Your exchange rate for the Columbian peso against the euro when I made my first purchase in bogota was much less favourable to me than the interbank rate which your own app shows (3133 Columbian pesos) and as a result I have been debited about 8€ more for this transaction than the interbank rate. The same applies to one other transaction I made today in Colombia.
I’m a little disappointed in your rates for my first attempt at using Revolut abroad
Hello @marcsender,
Thank you for letting us. Could you please send me a direct message your phone number associated with your account so we can investigate this for you?
I’d be interested to know the resolution of this case. My son used his Revolut card in Colombia last year, and seemed to get the same rate as MasterCard (i.e., roughly, Interbank). I’ll be going there this year, and would be interested to know if Revolut still offers the Interbank rate, or if the Colombian peso is now treated like the Thai baht.
Sorry I didn’t see your post earlier - still in Colombia and really appreciating Revolut card every day here - the exchange rate quirk seems to have settled and we are getting pretty much interbank rates - this card is the best thing since sliced bread as far as I’m concerned.
Only problem but not unique to Colombia and certainly not Revolut’s fault is that some banks here with charge you a withdrawal fee. Not all - so it’s Russian roulette and you can cancel withdrawal once you see the warning in the ATM - but even with the fees (between 10,000 and 15.000 pesos - 3-4€) it’s a hell of a lot better than being fleeced by bank back home - and you can use your card for shop and restaurant payments pretty much everywhere in Colombia
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Glad to hear that @marcsender. Unfortunately, we cannot control ATM provider fees, however they’ll clarify this with you before proceeding with the transaction.
Using it here in Colombia, I find Bancolombia doesn’t seem to charge any transsaction fee. In the ATM it gives a warning that it might (and doesn’t sepcify how much), but the peso amount deducted is exactly the same as the cash I received.
And just to follow up on this, the exchange rate is much lower (2-3%) than the market rate here. Earlier I took out 300,000 Columbian Pesos, which cost me €100.73 (so 2978 Pesos=1 Euro). The market rate according to XE is 3064 Pesos=1 Euro. It is a Saturday here, but Friday’s rate is pretty much the same.
It isn’t an ATM fee, as I paid for hotel an hour or two later using Revolut, and that used pretty much the same rate (2978 Pesos =1 Euro), so at least Bancolombia isn’t charging an ATM fee, but the FX Rate used is poor enough to make each transaction about 3% more than it should be.
And just as I see there’s another thread about Revolut charging a .5% for weekend transactions, this is far higher than that, but checking a transaction for last Wednesday (Using the card in a shop, where 25000 COP came out at €8.22, or 3041 Pesos = 1 Euro), that’s pretty much what the rate was that day, http://www.xe.com/currencycharts/?from=EUR&to=COP&view=1W . Do you charge a much higher premium for volatile or risky currencies?
Today’s mid-market rate for Euros is €1 = $3142.32 Colombian pesos as provided by xe.com. So yes, Revolut seems to be offering a poor rate. You can check the official MasterCard exchange rate here:
https://www.mastercard.us/en-us/consumers/get-support/convert-currency.html
For yesterday, 5th March, the listed rate is COP $3115.26 per Euro. So you would be much better off using an official MasterCard with zero exchange fees (e.g. in the UK: Halifax Clarity or Santander Zero) for purchases. Shame. Revolut needs to be much more transparent about its currency fees and rates, and about which currencies have markups.
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I find revolut rate to be 10% better than exchanging cash at least here in Medellin. Revolut card definitely wins when withdrawing cash. Unfortunately my app got blocked hoping @AndreasK might be able to help
Have you tried to contact our in-app support team?
My issue is already solved, thanks. It took few hours to get a reply but I got it eventually.