BGN/EUR rate unfavourable

Currently Revolut gives a BGN/EUR exchange rate of 0.5099 whereas Google, xe.com, and Transferwise all provide a rate of ~0.5113.

Any idea why?

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@anon33247966

twentytwenty

Heya, I’m able to tell you why :slight_smile:

Basically, when you Google it you get an averaged out buy and sell rate - in between.

Revolut gives you the sell your currency for their currency rate, done in real time. This fluctuates per second, so it’s literally what your currency is worth at the second.

Transferwise offers this rate, but if I remember right they exchange it when it’s favorable to exchange - just giving you the currency they already have at the time. Basically they can exchange with themselves rather than having to go on the market.

They then make money by charging for this service.

In reality when you include fees, TransferWise should be more expensive than Revolut, I believe.

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Transferwise does not bother to clearly explain that great rate they display in graphs etc does not include their fees. With fees included its overall clearly more expensive than Revolut. Maybe with few exceptions in some cases.

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Though how come the CHF rates on Google, XE, and Transferwise match about exactly what Revolut offers and only the BGN rate is down?

Taking BGN 10,000 for example. On Revolut I’d get EUR 5,099 whereas Transferwise would convert to EUR 5,113. Admittedly they charge EUR 25.74 for the transaction, but the rate itself is significantly better and I am solely talking about the rate here.

And again for CHF the rates match, for BGN they dont. If they only provide the sell rate (and that would be actually new to me) it should apply to all currencies, right.

And https://www.revolut.com/help/getting-started/exchanging-currencies/what-foreign-exchange-rate-will-i-get/ would actually contradict that very statement. It clearly refers to Revolut offering the interbank exchange rate, just like Transferwise.

And again, Revolut does seem to offer that rate for e.g. CHF, not for BGN though and that is why I posted here.

When you include the fees is what you actually get in the end and is what you should be comparing. Don’t get too hung up on rates.

Right, as the sell rate changes throughout the day (which they do, every second) it may happen to coincide with the rate you see on Google or XE. This is a coincidence.

TransferWise don’t offer the interbank sell rate, they offer the mid-market rate, which is an average of the interbank sell and buy rate.

Of course, if you include fees it might be a different picture, but as I already explained, I was referring solely to the advertised rates.

Coincidence that the CHF rate was on all platforms about the same but BGN varied at the same time on Revolut noticeably from the other three platforms?

May I quote from aforementioned link?

you will receive the interbank exchange rate

But anyhow, regardless of the offered rate. If there is a difference to other curency rates, it should equally apply to all currencies and not just one.

It is not only BGN/EUR, I think BGN to GBP or USD is equally not excellent. Even my local bank has better rate BGN to EUR. Which is not the case with Curve for example.

Advertised rates mean nothing. Some banks advertise 0% commission that has no fee but a rate so poor it equates to a 40% fee.

The end result is the only thing that’s matters.

Perhaps. Also “all platforms” what is “all”?

Does that include the internal Chinese Yuan market? I doubt it. So it isn’t “all”

You need to specify.

May I counter-quote.

It is definitely the Mid-Market rate that is offered by TransferWise. It’s not the interbank rate.

If you want an absolute avoidance of doubt you can ask them yourselves - they will confirm what rate they use :slight_smile:

Not how it works I’m afraid.

North Korean Won for example has an extremely small amount of people buying and selling this currency outside of North Korea, as such it would have an insanely higher rate to account for volatility as opposed to USD which is bought and sold as the currency for large international transfers like butter is to be spread on toast.

It does, in the sense that Revolut claims to offer the official rate.

I did, by “all” I obviously meant those I was already referring to.

Of course :wink: but may I counter-counter-quote.

image

Seriously? I was not talking about KPW, I was not even talking about THB or UAH - where Revolut officially has a markup - I was talking about an EU currency.

But even if BGN was such an unpopulare currency, it would not explain why all :wink: other platforms offers the same rate and only Revolut is below that.

To address the coincidence argument once more. Right now, all :wink: other platforms offer a rate roughly the same as yesterday. Revolut even went down a bit and is now at 0.5084.

I am sorry, but that aint no coincidence no more. It does appear as if Revolut added a markup (to some currencies at least) and that is what I originally wanted to clarify. @Vebaev’s response appears to further underline that.

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Tagging @anon33247966 :slight_smile:

What is, an official rate?

There’s not one, unless you’re in The People’s Republic of China as their government does the exchanges and tells the banks what rate they have to sell and buy currency for, on a daily basis.

They’re wrong. The Mid-Market rate and Interbank rate aren’t the same thing, sorry to inform you :slight_smile: physically not possible as mid-market literally doesn’t mean “interbank”.

The interbank is what banks trade with each other at in large volumes and differs based on whether you’re buying a currency or selling it. Also dependent on what currency you are selling your currency for.

Still not a well-traded currency, I’d wager.

For what it’s worth though, Revolut pass the rate directly from their FX partner - their rate may not be one you like, but it is what they’re trading st directly.

May I remind you there is no obligation to use Revolut, I’ve also raised similar issues in the past to which they’ve not cared - so I wouldn’t expect a reply.

I’ll still stand by it being cheaper than TransferWise and any other alternative you can name though - purely because they all charge fees.

Well, what it comes down to is that Revolut either charges a markup or offers worse rates than their competitors, which is the same as what banks do.

BGN 10,000 currently are EUR 5,113 on Transferwise (and EUR 5,087 with the fee), respectively EUR 5,083 on Revolut. Even with the fee Transferwise is the more attractive option. Looking at the rate alone (excluding the fee) it is a much more attractive option.

Again, either there is a markup or they should fix their rate issue. I still hope Andreas can clarify what is going on here and why Revolut offers such a worse rate.

No. Banks offer bad rates.

Challengers are meant to offer good rates, not bad ones.

Revolut’s rate isn’t bad by any means, it just isn’t the best.

So, Revolut is cheaper - in other words it has a better rate assuming you’re including the TransferWise fee into the rate they advertise?

Clearly not for 99% of people, as the fee means a Revolut should be cheaper up until over 5000€ :thinking:

Excluding the fee is stupid :thinking: customers don’t look at the rate alone - they look at the end amount of currency they get and see which price is lower.

Stop proposing scenarios based solely on rate - it doesn’t happen and even implying it matters is disingenuous when you’re comparing Revolut to people offering a worse rate (when you include the fee, which isn’t ignorable)

There is no markup unless stated. They are giving you what their FX partner give them.

Their FX partner isn’t going to alter their rates based on Revolut’s opinion as it isn’t based on Revolut at all. They do their own research and they’re not stupid.

Feel free to open your own company that exchanges foreign currency for a living, maybe you can do better and take their place working with Revolut :slight_smile:

Until someone shows it can be done cheaper though I’m going to sit here and call this disingenuous bull.

Because they’re using the interbank sell rate :thinking: not the midmarket rate, which you seem to confuse too often due to wrong information from TransferWise :slight_smile:

revolut’s rate isn’t supposed to be good, it’s supposed to be 0% over interbanking. that’s what they advertise and that’s what they should be delivering. their internal affairs with their partners are not relevant.

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Yes but in reality we have for example:
EUR = 1.956 BGN (interbank rate at the moment)
EUR = 1.960 BGN (my bank fixed rate)
EUR = 1.961 BGN (Revolut rate most of the time)

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I’ll just link my post from another thread, that everyone from Revolut is ignoring so far.

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Also! Though I was not even primarily referring to the weekend surcharge (which really shouldnt be applicable in the case of EUR-BGN) but to the regular standard rate on workdays.

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