What is Revolut?

I made the mistake of not using a good travel money card on a recent trip to Asia. Don’t make the same mistake I did. By using my standard UK bank card, I was charged 3% on everything I spent, including an additional fee for all cash withdrawals.

The Revolut card offers the best option to remove this charge when travelling overseas, and even if you are already on the road like I was, you can still avoid these charges by making use of its digital card and a smart phone.

Jump to:

• What is Revolut?
• How to get a Revolut card?
• Using app based banking
• Using Revolut if you are already abroad
• Get a free card when you open a Revolut account

What is Revolut?

Revolut is an app based account with foreign currency in mind. Revolut supports fee free card transactions and ATM withdrawls in over 150 currencies. You can open an account from anywhere in the world as long as you are a legal resident of a supported country.

You can open a Revolut account if you are a resident of a country in the European Economic Area (EEA), Australia, Canada, Singapore, Switzerland, or the United States.

The EEA includes:

Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Republic of Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.

There are free and premium accounts available, but the entirely free account should be sufficient for most users.

How much will it cost to use your current bank card abroad?

Using the same card abroad that you use at home can result in serious fees on the road.

As an example, a standard debit card with Lloyds bank in the UK will charge a 3% fee and a £1.50 fixed fee each time you make a card transaction in a shop and each time you withdraw cash from an ATM.

These charges will be the same regardless of whether you spend £2 or £200. That is just an example with Lloyds bank, but all major standard accounts will have similar charges.

Compare this to Revolut – with Revolut you will be charged 0% every time you make a card payment in a shop and 0% when you use your card to withdraw cash at an ATM, and you will not be charged a fee.

Foreign currency card transactions, for example using your card to pay for a coffee in a shop, are fee free up to £5,000, anything over will be subject to a 0.5% fee.

For cash withdrawals, you will be charged 0% for the first £200 withdrawn each month and 2% on everything after.

It is worth noting that major currencies are subject to a 0.5% – 1% fee on weekends.

As you can see the savings are significant, especially if you travel often or plan to travel long term.

How to get a Revolut card?

If you are still in your home country and have at least 1 week left before you depart on your next adventure, you have time to open a Revolut account and receive a physical card through the post before jetting off.

Revolut is all online and app based and you will not be credit checked when opening an account.

A digital card is free, however Revolut charge a small fee for a physical card. Use this link to get a free physical card when you open your account today.

Adding money to your Revolut account

Once you open an account through the app you will be prompted to link an existing bank account to your Revolut account to add funds. The app also allows you to instantly add money on the go in future whenever you need to.

Unlike some other travel money cards which promote fee free spending but which charge you a fee to add money to their card, adding money to your Revolut card is fee free.

Because transfers from your main acount are instant, this means you don’t have to keep large amounts of money in your Revolut account at any one time.

Digital vs physical bank cards

When opening an account, you will be issued with a free digital card instantly. You will also be prompted to order a physical card – this must be delivered to an address in a supported country.

The physical card is slightly more colourful than most standard cards issued from major banks. However, it is Mastercard, and therefore accepted worldwide like any other debit or credit card you already have.

Using app based banking

Initially, I was a little apprehensive at the thought of app based banking. For the modern day traveller, there are many advantages to using an account like this when abroad compared with standard high street bank accounts.

The design of the app is intuitive and very easy to use on the go. Both your digital and physical cards are visually displayed on the app.

You have the power to instantly freeze and unfreeze each card, or report a card as lost or stolen, all at the click of a button. It is extremely useful to have these features available on the app when you’re on the road should you need to use them.

Monitoring your spending

Each time either card is used for a transaction, to make payments online or in a shop, you will receive a notification on your phone. A nice feature – thanks Revolut for reminding us just how much we’re spending!

The app also displays graphs of your spending over time, listing all transactions, and breaking spending down in to categories, such as travel or food. This is a great feature for those who are keen to monitor their spending.

Using Revolut if you are already abroad

If like me you find yourself already abroad and wondering why you didn’t get an account and card like this sooner – never fear, there is a solution.

You can download the app and set up an account from anywhere in the world. As mentioned you will be given a virtual card instantly when you open the account, however, you will not be able to get a physical card delivered abroad.

Of course, you can go ahead and have the physical card delivered and it will be waiting for you on your doorstep when you arrive back home.

Making use of the digital card when you are already on the road

You can still make use of the Revolut digital card if you are already abroad. You can do this in 2 ways.

Firstly, the dashboard of the app displays a graphic of your digital card, and also displays the card number, expiry date, and CSV. Those details are exactly what you need when making a payment online.

This means you can still use this digital card to make payments online in a foreign currency. You can pay fee free – for hotels and hostels, or even a flight. Having these details available on the app mean you can take advantage of using the card to make fee free payments even without a physical card.

Even if like me you only discover this before booking your long haul flight back home, using your standard card may incur a 3% fee on a £500 flight – that is £15 just in fees. However, by using the Revolut digital card you would remove that £15 fee.

Use the digital wallet on your smart phone

Secondly, if like most adult humans in the twenty first century you have a smart phone, you can use the digital card for everyday spending.

If your phone has some form of smart pay or digital wallet, all you need to do is add your digital Revolut card to the digital wallet on your phone.

You will then be able to make use of your Revolut account and digital card to spend fee free. You can make contactless payments with your phone whilst you are on the road.

Get a free card when you open a Revolut account

If you open a Revolut account using this link, you will get a free physical card.

To get this free card, all you have to do is use the link above, create an account and verify your identity, top up your account, and then order your new card.

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