"Real" exchange rates: Revolut doesn't live up to its promise

Hi there. Firstly let me apology for the delay.

After investigating this for you I would to clarify that our rates are indeed correct and the weekend mark up is 1% for KES. Unfortunately, you were checking the interbank mid market rate and not the *interbank bid rate. Rate providers like XE.com do not show the interbank bid rate bit the mid-market rate, i.e. the average between the bid and ask rate. This is because when you go to search up a currency pair the website doesn’t know whether you’re looking to buy or sell that currency so it just gives the middle.

Specifically, on the 6 of May you have received 97.91 (including the the 1% weekend mark up). As this has been previously explained Revolut uses the Friday’s closure rate plus 1%. The interbank bid rate at that time was 98.90. If you apply 1% mark up you get 97.91

A simple way to check this is to use https://www.investing.com/currencies/chf-kes-chart and the method you can us is:

Today’s Mid Market - Bid rate = x

Mid Market rate - x difference = Interbank bid rate .

IF it’s a weekend:

Interbank - 1%

I hope this now makes clear that Revolut indeed provides the superior interbank bid rate.

Best,

Andreas K.

11 Likes