What I do wonder is if Revolut would issue ‘Credit’ cards which are actually debit but with a credit BIN if these would be accepted on planes.
Bunq has this weird yet interesting offer and as far as I remember customers did not have trouble on board aircrafts and trains for the offline payments.
We don’t know the background behind the refusal on the TUI flight. A different BIN might not have helped.
You can’t just label cards “credit” just for fun. Network providers are in control of BIN tables, issuers need their cooperation.
The Bunq card you’re referring to is a clever product, it’s sort of a “secured credit” card where the balance on the account acts as the secured account. It is a charge card in disguise. Bunq gives you actually credit, sort of, and they secure it in real time with every transaction. From a consumer’s perspective, it looks like a debit card, but funds don’t leave your account until the end of the month. You still earn interest on it, for example. But funds are “just” blocked, and they do appear to have left the account. Internally then, the accounts are settled at the end of the month, like you would pay a monthly credit card bill. (Proof for this is how Bunq calculates interest.)
PSD2 regulates how cards need to be labeled as credit or debit. The wording of that regulation somewhat suggests that this particular card might be in violation of that. After all, you’re not granted any credit here in the traditional sense. Maybe Bunq is just too small, so they’re basically under the radar. Klarna was criticized for this, their card is sort of a hybrid, where small payments are deducted via direct debit instantly and large payments can be delayed (real credit) choice by choice. This card is labeled credit, but can behave, depending on transaction sums and user configuration, like a debit card.
What I don’t know is how well Bunq’s card works in offline scenarios. I’ve heard mixed things. Klara’s card seems to be more reliable.
Welcome back to our community @TamaraTammy. It’s great to see that you got your answer. 
Thanks for the help @Eudes @Graham_Lees @glesga @Frank @Kamika242 @Carl_1460 @Youssf 
SG | Community Team
The crew straight up refuses to accept the card.
As for the Bunq “credit” card, I used it offline many times, it works fine, had no issues with it.
And Bunq is also a bank.
I think if they refused that one as well for being “prepaid” I would go ballistic as this is the bank account I receive my salary into
Anyway I still find this non acceptance of Revolut debit cards absurd. Debit is debit. I’m sure the transaction can go through with no problems, it’s just that they had problems previously with Revolut prepaid cards and decided not to accept the debit card as well.
Still doesn’t seem right to me.
This makes sense. If you’re a customer in Ireland (or any EEA country), Revolut is a bank as well. The Lithuanian banking license is “passported” into other countries, where Revolut Bank UAB can fully operate and set up local branches. That’s exactly how Bunq operates. It’s possible due to the EEAs single market.
You should file a complaint direct with Visa so maybe they would give a plausible reason for refusing or had to explain to the biggest authority (the money) payment processor.
https://usa.visa.com/Forms/visa-rules.html
I’m not sure if was the complaint I did there (or one star I give on google maps) but after I complain with Visa back in 2018 a pet shop that was rude with me when I try to pay with Apple Pay demanding me to use a card switched their option quickly.
Like one day they pulled the credit card machine when I was to tap my phone and next month they had a small sign saying “pay contactless” 
I fly Ryanair pretty frequently out of Dublin - and tried Revolut cards on their in flight terminals often.
I’ve found that the older Revolut (prepaid) cards were just a no go.
Revolut Mastercard debit seems to be hit and miss. More miss than hit.
But Revolut Visa debit by PIN - or in Apple Pay - never fails.
Funnily enough, my other half bought a coffee using a Revolut (pretty sure Visa) in Apple Pay.
Then subsequently it was declined on the ground later as delayed processing.
It turns out, that card in Apple Pay was an old one that was replaced when Revolut did that push last year to replace all their cards. It had expired out of the app, but for some reason hadn’t expired in Apple Wallet and he’d forgotten to remove it manually.
So Ryanair are down €3 or whatever it is 
I had exactly this same issue with Enterprise and Alamo. They point blank refused to even accept the card even though it very clearly said Debit on it. I was literally begging them to look at it. The thing is made of metal ffs and says “World Elite” and has a big Debit hologram.
Revolut really needs to sort this mess out with people like car hire companies and agents. If these companies are afraid of prepaid cards then at least educate them on how to tell which Revolut cards are credit or debit cards.
The difference is a prepaid card is loaded up with credit. A debit card is deducted straight from your account. There is a difference.
A debit card (of any kind) is deducted from your account funds. A prepaid has to be loaded up. I am quite certain that point of sale machines and credit card processing systems can tell one from the other.
The issue isn’t that however, it’s lack of education by counter staff who assume Revolut == prepaid card. This is not the case and I have been turned away from renting a car for these reasons. It was infuriating since I had no reason to have any other card. Enterprise / Alamo are certainly clueless about these cards. In the end I had to hire a car from another desk for a lot more money.
You’re correct, merchants can differentiate between cards.
In Europe, card issuers are obligated to print the type onto the card itself. Revolut does not help its cause here, it’s super tiny on the back.
BIN databases are the way a terminal checks the card type. But not all merchants rely on these informations to check eligibility.
When Revolut started in 2015, they did indeed issue prepaid cards. It wasn’t until around early 2020 that Revolut slowly startet to switch to “proper” debit cards. The first debit cards were Premium cards, and people startet to report about them in this community in February 2020 if I remember this correctly.
(Revolut’s prepaid cards were always linked to your Revolut account. Revolut’s prepaid cards always behaved like regular debit cards in that regard.)
Flew Tui yesterday. Used Apple Pay, card worked fine ( though payments haven’t come through yet) and they did announce they don’t accept revolut or other prepaid cards.
Lady even seen it was revolut when paying the one time.
It’s more poor education than the product not working.
This is what TUI UK writes:
How can I pay for things that I buy onboard TUI flights?
Credit and debit cards
We accept Visa, Visa Debit, MasterCard and MasterCard Debit onboard TUI flights. Unfortunately, you won’t be able to use AMEX, Diners’ Club, Maestro, Electron or Solo cards though.Prepaid cards
Unfortunately, we can’t accept prepaid cards- including the TUI Travel Money Card- onboard. This is because, onboard our aircraft, we work in what’s called an ‘offline environment.’ This means our payment machines aren’t connected to the bank, so we can’t confirm that there’s enough money on the card to cover the items you’re paying for.
This information varies between countries. On local website versions, TUI does list various national debit card schemes as being accepted as well like Bancontact or EC-Karte.
Revolut cards should be recognised as debit (UK, and EEA, no idea about other regions). But I am not surprised if they aren’t always. It’s rare in the industry that a brand switches from prepaid to debit. Revolut was indeed prepaid for 5 years and issues debit for only 3 years now. It’s somewhat understandable that not everyone got the memo, considering that learning card brands probably wasn’t of the highest priority for flight attendant during the pandemic.
Revolut could print debit a tad larger on their cards. That might help.
I’ve sent emails off to Enterprise / Alamo and Revolut. We’ll see what happens but as a user of this product who has been the victim of this problem I feel frustrated and angry.
It is frustrating, yes.
Unfortunately, I would expect certain amounts of this type of friction with fintechs. That’s why I am personally not fully relying on any fintech (or bank, for that matter).
It’s good that you complained about it. Enterprise should accept Revolut debit cards if they state in their pre-rental informations that debit is generally accepted for this specific car.
Welcome to our community @locka99 
. I am sorry for the trouble you are facing. 
It’s great to hear that you have sent the email already. Please share the update with us once you receive it. It will help the other users 
SG | Community Team
My chat with them on Twitter/X they say they don’t accept them but both worked fine on the flight.
Contradictory at best, they don’t have a clue.
Their argument is based on Revolut being prepaid. That’s factually wrong. But as I said I am not surprised about statements like this. For 62.5% of Revolut’s existence, the cards were prepaid. And Revolut made its first splash in the industry as a prepaid card. That’s what formed knowledge and experiences of people and businesses.
