I’ve been using Revolut for around a year and I had no problems using it in Madrid for withdrawals.
however I have a friend who recently traveled to the US and was unable to withdraw from a number of ATM’s using his Revolut card and then he gave up.
My confidence has been lost in Revolut reading these forums. I want to be able to use my card in Newark airport and potentially withdraw dollars from an ATM.
I am also considering using one of the multicurrency ATM’s in Manchester airport which might also cause me some problems.
Onwards from Newark I will be travelling to Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Guatemala - I have a feeling I won’t be able to withdraw from ATM’s in Central America either.
any advice regarding this would be greatly appreciated.
I used Revolut in NY, SF, Florida and Oregon without problems to withdraw cash. (Didn’t try “independent” ATMs, always bank ATMs.)
Make sure the location based security feature does not get in your way and remember this from the FAQs:
Sometime when you use an ATM abroad, you will be asked to choose between a ‘credit’, ‘checking’ or ‘savings’ account. You should always choose either a ‘checking’ or ‘savings’ account.
If the ATM (or card terminal) asks whether you would like to complete the transaction ‘with conversion’ or ‘without conversion’, you should ALWAYS choose ‘without conversion’.
As a rule of thumb, you should always opt to be charged in the local currency of the country you’re in! If you’re in Thailand choose Thai Baht, in Spain, Euros or in the United States, Dollars.
If you choose ‘with conversion’, the merchant or ATM provider can apply their own exchange rate. This rate usually has a mark-up on the interbank rate, enabling the ATM provider or merchant to make a profit on your transaction.
Just b/c someone else obviously had major issues with their card setup doesn’t mean you will.
A lot of people disable the magstripe transactions first and then complain for the card not working in the US. There’s this location security feature, too as well as the card’s transaction limits.
Make sure you set your card up properly in the app and you should be good to go for the most part!
I am in the US presently, I have only made one ATM withdrawal here (in a hotel lobby ATM) but not had any issues at PoS terminals at all.
In fact, I have used Revolut in the US, Canada, Italy, Hong Kong, Singapore and Australia in the last couple of months and found pretty much no issue whatsoever anywhere - even places I didn’t expect it to work like ticket vending machines.
In fact, the only ATM to reject the card so far was ScotiaBank in Canada, to be fair this didn’t display the MasterCard logo, only Visa. The ATM directly next door accepted it though.
As said before, check the FAQ’s, be sure you are properly verified and your security settings are ok (allow magstripe for the US) and you should be ok.
It’s been fine for me
Just one FYI: Some ATM’s and card readers in the US are magstripe ‘dip’ - you need to slide your card all the way in (terminal will read the stripe) and then immediately withdraw it for the transaction to then continue - don’t leave the card in place as it will fail. Caught me a couple of times before I realised
I am in Nicaragua right now. Some ATMs accept Revolut cards, some do not. Depends on the bank, it seems. Just because the ATM says it accepts MasterCard is no guarantee. Luckily, I had my own bank’s debit card as well, which worked but charged a big fee.
I was just wondering how you got on using your card in central america if you did. Im going on a very similar trip in a couple of weeks and just wondering what the best policy would be.
