Hi, i will be travelling to multiple destinations (Netherlands, Hungary, Turkey, South-East-Asia) for a period of time and would like to ask the following (The intelligent assistant did not help much).
Are there any countries that i cannot use the card in their local currency?
My main account is in the U.K, can i top up my Revolut card via the app when i am in any country?
What happens if i lost my phone overseas and the location based security is on?
Any advice on the usage of Revolut card when i am travelling?
Yes, although keep in mind new cards will have to be verified through 3DSecure. Check if your bank will be able to authenticate you while abroad
I have used my card in Spain for two days in one country while my phone was still in another country without any trouble. However, thatâs just my experience. Confirm this.
Weâve used Revolut in Thailand Cambodia Taiwan Japan South Korea USA Mexico Turkey and all over Europe. Loaded from our UK accounts via the app. Used it anywhere MasterCard was accepted. Very few problems occasionally in ATMs but alway found one. Sometimes in shops but we both had a card and one would usually work. As advised always have a back up. Never lost a phone so not sure how Iâd solve that.
Have fun.
To have a backup, I have installed Revolut app on my iPad. To login the first time I received a msg with 6 numbers. Now I can use both my phone or my iPad to manage the app.
If you have another phone/tablet it might be an idea.
One of the best things about Revolut is that you can exchange money from your home currency to the currency in which you will be spending. It is extremely unlikely that the exchange rate will be optimal at the time you use the card to spend at merchants. Therefore always exchange money to the destination currency in advance. The most liquid times and consequently the best rates will be during business hours of the destination currency. Avoid weekends when the FX markets are closed with no live prices; Revolut gives you Fridayâs closing rate with a markup of at least 0.5% to protect itself against any movement before Monday morning.
By watching the exchange rate over several days, you should be able to pick an optimal time to buy your destination currency. The only time you should spend in a supported balance currency directly from your home currency is when the destination currency is devaluing fast intraday. If your home currency is devaluing fast (as has happened with GBP), then buying your destination currency in advance becomes even more important.
Politely but decisevely disagree on this; the whole point and beauty of this service is not having to buy ahead of time and use your home currency as you go, getting the current rate at its best!
You can of course buy ahead if your travel currency is supported and that is fine, the choice is yours but you never know because you simply canât know whatâs gonna happen to the rate.
Even with the weekend markup, I still prefer to use my home currency just for flexibility. Well unless I know exactly how much Iâm gonna spend on the weekend, LOL
Overall- both ways are awesome because no matter what and how you do it, you end up using market rates so itâs just as good as it can be.
@revofan - if you donât want to choose your rate, then you can get a wholesale rate without markup on plenty of other cards. For example, UK residents can use Halifax Clarity, Santander Zero and a variety of other cards, which use the MasterCard rate, comparable to Revolutâs rate, albeit the next business day. This is not Revolutâs USP, and if you believe it is the USP, then youâve missed the point.
Yup, thatâs true. You also have a couple of options for MC rate with no commission here in Poland- but theyâre not condition-free-free One of the examples is PEKAO SA debit cards.
And yup, thatâs true Revolutâs currency accounts are awesome, nonetheless.
Now, if you choose to use the current rate and not pre-buying, I believe Revolutâs interbank rate on the go is still superior to Mastercard, because:
Itâs still slightly better during weekdays
Itâs a locked-rate once youâve made the transaction. With Mastercard, youâre at the mercy of your bank and card organization on how quickly the transaction will complete but there always is a difference between pending and completed. With Revolut, there isnât.
May we all have life dilemmas like these- either buy ahead of time or use the current rate.
Both with Revolutâs superior exchange rate
What makes Revolutâs rate inherently better than MasterCardâs rate on weekdays?
Why does the locking of a rate after the transaction make any difference to how good the rate is? With both Revolut (doing FX at time of transaction) and MasterCard, the rate is locked after the transaction. With Revolut, itâs immediately afterwards; with MasterCard itâs a day afterwards. In both cases, youâre equally at the mercy at whatever the rate is at the time the FX is done. Both have an equal chance of being better.
I can challenge this test with doing another one with PLN; I have compared and consistently have seen better rates with Revolut than Mastercard. Mastercard does have a small markup on their rates. Small, but itâs there. Visa on the other hand does have a significant markup.
So pretty sure it will be better for me- at least in the places I usually go to, to USD and EUR places.
The guy mentioned âFriday in Brazilâ. Who knows if that wasnât 10:00PM in a club? So well after midnight in the UK? This has never been confirmed.
The fact MC does provide an âaverageâ rate and has no weekend markup is a plus, though. If I were a UK resident andâd have a convenient MC no commission bank options, then who knows.
The only option in Poland for direct MC PLN -> other currencies is PEKAO SA bank at this moment.
Not a cool bank to use, not innovative enough.
@revofan - this was confirmed, because I clearly wrote âI paid BRL 50 to a hotel 4 times using 4 different no-fee MasterCardsâ and âI deliberately did the test on a working day at a time when both GBP and BRL were liquid, which is why I mentioned above that it was on a Fridayâ.
From tests Iâve done in the past, with MasterCard you are often given the opposite side of the price, i.e. the bid instead of the offer or the offer instead of the bid. This is because the card networks (MasterCard, Visa, American Express) only trade net amounts in the FX markets, i.e. the net flow of aggregate bought and sold amounts in a particular currency pair. On the same card network and same day, if for example more money is spent by US-based card holders in the UK than is spent by UK-based card holders in the US, then the card network will buy a net amount of GBP/USD. This means that UK-based card holders, who are selling GBP/USD, are given the offer instead of the bid, i.e. a much better GBP/USD rate than the interbank rate or Revolutâs rate.
OK- you got me on this one. Basically, you can get competitive rates from âpure Mastercardâ experience, but you canât lock on the rate in advance. Revolut allows you to do that.
As weâre talking about that, why not off-top totally?
So in Poland, if you want to get a commission-free Mastercard, the only real option is PEKAO SA debit cards. It does have some waivable fees, though- based on the card transaction numbers per month and regular incoming transfers.
What are the options for the UK? Can you name a bank or two? Last time I checked, there werenât too many.
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One of the examples is PEKAO SA debit cards.