I’m not being sarcastic. When Revolut charges you >2% mark-up on the “real” exchange rate it’s not a free service anymore. Then we’re talking about hidden fees, while Revolut’s marketing is all about transparency and no fees.
While for major currency pairs Revolut gives you exactly what you call the mid market rate, for more exotic currencies (like the KES in my example) Revolut applies a markup of >2%. Such a markup is not mentioned in the FAQ and therefore not transparent. That’s why I have asked Revolut for clarification on the rates they apply.
I would love to hear from Revolut about this. I’m now with TransferWise. They use what you call again the mid market rate (the one you would find on xe.com) while applying a constant markup of 0.7%. Much more transparent and even cheaper than Revolut.
To sum up: Based on the information provided by Revolut you would not expect to loose more than 2% of your money when exchanging EUR to KES (it’s almost 3% on the weekend). So far, Revolut has not been willing or able to explain what rates they use.