GBP Base account but ATM'S say EUR

I had a faulty card, :r: replaced it free of charge, 10 /10. New card arrived 36 hours later, 10/10. I live in UK, base account is GBP but UK ATM’S think new card is in EUR and offer EUR to GBP conversion. After discussion :r: replace card free of charge, 10/10. New card arrives 36 hours later, 10/10. But new card is the same as the last one. 5 different UK bank ATM’S think it is an EUR card. I can decline conversion and withdrawal comes off of my GBP balance. Going to Eurozone within days , no idea what will happen. Going to Turkey later in the year, what will happen then? Happily used :r: for almost 2 years without issue but now left in total confusion. I cannot be the only person facing this dilemma.

Hey @badskittler,

Just choose the local currency, that is, GBP while you’re in the UK and everything will be fine :wink:

That works fine but if I live in the UK and my base currency is GBP why the hell do ATM’S think my card is EUR based. There is something wrong with the embedded data on cards being issued in the UK and I go abroad with zero idea of how my card will perform.

It shouldn’t be EUR!

I can see that your base currency is GBP :slight_smile:

I wouldn’t trust the ATM!

OK @anon33247966 but tried 7 different banks and they all think it’s EUR. No problem so far with merchants. Going to Zakynthos in a couple of weeks it will be interesting to see what happens there. Still think that if this happens to all new UK cards there is going to be a lot of confused people out there.

Ok thank you. Could you please let me know what’s the exact message you get?

I’ll take a photo shortly and upload it.

Could you list the banks that you’ve tried?

I’ve used Barclays’s and there was no conversion issue.

Tried again but things getting really weird. ATM’s now asking which language to use, never had that before. So tried 3 (away from home not the same machines as usual).

  1. TSB, asked language, responded English, card returned “Unable to proceed” .

2 Coop Bank, card immediately rejected “Card not recognised” .

  1. Nationwide Building Society, asked language, responded English, all OK and cash dispensed.

Will try HSBC, Sainsbury, Tesco, Nat West, Lloyd’s, Halifax and Santander all of whom previously offered conversion when I get home.

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That’s odd.

I’ve never used some of the other smaller legacy banks (TSB, Co-op, Nationwide.), but both Barclays and Natwest works fine.


I assume it’s due to Wirecard being based out of Germany (Eurozone, EUR.), which is why some legacy banks might confuse Revolut’s new Wirecard-issued cards (As opposed to PaySafe, which is based out of the UK, hence GBP.) as having the Euro as the base currency.

Ok thank you. I will report this to the team.

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Probably will have to contact each bank separately and ask for Revolut’s Wirecard BINs to be flagged as GBP.

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On the other hand, raises a dilemma whereby a manual override for all of Revolut’s BINs will be flagged as GBP-default, therefore customers from Eurozone countries with EUR base currencies will have to use DCC if they want to withdraw Euros.

Can’t find a way to attach a photo. This time HSBC. First get notification that my bank might charge me for using their machine. Then “This ATM offers conversion to your home currency”. “Cash 10.00 GBP, 1 GBP = 1.1502 EUR, Total amount that will appear on your account including conversion 11.50 EUR”. If I continue without conversion £10.00 will be deducted from my GBP account.

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(Only available on desktop, and not on mobile.).

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@anon33247966 Tested my new card in Tsilivi, Zakynthos using an ATM I used earlier in the year. Coop Bank and Nationwide debit cards are read as GBP and an offer to convert to EUR at a rubbish rate is made. :r: card is read as EUR and cash immediately dispensed. Clearly UK cards are now being delivered setup differently than they were. Personally I can cope but it’s going to be mightily confusing, for instance, for users with more than one card if they happen to work differently to each other.

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Given how the Greek island you are on is in Greece, and the national currency of Greece is the Euro, it appears that the Revolut card is functioning correctly, as it should be drawing on the EUR balance (if you have any.) in your EUR currency account, rather than your base currency (GBP).

It drew on the right balance but as a replacement it works differently than the original did. As GBP is my base currency then when I’m in the UK ATM’S shouldn’t offer to convert my EUR to GBP. If I accepted this offer I would get the dreaded double conversion. In Greece ATM’S used recognise my card as GBP but it now thinks it is EUR. This is not how the card is supposed to work. As I said not a problem to me but I guess that if the cards they are soon issuing to the USA think they are EUR cards then :r: will quickly get a major headache.

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Yep it’s definitely odd.

A legacy bank issue + Revolut’s product is quite unique (in the sense that most ‘neobanks’ tend to only have base currency cards with no currency account options.).