Smart devices & lifestylePayments & fintech
Neobanks: discovering Revolut
· Michel Aguilera
Having recently been approached to give a presentation on the subject, I am going to share with you my experience of an online bank (more often called a neobank): Revolut, a British fintech institution. A tour of the new financial world.
Money… and connected!
The idea behind a neobank is to make it easy to open an account, with the ability to receive and make payments, whatever the currency you want to work with. A mobile interface that makes it easy to view transactions, payments made and money received. Revolut built its environment on this idea, and precisely on this notion of ease. It therefore allows anyone, from anywhere, to open a bank account easily. But that’s not all. Online banks (with no physical office or counter) are on the way to overshadowing so-called “traditional” banks. Among Revolut’s competitors are N26, Monzo and Swissquote.
Revolut’s great strength lies in limiting (or even eliminating) transaction costs, hidden fees and other unsightly aspects of transactions.
Revolut understood that individuals and businesses pay enormous fees on transfers and payments (in local or foreign currency), and so decided to solve this problem:
- Their multi-currency account lets you hold, receive and exchange 25 currencies at the real interbank exchange rate, with no additional fees.
- No fees on payments abroad, whatever the country!
You can open a personal or a business account. This means it is perfectly possible to have a company account with Revolut Business.
In mid-December 2018, Revolut announced that it had obtained a European banking licence, which will allow it to launch numerous services for entrepreneurs, notably a financing offer. With Revolut Business, you can create prepaid cards for your employees and link them to your company account. That way, you see at a glance the spending details of each card and can manage limits employee by employee. Likewise, if a card is lost, you can block it in a few minutes, card by card. It is also possible to use an API (connector) to interface with most ERPs or other financial software.
Let’s come back to the solution for individuals. There are 3 possible plans: Standard, Premium and Metal. The Standard plan costs nothing to open and offers:
- Free UK current account
- Free Euro IBAN account
- Spend in more than 150 currencies at the interbank exchange rate
- No exchange fees in 29 fiat currencies up to €6,000 per month
- No ATM withdrawal fees up to €200 per month
Next, the Premium subscription, at €7.99 per month:
- Free UK current account
- Free Euro IBAN account
- Spend in more than 150 currencies at the interbank exchange rate
- Unlimited exchange in 29 fiat currencies, with no monthly limit
- No ATM withdrawal fees up to €400 per month
- Overseas medical insurance
- Baggage and/or delayed flight insurance
- Global express delivery
- Priority customer support
- Instant access to five cryptocurrencies
- Premium card with exclusive designs
- Disposable virtual cards
- LoungeKey Pass access
And finally, the Metal version (the most expensive, at €13.99 per month):
- Free UK current account
- Free Euro IBAN account
- Spend in more than 150 currencies at the interbank exchange rate
- Unlimited exchange in 29 fiat currencies, with no monthly limit
- No ATM withdrawal fees up to €600 per month
- Overseas medical insurance
- Baggage and/or delayed flight insurance
- Global express delivery
- Priority customer support
- Instant access to five cryptocurrencies
- Exclusive Revolut Metal card
- Disposable virtual cards
- LoungeKey Pass access
- 0.1% cashback in Europe and 1% outside Europe on all card payments
- Exclusive concierge service
I am going to focus on the most expensive version, which is also the one with the most services (details available online here). For an explanation in French of how to use Revolut Metal (NowTech):
As you can see, Revolut brings real added value compared with traditional banking services. As a user, I was able to test it both in my country of residence and abroad, to pay for all kinds of expenses. I have not yet been able to test the “Concierge” service at the time of writing (a VIP service for various bookings and other requests), but I will do so in the coming days.
In short… is Revolut worth using?
As clearly shown in the NowTech video, the Metal option is clearly attractive for globetrotters. In my everyday use, I found that the app offers amazing visibility of spending and ease of transfers (especially the Turbo option for receiving money, which is great!). We are looking at a modern way of managing your finances, far more cutting-edge than what traditional banks offer.