Revolut in South Africa

Dear Folks,

I’m currently in SA and Revolut works like a charm. The only problem so far are the ATM of Standard Bank and ABSA Bank. They always want to add a 50 ZAR fee to my withdrawed sum (e.g. instead of 500 ZAR they will deduct 550 ZAR from my Revolut and keep the 50 ZAR).

The ATMs of FNB and Netbank work without this fee. So no problems and no fees here.

But there was one thing I was wondering about. On the slip of the ATM was stated that the Current Balance is 0 R (which may be correct because it’s a prepaid card). But then it also states an Available Balance of 36.336 R. What’s that? Can you explain this sum? I just have around 4.000 ZAR and 250 EUR in the Revolut account.

Summary: Card/Revolut works great in SA. Not all ATMs allow free cash withdrawals.

Greetings
Erik

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Also just returned from SA and concur with Erik - Revolut card was perfect. Over 50 pos transactions and 2 ATM withdrawals with no issues. Nedbank & FNB ATMs didn’t charge me for use.

Can’t say I paid much attention to the ATM slips as I relied on the instant notifications.

The DCC scam, prevalent in Europe, didn’t occur in SA although the option did appear on the card machines the operators never selected it.

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Thanks for the info so far. To withdraw from an ATM do I need to have rand loaded in my card or will it convert from Sterling ?

I think it will convert from Sterling but I recommend converting to Rand in the app. Do this during a weekday to avoid the weekend markup.

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Apart from the weekend markup, why do you recommend converting to Rand in the app?

I prefer to have local currency on the card converted at a rate I’m happy with rather than bothering about the fx. Also the w/e markup applies to pos transactions as well as atm withdrawals so for frictionless use of the card this works best me. Any unused Rand can be exchanged back to the base currency at no cost at the end of the trip.

I have just tried to withdraw cash from an FNB ATM using mu Revolut card and they notified me that it would cost R50 to do so - guess they have caught on to the use of these cards and are getting their share now. Still have to try Nedbank - with a bit of luck they wont charge!

That’s really irritating

Checked this weekend and Nedbank also charges R50 fee.

Capitec seems to be the only one that doesn’t

I am in south africa, withdraw R250 and paid R50 fees.
OK since I also shop in pick and pay supermarket and use my card without problems, I was trying to withdraw cash at the till, what is possible there, but the card was declined. I spoke to a live agent about it, she said the card is only for shopping and atm withdraw. OK I think if revolut could fix this, a lot of cardholder would be happy to exchange in the shop for much less fees

Hi there! Not sure if it applies to all ATMs but some show your total balance across all your wallets so if you have ZAR, EUR… it will tell you how much it is all worth in ZAR. The same happened to me in London where an ATM showed my balance included all my cryptocurrency. Hope this helps!

I was in South Africa in August.
Me and my friends tried to withdraw money from different banks, in order to see the fees.
We tried: ABSA, Nedbank, Standard Bank, FNB and also, in JNB OR Tambo Airport, at the change ATM just after the luggage claim.

These ones (change ATM in OR Tambo Airport) are really crazy: the charge between 75 ZAR and 150 ZAR (about 5-10€) for each withdraw!

Finally I went to Nedbank (FNB ATMs were out of service) and I had “only” 50 ZAR as fee.

We tried also in other ATM in other part of South Africa (near Kruger Park, in the south, in Cape Town), and we found always a fee. ABSA has 55 ZAR fee, Standard 75 ZAR fee.
The best one that we found were Nedbank and FNB. We didn’t find any Capitec ATM.

For the card usage, we didn’t find any problem: card is accepted quite everywhere, also in little shop in Kruger Park. Of course, if you want to buy something at little flea market, you need cash.

So do I need an additional account in rand or can I use my euro account in south Africa? I’m really confused I know nothing about this

No and yes. :sweat_smile:

So, bad news. Even Capitec “got clever” and now charges R50 fee for ATM withdrawals. Welcome to South Africa, here we will f*ck you over and over again.

So true about South Africa

Did you see that thread already?
The ultimative free ATM withdrawal list for travelling (by country)

You might want to contribute. :pray:t4:

Just arrived home after 6 weeks there. Made 2 withdrawals from Capitec atm’s of R4000 (£200) so total cost circa £5. That was plenty for 3 people as cards are accepted everywhere. Used my Revolut card daily.

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