Revolut lands in the USA!

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227

Hey there, where did you hear 2021?

228

50 USD for the wire?? uff… you should really get a borderless account with transferwise to use as trampoline to cross the atlantic. it arrives at :r: next day for just 3 USD.

Really looking forward to that local US account number with Revolut though… not sure if “2021” was a joke, but it wouldn’t surprise me if :r: needs a few more years to get things in place.

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I made it up… all the hype, and then nothing

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If you want to transfer for free

Get a transferwise debit
Get apple pay cash
Have revolut

  1. Top up apple pay cash using your US debit
  2. Add TW borderless ACH info to apple pay cash’s “Transfer to bank” option.
  3. Withdraw
  4. 12-24 hours later the money will appear in TW borderless USD account
  5. Use TW debit on revolut to top up for free (because EU bin number)

This is what I do. Yes it’s slow but you’ll save a ton in fees especially if it’s a big top up. I usually do this once a month to cover my costs in EU. This probably won’t even be needed until rev launches ACH info for revolut as this will just bypass TW till then

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231

You would need an American SSN to have an Apple Pay cash account, am I right?

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Yes as far as I know. It did ask for mine when I signed up

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What about making a transfer to the TW bank account instead of Apple pay cash?

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234

Regardless, most of this would work great for Europeans working or temporary livin in the US. They could have their salary, Venmo balance, etc paid to their TransferWise ACH account and then top up Revolut with USD. However, I assume when Revolut launch in the US this will be unnecessarily, but it works for now.

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235

You can check PaySend from usd to eur.

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That also works. Depends on the bank you have in the US. Afaik JPM and Chase do not charge for ACH transfers. You can cut the middleman and deposit directly to TW ACH if that’s what you’re looking to do

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@alejandro.mery
Thanks. Does that work with 50k or above? Can you transfer USD within Europe from the borderless account to revolut then and have it exchanged within the revolut account only?

BTW: We have a TD bank business account and have to permanently send money from the US to Europe. We cannot wire online abroad and have to show up for each transaction in the branch. Each wire is limited to 50k which would be OK if an online transaction is possible.

So the transaction fee is not really causing troubles in relation to 50k. We are inflexible at the moment. Do you think the borderless account is an option to solve this problem?

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I receive payments from an US bank account and I do it that way, when transfering from TW to Revolut, TW takes 0.5% fee because you need to convert USD to EUR or GBP to be able to send it to Revolut.

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TW does allow same currency transfers. be sure to create the recipient as a USD account.

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240

if you have a business borderless account with Transferwise and a business account with revolut you have a fully traced path. as long as the volume of USD you move is within your authorized limits it should be fine.

the USD from YourCompany @ TD go via ACH to “TransferWise FBO YourCompany” (usually free and same day), and then via SWIFT from YourCompany @ TW to YourCompany @ :r: (USD 3, next day)

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So when you have a TW account. You’d use the ACH transfer option which you could probably do online. No fee from TW. And top up would be free since you’d use a EU BIN debt card.

So if TD doesnt charge for ACH transfers. That’s your way

But you’re moving 50k+ so I’d stick to using traditional banks for that kind of money

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unfortunately revolut doesn’t allow businesses to top up via card

243

I have no clue about the legal situation in the USA. But seeking to open an account with a US bank seems to be impossible if you are a NRA (non-residential alien). So I wonder having a USD named account situated in the US as a NRA Revolut customer would harm any laws? Or is there any other reason behind US banks not accepting NRA customers?

(A NRA / non-residential alien is a person who has no US citizenship or residence permit and is residing outside the US)

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What is the downside of operating a dollar account in another jurisdiction (e.g. UK) if a local account is not possible?

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Well, unfortunately, TD will charge you for ACH transfers.

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I would think of:

  • Speed of transactions
  • SWIFT transactions
  • US bank addressing Routing/ACH is different to IBAN/BIC
  • US bank clerks, online bankings, broker web interfaces might be incapable of dealing with IBAN/BIC
  • Settlement of disputes ( 2 jurisdications )
  • Security of assets
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