Cayman Island banks making Revolut useless

Hi!

Finally for the first time I am using Revolut in Cayman Islands (now I am visiting, but previously I lived here for 8 years). I know that local banks do like to rip off tourists, but I didn’t expect them to go to that extent.

What they do is they basically force CCC (Convenicence Currency Conversion) on everybody who doesn’t have local Cayman-issued card and even worse, that they do CCC to USD, not currency of the issuer and they do it at very unfavourable rate (pocketing up to 5%). So people with non-USD and non-KYD cards are getting ripped twice - first by local bank, then by their own bank. In case of Revolut, second part is solved, but not the first part.

Merchants showed me what happens when they try to charge my card in KYD - machine just responds with “Currency mismatch” or “Use USD” message and refuses to charge my card in KYD.

To me it looks like violation of Visa / Mastercard rules on CCC and I am pissed of with them.

For Revolut it means that it’s advertised support of KYD is basically useless, as local banks use mean techniques to still rip people off.

Has anybody been in this situation? Anything can be done?
If you agree that this is illegal on behalf of local banks, I am willing to make a complaint with Visa, if anybody did this before - please give a few pointers on what to do.

1 Like

So basically all foreign cards have their KYD charges automatically exchanged to USD (at their rate)?

Probably only a complaint.

Illegal probably not, possibly in violation to agreements with credit card issuers but I wouldnt know details.

I have found this exact problem in the Caymans. I use my Revolut and I am forced to pay in USD are a rubbish rate compared with. KYD GBP. Can Revolut take this up with the local banks or VISA / MasterCard

@zholnin @alessandro

Sorry to revive an old thread but it’s the only one I’ve found on the forum related to the same thing I’m experiencing.
KYD should be pegged to the USD at 1.20 USD for every KYD
But on Revolut, the rates converter shows it at different rates compared to USD at various times.

I’m not sure how this works on Revolut’s end? It seems as though Revolut is artificially floating the exchange rate between KYD and USD and is not going by the official pegged exchange rate set by the central banks.

As KYD is not supported on Revolut, you wouldn’t be able to convert any other currencies to or from it but the fact that it shows the rates incorrectly (or artificially) against the USD is worrying. I have attached screenshots for proof.
First one taken yesterday at 10:30

@Rbetts100

And this one today at 08:02

I wonder if a member of the @RevolutAdmin support team could clarify this issue? Seems as though it is pointless to use Revolut when in the Cayman Islands and actually worse thank actual bank accounts that give you money USD for your KYD (always fixed at 1.20 to KYD).

Thanks.

Can you pay there with American Express? Could be a workaround as there is no DCC with AMEX afaik.