Thank you very much!
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Hi Andreas,
Just to clarify, an example: if I have a balance in CHF that covers a purchase charged by a merchant in CHF, will my CHF balance be used, even if my base currency is EUR?
Just another example.
I am a UK resident, but spend a lot of time in the EU and almost exclusively use my Revolut card there. Until recently, I was able to book AirBnB accommodation with the card bypassing their ridiculous enforced DCC fees, but not long ago they âfixedâ it and started checking the base currency of the payment method. Unfortunately, Revolut reports GBP⌠I do want it to be treated as a EUR card, so I hope that you will let us choose the base currency, otherwise itâs way less useful to me than before.
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Thanks everyone for the great feedback. This is important issue as we see more and more different examples come up as to when changing home currency would be useful.
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I donât understand why this is problematic for Revolut to implement? Is it technical, security related or what?
As in a previous post I live in the Euro area but derive a large part of my funds in sterling, so would be great to be able to switch my base currency.
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Regardless of your base currency, if the transaction is done in a currency that has available funds in your Revolut wallet, this currency will be used: EUR balance will be used for EUR transaction, CHF for a CHF one, etcâŚIf there is not enough funds in the wallet of the original transaction currency, then your base currency will be used, if funds available.
Your base currency is always debited for transactions with currencies not included in the wallet.
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Thanks, I also had a test transaction and it indeed worked as you described.
Thanks this is the answer I have been looking for⌠I have both Stirling and Euro in my account, so of I purchase an item in the UK then revolute will automatically draw from my Stirling balance. If I purchase an item while in France Revolute will draw from my Euro balance. Perfect⌠So whatâs the problem or have I got that wrong?
The issue is when there isnât enough balance in the respective currency.
For example: I had both Euro and Sterling in my account and made a purchase in Euro but above my available Euro balance. I would have expected Revolut to take as much as possible from my available Euro balance and the remainder from my sterling balance. It did not. Revolut left my Euro balance untouched and took the whole amount from my sterling balance, converting the whole amount at a weekend surcharge rate. Which surprised me.
Also in spite of all my top up funds being in sterling Revolut have fixed my base currency to Euro, due to my current location. Which means all Revolut fees, transaction and card limits etc are set in Euro, which unnecessarily complicates things for me.
I work around Europe and can get paid in Euro, CHF, GBP, even Krona.
Iâm OK with Revolut taking the currency for the payment method, that works fine.
My issue is if Iâm paid in CHF and I have a lot CHF at that point in time and Iâm in say Japan, and Revolut doesnât yet support Yen, then I will be charged to my default GBP account. I would like to be able to select what currency account is used in this instance. Otherwise Iâm converting CHF->GBP->JYN 
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Did you find a solution to this? Itâs a big problem when using Airbnb as they charge almost 10% of the price in Euros with the conversion - a nightmare!
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Can we now change the Base currency please - when will this be possible? Thatâs the whole point of having a Revolut card
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What currency you would like to have a base currency?
I would like to switch from PLN to EUR. I currently live in Poland, hence my base currency is in PLN. However, when I try to book an accommodation in Airbnb, the site somehow detects that my base currency is PLN, and therefore forces me to be charged in PLN with some extra currency exchange charge, as opposed to EUR. Simply opening an EUR account within the app doesnât solve the issue.
Se also here with a possible solution:
https://danielpocock.com/disabling-dcc-on-airbnb
More people should report Airbnbâs behavior to Mastercard and Visa. At least it is sketchy. It might be a violation of MCâs and Visaâs terms.
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I think we have two different scenarios here:
a) base currency, or - how Revolut processes a transaction internally.
and
b) The cardâs currency, visible to the merchant via the BIN Code (the first 6 digits from the CC number)
Problems with DCC will most likely arise when the merchant reads the BIN and âforcesâ the respective home currency on the client. I wonder if Revolut is able to find a fix for this, as DCC is becoming commonplace in online and offline life. if not, DCC will be a substantial threat to Revolutâs brilliant idea of a multi-currency card.
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Yes, and regarding Airbnb, there might be a third point here: the billing address associated with the account, and / or the location at the time of booking. You see this with some airlines, or with the Eurostar train: if I am in the U.K. and want to book a ticket, Eurowings wonât show me prices in EUR for example. If I am somewhere else in Europe, Eurowings shows prices in EUR. As far as I know this behavior is legal because Eurowings charges the local currency.
Isnât it like this with Airbnb. Right now I am in Germany. I just checked some places in the US. All prices were shown in EUR. No DCC so far. I havenât tested if they would force me to pay in GBP if I would use the Revolut card that would be recognized as a U.K. issued card.
I can see how doing this could offer some potential savings for overseas purchases. Say for example I want to holiday in one of the countries where revolut doesnât support the currency. For arguments sake lets say COP. GBP is performing neutral against COP butâŚ
GBP is doing well against CAD and CAD is doing well against COP.
So I transfer just the amount of funds for my holiday from GBP to CAD.
When on holiday I make purchases in local COP currency but I can switch my base currency to CAD so the funds are deducted from the more favorable CADCOP pair at the time.
This has the potential to make some substantial savings.
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You can still do it by disabling other main currencies and keeping CAD enabled on your account
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You canât deactivate the base currency however which is the one revolt will default to for payments
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