Hello, I made my first transfer from my french account to my Revolut account but i forgot to type the reference number (10659259). My french account has been debited of 150€ but my revolut account is still not credited. I have contacted the online support in the application that can not help me and that transfers me to a “live agent”. What does it mean? What must I do now? Thank you for your help.
If you contact the support, they can manually allocate your money to your account once it arrived their system.
Thanks Frank. I contacted the support and provided proof of the transfer. The support asked me what name of beneficiary I had written and I said “William Revolut” … I know I was wrong and that I should have written REVOLUT LTD. Okay. This is my first transfer, I’m French, and I did not understand all the subtleties … the support tells me that the money is going to be returned and I find it really strange. The transfer was checked by my bank (IBAN) and everything is ok. I do not understand. I also do not understand where the reference number should be written when transferring.
I made the same transfer on the same day to my N26 account of the same amount and there was no problem. The account was credited in 2 days. If Revolut is too complicated, I will only keep my N26 account, that’s too bad.
Well, it is more complex. N26 is a full fledged bank, Revolut isn’t. N26 provides you a unique account number in your name, Revolut not yet.
Revolut holds their cusomter’s money in ring-fenced accounts. That means, all incoming money is routed through the same account numbers, and the reference code is the little but very important information that allocates your money to your account. (This might look unusual, but it actually isn’t that uncommon. There are a lot of credit card issuers out there that ask their customers to put in the card number in the reference field if they want to pay their credit card debt with a manual transfer.)
In case an IBAN transfer fails, it takes a while until the money comes back to the sender. For the first couple of days, your bank simply does not have the feedback that a transfer failed. IBAN transfers aren’t really “checked” beforehand. All that a sender’s bank checks is if the IBAN itself is valid. They don’t check anything else at that point.
But don’t worry, your money will come back to you eventually. I would wait about 10 days and if you don’t see your money on your French account, contact your bank and Revolut again.
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Okay, I thought I answer your other questions separately:
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Where to put in the reference code?
This is a standard field for SEPA transfers. Your bank might call it differently. If you don’t see something like “Référence”, “Motif”, … it is where you put in things like invoice numbers. -
Complicated?
I use a template for transfers. All credentials are kept in my online banking, and if I want to transfer money to my Revolut card, all I do is fill in the amount and send it. -
Top-ups with card!
Have you considered sending money to your Revolut card with your French Visa/Mastercard Debit card? This would be instant and is something N26 does not offer. Especially on a vacation, it is nice to have an option to transfer money instantly, even on weekends, when a SEPA transfer would take 4 to 5 days.
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Dear Frank, thank you for these very clear explanations. You reassure me for this first transaction and my errors of youth … I now also understand where I have to indicate this famous reference number. It also seems very important to write “REVOLUT LTD” for the recipient’s last name and first name. Of course I thought of sending the money through my bank card but I read on forums that there were fees. It was therefore advisable to use bank transfers. In all cases, the two means of transfer must function. As you advise me I will wait a dozen days before contacting the banks if there is no trace of this money.Thank you again for your help and forgive my poor english.
Hi @Willmore06, I’m glad I could clarify things a little bit. Putting in “Revolut LTD” as the name is important, yes, because Revolut is the account owner. It is really just like paying a bill to a business and putting one’s customer account number in the details. Straight forward and quite fast in my experience. It usually takes less than 24 hours until I see my money in the Revolut app.
But Revolut is already working on providing unique IBANs in the future. So check the bank details for transfers frequently.
You’re right, there are fees for top-ups with card. But only for “real” credit cards. If your bank card is a debit Mastercard for example, it is free. I believe the app tells you if there are any fees once you put in the card details. I’m not sure because my card is recognized as a debit card right away.
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Franks is completely correct. As he said, card top-ups are instantaneous and much more easier than bank transfers. You mention you already have a N26 bank account. That account comes with it’s own debit Mastercard. I use it all the time to top-up my Revolut card and no fees are charged. So if you are in doubt, just use that card!
New user of Revolut, so I don’t know much about the company.
Are there any plans for Revolut to become a fully-authorised bank?
Thank you Jona and especially Frank for taking the time to answer me and give me all these explanations. I learned a lot today about how my Revolut account works. I am waiting for the return of my transfer and next time I will use my credit card to carry out the transaction. I also opened an N26 account to benefit from unlimited withdrawals when I’m traveling (N26 Black) and also as a backup card. I also have standard Visa and Master cards. Thank you again for your help.
If I read correctly, the owners of the MASTER N26 BLACK card benefit from unlimited free withdrawals when they are abroad (Foreign Mastercard ATM Withdrawals). The percentage relates to the basic card which is free. The N26 Black card is charged but it has its advantages.
I don’t know. I don’t think so. But they do want to introduce unique IBAN numbers for USD and EUR transfers that are more flexible.
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Hi everybody, I am still without news of the repayment of the transfer by Revolut to my French bank account and it worries me. I had transferred 150 € on April 3 but I had not entered the reference number. Does anyone have any idea how long it will take? Thank you.
contact support through the in-app chat
Ok but no one answers …
It is very disturbing to have no answer from the support … I hope that I will not regret having opened a Revolut account …
If you did not enter any reference number how do you expect Revolut to automatically transfer the money to your account? It is clear that you need to get hold of support; they might be busy but the money is certainly not lost.
The next time you might want to read the instructions more thoroughly before transferring money to a different account.
I know that I acted wrong for this transfer but I am not the only one to make mistakes. I am French and I did not understand everything during this first transfer. Now I have understood thanks to some people of this forum. However, I expect to get my money back.