfer, and I had been regularly transferring larger amounts for years with Revolut.

They blocked the transfer and all accounts, and demanded to see pay slips and bank statements for the last three months. I could understand the payslips, but the bank statements was a bit too much, in my opinion. They wanted to see not just the salary entering my account, but also all my spending for the last three months, just so that I can transfer 1k to myself?

It took over a week for them to unblock my account after I submitted what they wanted, and this was only after me chasing them a few times.

Thankfully I wasn't using the money to pay any bills. And if I had been using Revolut for everyday spending, then that money would have been blocked too. As much as I love Revolut (for FX and transfers), after this experience there is not a chance I will ever use it as a replacement for a proper bank account.

Zardoz

Claire Shaggy Denim wrote: »

I pass 1000’s though my Revolut every month and have never had a single issue, you are taking rubbish and scaremongering.

Time will tell who is right.

I will feel much safer having my money in N26 and Transferwise .
I use both of them regularly and I've never been asked for any source of funds or a copy of my bank statement .
No bank I've ever used has asked me for anything and some like AIB I've put vast amounts of money through compared to Revolut.

Sheep Shagger

Mr.S wrote: »

Paid subscriptions (which they are revamping), Corporate accounts, transaction fees, credit interest fees, getting a cut from things like Insurance plans and Perks (like LoungeKey and any of the cashback rewards).

Revolut is still a baby in terms of company years and generates a fair amount of revenue, especially YoY. Quite a few tech companies older / valued higher than Revolut still fail to achieve a net profit but still operate.

Growth > profit in the early days, investors won't be expecting Revolut to turn a profit in the short term.

I would imagine we'll see the free plan get restricted further and further, and a cheap "base" plan introduced.

Sorry I should have said outside of the premium plans too.

As much as everyone wants free banking someone has to pay for the infrastructure, just can't see how they can stay 100% free for everyone forever.

Private Equity backers won't continue to keep funding it either.

Zardoz

Zardoz wrote: »

Time will tell who is right.

I will feel much safer having my money in N26 and Transferwise .
I use both of them regularly and I've never been asked for any source of funds or a copy of my bank statement .
No bank I've ever used has asked me for anything and some like AIB I've put vast amounts of money through compared to Revolut.

How is N26 safer? Genuine question.

I have a card from them as well but never use it.

Spocker

ReginaldSmythV wrote: »

How is N26 safer? Genuine question.

I have a card from them as well but never use it.

Because they are a bank, and your funds are protected by the the German Central Bank, up to €100k. Revolut are an Electronic Money Institution and your funds are not protected

Spocker

Spocker wrote: »

Because they are a bank, and your funds are protected by the the German Central Bank, up to €100k. Revolut are an Electronic Money Institution and your funds are not protected

They are held in a bank though so therefore are indirectly protected.

Spocker

Claire Shaggy Denim wrote: »

They are held in a bank though so therefore are indirectly protected.

Those funds don't fall under the UKs deposit guarantee scheme, so if Revolut went bust, we'd be unsecured creditors, just like everyone else (until they have an actual bank licence for the majority of countries they operate in, there are no guarantees unfortunately)

Quackster

Spocker wrote: »

Those funds don't fall under the UKs deposit guarantee scheme, so if Revolut went bust, we'd be unsecured creditors, just like everyone else (until they have an actual bank licence for the majority of countries they operate in, there are no guarantees unfortunately)

That's incorrect. Client funds are held in ring-fenced accounts with third-party banks (Barclays & Lloyds I think) that are inaccessible to Revolut for operational financing. If Revolut went bust, other creditors would not have any claim on the funds in these accounts.

The major risk would be if the banks these accounts are with were to go bust as these accounts wouldn't fall under the UK deposit guarantee scheme but that's a rather remote possibility.

Yggr of Asgard

Quackster wrote: »

That's incorrect. Client funds are held in ring-fenced accounts with third-party banks (Barclays & Lloyds I think) that are inaccessible to Revolut for operational financing. If Revolut went bust, other creditors would not have any claim on the funds in these accounts.

The major risk would be if the banks these accounts are with were to go bust as these accounts wouldn't fall under the UK deposit guarantee scheme but that's a rather remote possibility.

Well I would suggest to visit the terms and look at point 8.

https://www.revolut.com/en-IE/legal/terms

Insolvency does not mean you get the money back immediately, there are costs that come first for the process and than as part of the process you will get your electronic money converted back to real money using the safeguard funds from either bank or low risk investments in which they are parked.

It’s a long process as it’s part of the insolvency process not near time as with a bank failure.

Zardoz

Mr.S wrote: »

Are you saying that you don't want to provide Revolut with source of funds etc (understandable, I guess), or that you've provided that and they still won't unfreeze your account which is obviously a big issue.

I've provided them with source of funds numerous times ,I didn't have an issue with it the first couple of times.

As I previously stated in the past when I uploaded the relevant documents I was waiting weeks for Revolut to get back to me .
I'd then get an email saying that they had verified my source of funds and everything was ok.

I'd top up my account with a few thousand and straight away I'd got another email asking me to verify my source of funds.
This happened a couple of times .:mad:

All I do is deposit money from the same AIB bank account which is in my name and make online transactions .
I don't send money or receive it from anyone else so this money laundering angle doesn't hold water.

I don't know what their beef is but I've never encountered such incompetence.

Gooey Looey

Hold On, you were topping up up your account randomly with several thousand. No wonder it rang alarm bells. That's not how most of us use it. I top-up 50-100 at a time and spend in small day to day amounts

flazio

Are you using Revolut as a business or personal account? Because I'm nearly certain it's only meant to be for personal use.

Zardoz

Gooey Looey wrote: »

Hold On, you were topping up up your account randomly with several thousand. No wonder it rang alarm bells. That's not how most of us use it. I top-up 50-100 at a time and spend in small day to day amounts

I was having issues with topping up by card so I'd do a bank transfer.
It was usually 1-2k I'd lodge .

Are you using Revolut as a business or personal account? Because I'm nearly certain it's only meant to be for personal use.

Personal .

Gooey Looey

flazio wrote: »

Are you using Revolut as a business or personal account? Because I'm nearly certain it's only meant to be for personal use.

They also do business accounts, this is one way they are hoping to make money

Gooey Looey

Zardoz wrote: »

I was having issues with topping up by card so I'd do a bank transfer.
It was usually 1-2k I'd lodge .

I'd say that's not standard practice and they suspect you are a business customer trying to operate without fees.

Zardoz

Gooey Looey wrote: »

I'd say that's not standard practice and they suspect you are a business customer trying to operate without fees.

Not standard practice ?
I'd only top up every month or 2 .

Quackster

Yggr of Asgard wrote: »

Well I would suggest to visit the terms and look at point 8.

https://www.revolut.com/en-IE/legal/terms

Insolvency does not mean you get the money back immediately, there are costs that come first for the process and than as part of the process you will get your electronic money converted back to real money using the safeguard funds from either bank or low risk investments in which they are parked.

It’s a long process as it’s part of the insolvency process not near time as with a bank failure.

I totally agree. I'm simply pointing out that third-party creditors would have no claim on account-holders' funds.

On the one hand, the funds are not unprotected but, on the other, they're not as protected as they would be if the bank guarantee applied.

RoYoBo

Zardoz wrote: »

I've provided them with source of funds numerous times ,I didn't have an issue with it the first couple of times.

As I previously stated in the past when I uploaded the relevant documents I was waiting weeks for Revolut to get back to me .
I'd then get an email saying that they had verified my source of funds and everything was ok.

I'd top up my account with a few thousand and straight away I'd got another email asking me to verify my source of funds.
This happened a couple of times .:mad:

All I do is deposit money from the same AIB bank account which is in my name and make online transactions .
I don't send money or receive it from anyone else so this money laundering angle doesn't hold water.

I don't know what their beef is but I've never encountered such incompetence.

That sounds really annoying! I'd want an explanation at least if that was my experience. I presume you haven't been able to pin them down for a reason in your case?

I've had minor issues like verifying my identity more than once and problems with pre-auths but on the whole Revolut works for me most of the time. CS 'explanations' I've been offered are just walls of text in the app with no substance or real information.

In any event, as is often mentioned on this thread, I keep the minimum in my account, use it for limited purposes and always have another card to hand.

Zardoz

Zardoz wrote: »

I've provided them with source of funds numerous times ,I didn't have an issue with it the first couple of times.

As I previously stated in the past when I uploaded the relevant documents I was waiting weeks for Revolut to get back to me .
I'd then get an email saying that they had verified my source of funds and everything was ok.

I'd top up my account with a few thousand and straight away I'd got another email asking me to verify my source of funds.
This happened a couple of times .:mad:

All I do is deposit money from the same AIB bank account which is in my name and make online transactions .
I don't send money or receive it from anyone else so this money laundering angle doesn't hold water.

I don't know what their beef is but I've never encountered such incompetence.

You must be doing something that is getting all this attention - if it’s really happening as your “weeks to respond” does not tally with the fast response times I’ve had from them on the very occasional time I’ve had to contact them.

I would top up my account by around 2k per month most months, usually in a few transactions - a large one up to 1k at the start of the month and then smaller ones as the month goes on. I’ve also done plenty of large top ups or bank transfers of 2k to 5k into it some which would be immediately moved on or used to pay for something other times would sit a while.

They once about 2 years ago asked about source of funds, I was on holidays and I said I have no access to proofs and will send it when home in 2 weeks. They got back immediately and asked if I was related to a politician who I share a surname with, I said no and they unlocked my account and never asked for anything since (my account was locked for less than 12 hours a lot of which was overnight in the Uk). I’ve never had to provide proof of funds despite passing up on 60 or 70k through Revolut over the last few years.

JamesBond2010

Claire Shaggy Denim wrote: »

You must be doing something that is getting all this attention - if it’s really happening as your “weeks to respond” does not tally with the fast response times I’ve had from them on the very occasional time I’ve had to contact them.

I would top up my account by around 2k per month most months, usually in a few transactions - a large one up to 1k at the start of the month and then smaller ones as the month goes on. I’ve also done plenty of large top ups or bank transfers of 2k to 5k into it some which would be immediately moved on or used to pay for something other times would sit a while.

They once about 2 years ago asked about source of funds, I was on holidays and I said I have no access to proofs and will send it when home in 2 weeks. They got back immediately and asked if I was related to a politician who I share a surname with, I said no and they unlocked my account and never asked for anything since (my account was locked for less than 12 hours a lot of which was overnight in the Uk). I’ve never had to provide proof of funds despite passing up on 60 or 70k through Revolut over the last few years.

They thought u might be someone famous :D that's why they got back so quick & u dashed their hopes :D:D:D

Zardoz

RoYoBo wrote: »

That sounds really annoying! I'd want an explanation at least if that was my experience. I presume you haven't been able to pin them down for a reason in your case?

Its hard to get a hold of them .
Normal chat refer me to the relevant department and they might come back to me 4-5 days later on chat but its hidden away in the app that I never really see it and don't get notifications .

Their customer support is inept .
I couldn't add a new card for over a year ,I kept on getting an error that I continuously tried to resolve with customer support .
Eventually a poster on here posted the solution ,you needed to have your eircode entered as postcode .

You must be doing something that is getting all this attention - if it’s really happening as your “weeks to respond” does not tally with the fast response times I’ve had from them on the very occasional time I’ve had to contact them.

It would take weeks for them to review source of funds, it would just be spinning away in the app .

JamesBond2010

JamesBond2010 wrote: »

They thought u might be someone famous :D that's why they got back so quick & u dashed their hopes :D:D:D

They aren’t even a particularly high profile politician no idea how Revolut even made a connection as our surname is not uncommon either.

Marcusm

Quackster wrote: »

That's incorrect. Client funds are held in ring-fenced accounts with third-party banks (Barclays & Lloyds I think) that are inaccessible to Revolut for operational financing. If Revolut went bust, other creditors would not have any claim on the funds in these accounts.

The major risk would be if the banks these accounts are with were to go bust as these accounts wouldn't fall under the UK deposit guarantee scheme but that's a rather remote possibility.

Spocker’s statement was correct. Accounts held at guaranteed banks are only covered for individuals/personal customers. The accounts which Revolut holds at Barclays/Lloyds etc do not benefit from this protection. Not even indirectly. They benefit from the prudential regulation of the Bank of England but not from any guarantee.