In Germany at least, cash is everything. Germans love cash and a lot of shops just don’t accept card payments.
I think both is true. ATM fees are high in some markets. High fees were given as an explanation when Revolut changed the policy way over a year ago. Especially in the beginning, when user’s mainly used to cash out money on vacation and didn’t use the card at home on a daily basis. That use case was actually costing Revolut money.
But also, the number of shops accepting cards is on the rise. About 50 percent are paid cashless. Many merchants that accept Girocard might also accept Maestro. ELV-only does not work, obviously.
If this is true, UK users should able to choose VISA and Maestro cards, not just MC. Because we would need to withdraw in a lot of countries because MC is not accepted in a huge number of PoS cities.
According to this new article, using cash is growing all over the world despite the fact, that electronic payment functions raise. The source is a study from g4s.com
https://www.n-tv.de/wirtschaft/Nur-Bares-ist-Wahres-article20391849.html
Interesting. But this does not contradict the assumption that cards will play a bigger role from year to year in Europe.
It would be interesting to see how relevant predominately cash based societies are for Revolut‘s customers and how this fits into Revolut‘s business model.
Revolut says soon everyone will be able to choose between Visa and MC
As I already said: Revolut will never be for anybody the primary account, if you’re always charged for getting your money, which you’ve worked for.
Conclusion: A lot of people won’t use it for everyday shopping. No rewards, no cashback and additional fees for getting money. This is definitely not what I expect from the slogan on the website ‘Better than your bank account’ !
Revolut is paying around €2 (+taxes?) in Germany for every single cash withdrawal. In addition, they also pay fees relating to the withdrawn amount.
It is highly unlikely that they will lift the €200/months (€400/months) barrier.
So, the free cash withdrawal is a free bonus for you where they lose money.
Have you read the other posts ? I already said that this is crazy!
If that would be true what you say, 200 amount / min amount 5 = 40 withdrawals. 40 * 2€ fee would be 80 € a month!
Then my approach would be much more efficient
Well. Sure. But this differs between countries a lot. The completely free current account is not a thing in Denmark for example, where people often pay a small fee for every transfer.
Traditional banks used to cross-subsidize current accounts with other services. A survey by Boston Consulting showed that every current account costs the bank on average about 120 EUR per year (Germany). Sure, digitalization can lower this. But banks that do not run their own ATM network need to figure out a reasonable strategy here to control costs.
Also, the basic service of Revolut is free. It is a funny idea that banking should be a completely free service just because the service is related to “one’s own money”. To sustainably provide a basically free service, a company should look at the costs that are generated by only a group of people that use a certain cost intensive service more than others do. Otherwise, everybody would pay for this. This is the argumentation N26 used when they introduced their fair usage policy.
It was a long tradition that wealthy customers paid less for basic banking services then the one’s that could afford less. I am a fan of the idea that people that use a certain service more extensive also should pay more for it.
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I can live with that and you’re right. But 2% is really a lot of money. I even would say 2€ is fine
Have you tried denizen.io? They only offer two currencies, EUR and USD, but you have unlimited ATM withdrawals and they even refund you any ATM fees
I have read the other posts and I do understand the issue.
Still, Revolut does not only operate in Germany alone, but in many other countries.
So, their goal is to have a single offer and not to differentiate for every country.
And on average, limiting the withdrawals to a certain amount might be more effective for them as to limit the number of withdrawals. In the end, it is a matter of product policy and the company policy.
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I’m quite new to Revolut, does anybody of you know the right person which we could tag here, to get an opinion to this topic ?
Should Revolut be a wholesome salary account or more likely a travellers card?
Is it possible to find a better balance between costs and service ?
I really don’t see revolut changing anything. The 200€ limit is becoming standard among fintech companies both Transferwise and Mistertango have the same limit.
If you really need to withdraw more money maybe you have to admit revolut is not for you… N26 has the 5 withdrawal limit which I assume is also not enough… I already mentioned denizen which seems to be the only fintech more generous than N26 when it comes to withdrawals
I already have a Santander 1 Plus Visa. I love Revolut for it’s exchange rates and I’m happy with it. But it would be awesome, if I could reduce my cards to one. I want one account for everything 
At least they could introduce a platinum plan with a higher monthly cost but a way higher free ATM withdrawal limit or a smaller % for withdrawing higher amounts. This could also come with the metal cards. Would love it and would definitely upgrade.
Many travellers use this and there are countries where you need cash… In Thailand many places still do not accept credit cards or you have to spend at least 300THB to be able to use it. Also, found some places which only accepted VISA so my Revolut mastercard was useless and needed cash…
You’re right if you don’t compare it to some UK banks (examples - Barclays, Nationwide) and other fintech banks.
Revolut holds zero advantages over Curve, Starling, Monzo or even my Barclays card when used for daily shopping/POS stuff in the UK. I use my Curve/Starling cards mostly if I don’t use Apple Pay.
Outdoor/POS shopping eating abroad? Take away my Barclays card and it has no advantages either. Every card I have but Barclays is a MasterCard. So what’s the difference?
Revolut only shines for online transfers. I guess that’s what they mean by “better than your bank account.” 
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I am German and I absolutely don’t love cash.
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