Is Revolut the Right Choice for You?
Revolut couldn’t have been named more appropriately. The brainchild of Nikolay Storonsky and Vlad Yatsenko is a company that started off in 2015 with a mission of providing a fresh new alternative to all traditional banking transactions. It is registered in the UK and it provides you with a revolutionary app and payment card that make it easy to live a global lifestyle.
This banking method is now praised for unmatched flexibility and ability to adapt to all of their clients’ needs, as there are different types of accounts without any hidden fees.
According to the official website, there are more than 7 million customers. There are numerous casinos out there that are willing to accept Revolut as the payment method, and the number of punters using it for such purposes is also on the rise. Let’s find out what’s all the hype about, shall we?
Revolut Account Types
The first choice you need to make is whether you need a Personal or Business account at Revolut. For the purposes of this review we will focus on the Personal side of things, as people who like to gamble online will surely steer clear of using any business accounts for such endeavors.
Still, there are more choices to be made when it comes to your account, as there are three types of pricing plans for personal accounts.
Standard – This one costs nothing! It will provide you with a free UK account, free Euro IBAN account, a possibility of payments in over 150 currencies at the interbank exchange rate, and with an ability to exchange in 29 fiat currencies without any fees (up to 5,000 GBP per month). On top of all this, you can withdraw up to 200 GBP from an ATM each month without any fees.
Premium – It doesn’t come free, as it’s 6.99 GBP per month, but it will get you all the stuff you get with the Standard account and its own distinct perks. These include an overseas medical insurance, delayed baggage & delayed flight insurance, global express delivery, priority customer support, instant access to 5 cryptocurrencies, premium card with exclusive designs, disposable virtual cards, and LoungeKey Pass access. Also, you can have ATM withdrawals of up to 400 GBP per month without fees.
Metal – Horns up! This is their flagship product when Personal accounts are concerned, and it really makes you feel like a rock star when you take a look at the list of all the goodies it packs. This one is a bit pricier, as it costs 12.99 GBP per month, but it packs all the stuff you get with the Standard and Premium accounts, along with an exclusive Revolut Metal card, 0.1 cashbacks in Europe and 1% outside Europe on all types of card payments. Metal account will also provide you with a concierge who helps you manage your lifestyle, and you can withdraw up to 600 GBP from an ATM each month without paying a single dime in fees.
Now that you’re better acquainted with the types of accounts they have, let’s check out all the products they are willing to offer you.
Products
Before we move onto specific products, let’s just say that Revolut has an excellent official app that’s free for download for both Android and iOS users, and it’s your basic tool without which you won’t be able to fully enjoy all of the products that we’re about to mention.
Money Transfers – With Revolut you can transfer money all over the world with the interbank exchange rate. This product supports 29 different currencies. You can transfer up to 5,000 GBP per transaction, but there is a fee of 0,5% if you wish to transfer larger amounts. Premium and Metal accounts come without any fees when money transfers are concerned.
Vaults – Simply put, this is a rather neat and sweet way of saving up. Vaults are designed to put some money aside, either by rounding up transactions, setting up a recurring payment, or making one-off contributions. Another great thing about Vaults is that you can buy cryptocurrencies from spare change.
Budgeting – This is one of the aspects of Revolut where their app really shines bright. Simply put, you can set up a monthly budget for anything you want, for example groceries or vinyl records, and over here you can take full control over your finances. It is not a complicated process and it will only take a few seconds. By using the app, you can check your progress in real time, as Revolut will also send you instant payment notifications. You can always know how much you’d spent and where.
That’s not all, as the Analytics tab can help you categorize all your payments into different areas and show you how much each area takes up down to the percent. Vaults are especially excellent when used in conjunction with Budgeting.
Perks – This is a cool idea, as it actually involves rewarding users for spending cash using Revolut. Even though it is still in its beta phase and is available only for selected users, it is still quite an awesome way of saying “thank you” to your loyal customers. Perks come in the form of instant cashbacks when a user pays for the groceries, or spends cash for plane tickets, for example. Each time a user hits his 10th purchase, he will win his cashback perk. You can always monitor how close you are to the next prize by using the “Perk-O-Meter” in the official app.
Cryptocurrency – If you wish to dive into the world of cryptocurrencies, Revolut provides one of the easiest and fastest ways of doing so, and that’s just the beginning. You can set up an account and get access to cryptocurrencies in just a few minutes, all by using just the app. The app will show you all the current rates, and you can even set up alerts when a cryptocurrency hits a specific value.
There are five cryptocurrencies to choose from, and you can transfer them, or exchange any other currencies into crypto without any fees. These five cryptocurrencies include Bitcoin, XRP, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, and Ethereum.
Mobile Phone Insurance – Expensive smartphones are a thing of value, and it’s only normal that you would want yours to be covered by insurance. Revolut offers instant global protection for your phone starting off at 1 GBP per week, depending on the plan and the device you want insured.
The insurance plan covers replacement of cracked screens, damage caused by water and other liquids, touchscreen malfunction, battery failures, etc. You can protect as many phones as you want. This service is trusted by more than 400,000 satisfied users all around the world.
Overseas Medical Insurance – You can choose between Pay-per-Day and annual policy, and both will get you covered for all emergency medical & dental treatments and give you access to a large network of medical centers all around the world. All reimbursements get paid directly into your account.
If you want to get covered for the whole year, that will cost you 30 GBP, and you can add family members or friends. The geolocation technology will make sure that you are only charged for the days when you were actually abroad. Premium and Metal accounts come with travel insurance at no extra cost, too.
Open Banking API – This is meant for developers only, as it is basically a means of integrating an third-party app with Revolut. On their website you can find extensive documentation on the open banking API that will help you get started.
Apple Pay – iPhone and Apple Watch users will surely be delighted to find out that the Revolut card can be added to Apple Pay, so you can make payments using this quite handy service.
Donations – Revolut Donations is probably the easiest way of giving to causes you care deeply about. Just like with Vaults, you can make donations by rounding up the spare change, setting up a recurring payment, or simply giving a one-off amount to your favorite cause. It goes without saying that donations do not involve any fees.
Security and Customer Support
Of course it all comes down to security, especially when money transactions and online casino deposits are in question, but no matter how good a service is, its customer support can often make or break the deal.
Luckily enough, these guys really know what they’re doing, as they work around the clock the meet the needs of all their customers. You can reach them at any time using the live chat platform on their website or in the mobile app.
When we’re speaking security, Revolut is secure on its own, but it also puts all of its users in control of their own security, which is a rare thing to see these days.
If your card gets stolen or if you lose it, you can freeze or unfreeze it simply by using the almighty app. Also, if you need to to turn on or off online payments, ATM use, contactless payments, or any other potentially insecure transactions, you can do that from the app.
The client money is held by Revolut in ring-fenced segregated client accounts in Tier 1 bank partner accounts, so it’s fair to say that all the funds are pretty safe. On top of all this Revolut operates under the FCA requirements for safeguarding funds, so it is authorized by the FCA, the Payment Services Regulations, and Electronic Money Regulations.
It doesn’t get much safer than this, don’t you think?
Controversies
Well, it seems like no modern business can survive without becoming a part of some controversy. Revolut isn’t immune to this, as it surely caught the public eye with its rapid growth. Wired did an extensive write up on the way Revolut handles things, and it had turned out that there were shady labor practices and abusive work environment accusations…
Wired had former employees interviewed, and they claimed that the company had suspicious hiring practices, very similar to an MLM. Some managers had to use social media and other means to lure in as many new customers to sign up for the up, even if it meant working non-stop and even losing sleep over it.
No bank or banking method is perfect, but there are also numerous pages on the internet that seem to offer quite a lot of details on Revolut’s allegedly lost or misplaced client funds. One of these ended up with a complaint to London’s Metropolitan Police, even though no official investigations were undertaken.
Conclusion
All things considered, it surely does provide quite a unique alternative when compared to other banking methods out there. It also offers quite a lot of features you simply can’t find anywhere else.
When used as a banking method for gambling at an online casino, it can be of great help, especially when you take into consideration the fact that the official app basically acts as your guardian angel. You could use it to limit the funds you can spend on online betting, so once you’re through with that, you won’t get into trouble by spending more cash than you can afford.
Combine all of this with the fact that cryptocurrencies are accepted and all of its fees are always fully transparent. There are 24 different currencies it can handle, so you could use it to play your favorite games in casinos all around the globe.