European Accounts for Premium users or with a fee to ordinary users

Hello :smiley: ! I suppose it could be quite complicated :face_with_monocle: for Revolut to do this, but it would be great to have the ability to open a EURO account in a selected country you travel to, or stay in temporarily (for example for a temporary work assignment). Revolut is planning something like this for non US residents, having a US account see: US account, why not in other countries? In my case, Spain. This will enable to pay bills etc in the local country or have direct debit assigned to your account. For example here in Spain my GB IBAN Euro account is not acceptable for such issues.

Also when using the Revolut Premium card to pay Spanish online shops they very often refuse and ask for a bank transfer instead. Or this could work with some of the features mentioned in another threat A fully Integrated global system?. Another thing, it would be amazing if I could also use my Spanish account, not just the UK one. Just a thought, it could be a great feature for Premium users or ordinary users could use it for a small fee. What do people think? Any ideas if this is feasible @anon33247966?

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Inside the Euro region it is forbidden to do IBAN discrimination. So you should be able to use every IBAN issued inside the Euro region for direct debits. Look at what N26 write about this https://support.n26.com/read/000001413?locale=en

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That might be the case, but it simply doesnā€™t work in Spain. When, for example, I tried to open a mobile phone contract, and they asked for the IBAN of my Euro account, it was refused. Similarly I could not do a direct debit to this account from any Spanish companies Iā€™ve tried so far.

You have to file a complaint, check out the list for you country https://ec.europa.eu/info/system/files/art10-competent-authorities-05072013_en_0.pdf so that this will stop.

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Hmm. I will think about it, but it seems it is a local restriction. Iā€™ve tried four different companies they all said the same thing. Anyway, an account that act as ā€œlocalā€ anywhere would be a nice feature, which was the main point of this ideaā€¦

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I understand, but the idea of SEPA is that you can use one account inside the SEPA region in all countries. So what you suggest is something complicated for something that is simple.
Only those companies have to get instructed.

What would happen when the UK is no longer part of the EU and therefore SEPA? (ok, yes thatā€™s quite an assumptionā€¦). Spanish companies think the GB IBAN means its a UK bank. A manager in Santander, here (Spain), for example, made a remark to me about the UK that "we will work with the UK for now, but we already are making contingency plans about the UK. I know the physical bank for the EURO transactions is in Lithuania but the GB IBAN confuses them (the Spanish).

All companies here in Spain demand a Spanish Bank account for opening an account (like electricity, mobile phone and so on, they refuse ā€œforeignā€ ones, as in Revolut, which they classify it as such.

AFAIK :r: doesnā€™t support any direct debits yet.

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Yes and that would be an amazing feature.

Did some research @Michiell and you are right about SEPA. Its strange that it is flatly refused in Spain.

According to Wikipedia, SEPA Direct Debit is available since 2 November 2009, BUT participation in the scheme is optionalā€¦ And as @badskittler already mentioned, :r: doesnā€™t even support it yet, which is a great pity.

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In a case of a ā€˜hard Brexitā€™, it is highly likely that :R: will be using a subsidiary based in a Eurozone country to conduct operations (and therefore still be able to use SEPA).

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File complaints instead, eventually even the spaniards will understand what SEPA stands for and what the point of it is.

Revolut should absolutely not fix what is not broken in the first place. That would be the same thing as helping the ignorant spanish companies who gives you trouble keep this up. They should be fined heavily by the EU so they learn their lesson.

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Agree. I think :r: should, however, support Direct Debit though.

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Indeed they donā€™t and I think they should.

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The reason why Spanish companies and authorities will not permit direct debit IBAN transfers from outside Spain is obvious. Direct debits are teh only reason why any foreigner in Spain needs too pen a bank account in Spain and expose himself to the horrible activities these banks deploy which they call ā€˜serviceā€™ and which are accompanied by lots of fees.
If one can make payments from abroad, not only will foreigners flee the Spanish banks but there would be a complete exodus by Spaniards. These often de facto insolvent banks would collapse.

Report them to the local financial conduct authority, theyā€™re breaking EU Directives which are enacted through law by member states.

Are you really sure IBAN discrimination applies to individuals and companies (non-banking sector)? From my understanding, a bank cannot discriminate an IBAN in the SEPA zone for a debit or a transfer but I am not sure it is forbidden for a company to refuse a non-local SEPA IBAN from an individual customer or a supplier (i.e. my health insurance company does not accept a non-French IBAN).

I may be wrong. Just asking!

Iā€™m sure @NFH could give some light on the official directive legal text, but Iā€™m relatively sure itā€™s illegal to discriminate against an IBAN regardless of context (unless an individual to individual in which, who cares)

@Recchan is right. Itā€™s Article 9 of Regulation (EU) No 260/2012. The legislation doesnā€™t refer to the IBAN prefix, but to the location of the bank account.

So to make this a little easier I went and found the regulation :wink:

For the proper functioning of the internal market and in order to facilitate cross-border trade within the Community it is essential that the charges for cross-border payments in euro are the same as for corresponding payments within a Member State. That principle of equality of charges is established by Regulation (EC) No 2560/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 December 2001 on cross-border payments in euro[ (4)](https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?qid=1547069813122&uri=CELEX:32009R0924#ntr4-L_2009266EN.01001101-E0004), which applies to cross-border payments in euro and in Swedish kronor up to EUR 50 000, or equivalent.[1]

As it clearly mentions, cross-border payments are to be treated the same as they are in a particular member state. This applies to anything up to 50,000ā‚¬ or equivalent in SEK.

Click this for the PDF that will tell you your countryā€™s regulatory body to report IBAN discrimination to

1: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?qid=1547069813122&uri=CELEX:32009R0924