I am à Revolut user. I love the concept, the app and what the company stands for.
But I am based in Switzerland, my revenues are in CHF, and thus I does not make financial sense at this stage for me to use Revolut.
Topping up via bank transfer in CHF costs a fortune and thus not an option, topping up via credit card as well (On top of the 1% Revolut charges, Visa charges me another 1.75% because Revolut is based abroad).
All charges together, it is cheaper to use my traditional bank when in another country.
I hate to write that, but if Revolut does not come up with a solution for Swiss users, I will have to quit using it.
I’m sorry. I sincerely hope that Revolut are able to come up with a solution to its Swiss users. But to blame this on Revolut, is, IMHO, totally wrong.
Basically the Swiss banking system stinks! It’s arcane, its anti-competitive, it has rested far too long on its laurels, and has suffered from a mistaken superiority complex that is ill founded. The sooner the arcane institution that is Swiss retail banking is opened up to the fresh air of competitive and modern practices, then the better its customers will fare. In my humble opinion of course.
Revolut is very efficient if you live in the EU, but in CH you will pay fees no matter how you top up your Revolut account.
If you top up via bank transfer, your transfer in CHF will be considered foreign so you will be charged by your bank, a lot.
If you top up via credit card, you pay the Revolut 1%, and with the card provider I use (viseca), I am getting charged another 1.75% as Revolut is based outside CH.
A solution would be Revolut providing CHF accounts/IBANs, I don’t know if it’s in the cards?
I agree with you, Swiss retail banking system is archaic…but if I wait for the system to change I will wait a long time, hopefully Revolut will come up with a solution soon
The Swiss retail banking industry is indeed full of legacy banks and legacy infrastructure.
The legacy banks are indeed responsible for the fees and for treating the non-Swiss CHF transfers as ‘foreign’ (Therefore subject to fees.).
At the same time, it may be possible for Revolut to sidestep the issue by partnering with a domestic bank located in Switzerland, and offer personal CHF IBANs through them.
This way, a personal CHF IBAN will prevent domestic CHF to CHF transfers from being subject to fees (on the basis of the transaction being ‘foreign’.).
My assumption is that the goal is for every single currency to have its own personal IBAN.
Therefore personal CHF IBANs are probably slated as a feature, although due Switzerland having its own currency and its own financial system, it’ll take more time.
This has been discussed in other topics.
Revolut said they are working on a solution - see: LINK
In addition: in a previous version of the revolut app, a message was shown in the CHF account section, that local IBANs will come ‘soon’
Let’s wait and see how long ‘soon’ will be in the revolut timeline
Good! But what does it mean? That we will get a UK-based CHF IBAN? In that case it won’t help with the fees… We would really need a Swiss-based IBAN to be able to top up for free…
