Revolut review 2024

Revolut offers an alternative to a traditional bank account. It provides a much more user-friendly banking experience from your mobile phone and anyone can sign up in a few minutes just by downloading the app. Revolut was founded in 2015 and made its name by offering cheaper international payments and currency transactions. Nowadays, it offers a much more comprehensive banking service and the ability to invest from the app as well.

What can I do with Revolut?

You can use it as a bank account and an investment broker all in one. Revolut is like a banking app with lots of bells and whistles. It’s ideal for people who travel around the world and offers free currency exchange during the week as well as the ability to hold lots of different currencies, and make payments with them, in one account.

Over the last few years it’s added a lot of other features, like the ability to invest in more than 800 stocks, as well as commodities and, more recently, crypto. All of these are available with a few clicks on the app and you can manage your entire portfolio from your phone.

Revolut markets, assets, and options

What assets and products can you trade on Revolut?

A huge variety of US-based stocks as well as cryptocurrencies and commodities. You can also swap between currencies so could, in theory, use this to take advantage of fluctuations in forex rates. In reality the currency offerings are more for practical spending than for speculation, however. Below is a full list of the available products.

What cryptocurrencies are available on Revolut?

There are 65+ cryptocurrencies available to buy through the Revolut app right now. It includes a broad range, from coins at the top of the market, like BTC and ETH, to meme coins like SHIB, to layer 2 cryptos like LRC. The full list is available on the app but here is a selection of what’s on offer:

• 0x
• 1inch
• Aave
• Apecoin
• Avalanche
• Bitcoin
• Bitcoin Cash
• Cardano
• Chainlink
• Compound
• Dogecoin
• Ethereum
• Ethereum Classic
• Filecoin
• Litecoin
• Polygon
• Polkadot
• Shiba Inu
• Solana
• Stellar
• SushiSwap
• The Graph
• Uniswap
• XRP
• Yearn Finance

What leverage trading options are there?

You can’t trade with leverage on Revolut. It’s more of a bank and payments app, with extra investment features, rather than a full-scale trading platform. 

The absence of leverage is most noticeable when it comes to currency trading; as the price changes are so small, it’s not really possible to take advantage of fluctuations between different currencies without using leverage.

What are the spreads?

There are no spreads on Revolut as the company makes its money through commissions and subscriptions rather than on the spread.

Fees, limits, and payment options on Revolut

What are the fees for payments, deposits, and withdrawals?

Revolut is a banking and payments app first of all, so there are generally no fees to have money paid into your account or to spend it. Fees tend to occur only after you have gone above an allowance for specific tasks, such as withdrawing money from an ATM or making international payments. More detail is available below.

How much are Revolut’s fees and commissions?

The fees and commissions vary depending on which account you choose and where you’re based. Each account gets at least one free stock trade per month, after which there is a commission of 0.25% or a country-specific flat fee, whichever is greater. The full breakdown of fees and commission is available below.

Revolut trade sizes and limits

Revolut has liberal trade sizes and limits that should be more than enough for the casual trader. Any serious trader or investor that requires larger limits should consider using a dedicated broker or trading platform instead. The full details on trade sizes is available below.

Revolut trading platform

What devices can I use Revolut on?

Revolut is predominantly a mobile app that’s available on both Apple and Android devices through the App Store and Play Store. You can also log in and manage your account on a desktop browser, but we found it to be less than ideal on a full screen as the service is designed for a smaller mobile device.

• iOS mobile devices
• Android mobile devices
• Web browsers

Can I use Revolut in my country?

Revolut is available in the European Economic Area, as well as a handful of other jurisdictions like the UK and US. A full list of countries supported are:

• All countries within the EEA (except Malta)
• Australia
• Japan
• Singapore
• Switzerland
• United Kingdom
• United States

Is Revolut available in my language?

Revolut is available in 24 languages that cover most of Europe, along with Japanese. You can switch between languages in the app settings. The languages available include:

• English
• French
• Greek
• German
• Italian
• Japanese
• Lithuanian
• Polish
• Portuguese
• Romanian
• Spanish

• Bulgarian
• Croatian
• Czech
• Danish
• Dutch
• Estonian
• Finnish
• Hungarian
• Latvian
• Norwegian
• Slovakian
• Slovenian
• Swedish

Customer support is only available in English and Polish. 

How easy is it to use Revolut?

Extremely easy. As a start up financial services app it had to offer a better service than high street banks in order to attract customers. That proved roaringly successful, and it’s super simple to manage the account from your mobile. Every payment with your Revolut card sends a notification to your phone and you can freeze the card easily if you lose it.

As an investment platform, it’s equally easy to use. A few clicks takes you to the relevant stock or crypto screen where you can scroll through the options and buy something. There are few services out there that offer anything as simple as Revolut.

Key features

Most of Revolut’s best features are about flexibility and offering services on top of those you get from a traditional financial institution. There are plenty, but here are three of the main highlights.

International spending

Revolut is best known as a payment card you can use to spend money abroad without charge. It’s perfect for people who travel a lot because you can switch between currencies in a few clicks on the app and all payments are charged in local currency at the latest Mastercard rate.

This is less of a unique feature than it used to be and Revolut has put in place some limits, like a fee on currency transfers that take place over the weekend. However, it’s still in a league of its own when it comes to international travel and a far better option than a high street bank account.

Revolut Junior

Revolut Junior lets you give your children a bank card and teach them financial skills while you control the account. It’s available for free to everyone who has a Revolut account, although the number of cards is limited to one on the standard plan, and two on the Plus and Premium plans.

The Junior cards are a fun and easy way to get kids to think about finances and making sensible decisions about money. They come in bright, appealing colours and the app sends you an alert whenever they’re used, so you can keep a watchful eye over what the family is spending money on.

Revolut Metal

Revolut Metal is a paid account with benefits like cheaper trading fees, cashback, and higher interest rates. It costs £12.99 per month and you get an annual interest rate of 1.2%, paid daily, 1.2% cashback on purchases (including investments), and higher withdrawal limits if you want to take out money from an ATM.

The Metal account has the most benefits of any paid plan but it also has the highest cost. It’s only really suited to people who use Revolut as their main bank and investment service. With an annual cost in excess of £150, the boost in interest rates isn’t enough to justify the expense alone – you need to take advantage of the cashback on purchases to make it count.

Security and regulation

Is Revolut safe?

Yes, Revolut is safe and is governed by similar deposit guarantees as you would expect from a bank. It ‘safeguards’ your money, storing it in an online account apart from Revolut’s other funds. If the company was to become insolvent, this money would be used to pay you ahead of other creditors.

It also employs a variety of security measures to protect anyone from gaining access to the account through your phone. It can be locked behind biometric or facial recognition systems, as well as a pin number. For that reason it’s a good idea to keep the pin number different from the main one you use to unlock your phone.

Am I and my funds protected?

Yes, your funds are protected, although the mechanism for protecting them differs depending on where you’re based. It safeguards client funds separate from the rest of its capital and this money is used pay customers ahead of any other creditors in the event of insolvency. For more information visit https://www.revolut.com/en-PL/help/profile-plan/security-personal-data/is-my-money-safe.

Is Revolut regulated?

Yes, Revolut is regulated by the European Central Bank and the Bank of Lithuania.

Do I have to verify my account with Revolut?

Yes, there is a stringent verification process, although the amount of information you have to provide varies depending on what you use the account for. To set up a Revolut account you need to provide some ID and record a short video to prove your identity.

To use additional services, such as investing in US stocks, you must fill out a few more forms to confirm your US tax status and agree to certain terms and conditions. The verification process can take a little bit of time – up to a few days – to go through, so it’s best to do it ahead of time rather than the moment when you want to invest.

Extra information

Educational resources 

There isn’t much by way of learning material on Revolut. The help section is a useful resource for basic advice on how to use certain features, or how to perform specific tasks like investing or activating a card. In terms of learning about different facets of investing in depth, you’re better off looking elsewhere.

Tools and charting

There are some very basic charts on Revolut, so you can see recent price action and compare price changes over a period of time. However, you can’t do any detailed analysis yourself. Revolut is much better suited to be an alternative or addition to a regular bank account than to somewhere you actively day trade.

Customer support

The customer support is excellent. The help section mentioned above answered virtually all of our queries and you often don’t even need to ask for support, even when things go wrong. You can freeze and unfreeze cards by flicking a switch in the app and query transactions as they come in. 

Our verdict

Revolut is an excellent financial services app, especially if you do a lot of travelling or need to hold money in different currencies. It’s also a functional investment app, although it’s aimed more at casual or beginner investors rather than anyone who has more experience. 

For those people, it makes more sense to use Revolut for banking services and a dedicated broker for investment services. It’s also worth considering how you spend money, as it isn’t as good as a direct replacement for a bank account if you use a lot of cash. The ATM withdrawal limits and charges would make it more expensive than using a regular bank.

Despite those minor flaws, Revolut is an excellent banking service that deserves its good reputation. It has changed the game in the way people interact and manage their spending, and offers an alternative to trusting big banks, which are often extremely inconvenient and expensive if you want to move money around. 

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