Revolut currency conversion is not very good.

[jordi4]

I thought Revolut was good for traveling but I think that the fees are increasing.

Revolut is giving an acceptable service, but now it’s not the best option for travelers. There are alternatives around Europe giving better service for free.

For example: in Spain we have BNext, with 500€ free withdrawals every month…

Apart from that, I am in Costa Rica. The real rate for Colon costaricense is now at 1€=663’55 colones on Sunday 30/06/18.

In Revolut the rate is 642’99. That means a 3’1% money lost in the conversion today (Sunday).THAT’S NOT AN INTERBANK RATE AT ALL.

In BNext the rate is 653’01. That means a 1"5% money lost in the conversion today (Sunday). Which could be better but is closer to a real interbank rate.

Even for weekdays the rate is not that good in Revolut. It’s good for British Pound and USD, but it’s not a good conversion rate for most of the currencies in the world.

I could say more examples about why Revolut it’s not that good, but that could seem publicity of another service. I’ve been using Revolut for months traveling around the world and I just realized about that.

I just wanted to explain my disappointment with Revolut, which it is supposed to be a banking revolution.

[alessandro]

That is the weekend surcharge, which is clearly advertised.

During the week it is the interbank rate.

[mirron]

This is a quote from @AndreasK that will explain everything

I’m afraid you were checking the mid rate and not the interbank rare. As previously explained, Revolut uses interbank rate which is not the same as the one you can check online. Rate providers like XE.com do not show the interbank rate, but the mid-market rate, i.e. the average between the bid and offer 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.

[Sal]

Does Transferwise use the mid-market rate ?

[mirron]

I hope not

If it’s the case it means that they are not using interbank rates and therefore earn real money on each transaction ( wich is not a problem but is in contradiction with the 0%/0E fees advertising )

[mirron]

It looks like they are using mid market rate : https://transferwise.com/gb/mid-market-rat

Before you make a money transfer, or need to convert currency, make sure you check the real mid-market rate. And don’t settle for any exchange rate that isn’t the real one.

This is an incorrect statement since the MID market rate is not the better because it’s an average of the BID and OFFER rates…

[Sal]

Yes, Interbank rules.

Transferwise page is a little misleading to say the least. They are making money on each transaction. Ummmm! Revolut is the best

The Mid-Market Exchange Rate | TransferWise

[Sal]

Still, Transferwise offers me the option to send currency to some East Asian countries which are not (yet?) supported by Revolut. The mid market exchange and SWIFT fee are still market leading with Transferwise.

So its either HSBC (or similar !), Torfx or Transferwise…Transferwise it is …until Revolut matures.

[jordi4]

Anyway, what I know is that BNEXT, with Visa currency rates, have much better rates than Revolut rates, so Revolut have to improve because we loose 3% of the money in some currencies.

[mirron]

Do you have any examples/proofs ?

[Sal]

At the weekend perhaps. But during weekdays there is no way either Visa or Mastercard rates are more favorable than Revolut for exchange of Euros?

Remember weekend rates at Revolut have a markup applied !

I think there is a maths issue here

[jordi4]

@sal @mirron
There’s no maths problem and yes, Revolut is not giving the real rate for most of the currencies of the world. I show you a proof:

@mirron @Sal

MasterCard rate for 10.000 colones costarricenses is 15’21€ today
Revolut rate for 10.000 colones costarricenses is 15’47€ today (weekday)

That’s a comission of 1’45% in Revolut compared to MasterCard rate in a weekday

[jordi4]

Another proof is that there’s no sense that in a lot of currencies the actual rate is much lower than the lowest rate of the day. That’s something that almost never occurs in USD and Pound:

But usually occurs in a lot of another currencies of the world. The actual rate is much lower than the minimum day rate.

Sometimes I even sent a message to Revolut support because of that and they sent me a refund back. But it’s very stressful to do that all the time. That’s why I told you that I use another bank that respects the Visa/MasterCard real rates.

I had this problems with Revolut (extra fees between 0’1% to 3’5% higher) in a lot of countries. But specially in a lot of countries in Africa, and also in Vietnam, Laos, Guatemala, Honduras, Costa Rica,…

It’s not something about very rare currencies.

[Sal]

It appears there may be a point here. Having checked, as of today these are the rates:

MasterCard:
Converting CRC 10,000 to Euro = 15.21

Revolut
Converting CRC 10,000 to Euro = 14.83

MasterCard:
Converting Euro 10,000 to CTC = 6,629,444

Revolut
Converting Euro 10,000 to CTC = 6,461,755

Note: Of course MasterCard rates are fixed for the day. Revolut fluctuate in real time.

[mirron]

Honestly I always had an issue with the MasterCard calculation website : you can only select a whole day, in the past.

For something as fluctuate as currency exchange it seems very unfair and not at all accurate, especially since there is no live MasterCard FX rates information… very strange.

The only real test is to execute 2 payments of the same amount at the same time : one with MasterCard, one with Revolut.

[Sal]

I agree. Also, I never seemed to get the exchange rate as advertised on the Mastercard website when my transactions where eventually posted to my credit card statement (fee free credit card). - I kept my little spreadsheet record handy lol.

[jordi4]

I get real Visa rate with my BNext Spanish Visa Card, that’s why i’m telling you that Revolut doesn’t have good rates in most of the currencies of the world excepting the strongest ones.

With BNext the difference between MasterCard exchange rate and payment exchange rate is ~0’2% all the time.

With Revolut the difference between Visa exchange rate and payment exchange rate of small and medium countries currencies is up to ~1% or 2% even on weekdays. Even sometimes 3% difference on weekends for the currencies of Costa Rica, Vietnam, Thailand, Guatemala, Nepal, Laos, etc.

[jordi4]

I also tested same amounts between BNext and Revolut, and Revolut have a gap with the small and medium countries. it’s also true that this bad exchange rates never occurred me with USD, Pound, Chinese Yuan, Australian Dollars and another strong currencies.