It’s exaggerated for the purpose of illustration. In the interest of full disclosure, “children starving in Japan” is not a reference to any actually observed phenomenon either.
This phrase does not belong here at all, in the context of a business transaction both parties have elected to enter. Taking advantage of an offer voluntarily extended by the other party to its fullest cannot be construed as “unfair.” It follows from the very fact the offer has been made in the first place that the offeror views it as beneficial to their business, and thus, “fair.”
As I am not a Revolut shareholder, whatever they choose to subsidize or not is none of my concern, although I would be inclined to give them the benefit of the doubt and assume they know what they’re doing.
I evaluate the offer that has been extended to me and decide whether to take it or leave it, and the only thing that could be deemed not “fair” here is if the terms of the said offer are being changed unilaterally and without notice, which, as a matter of fact, seems to be happening now, but I digress.
On the other hand, nobody would apply for and keep topping up a card that could not be used to withdraw cash, especially if said card had an upfront fee of €6/€20.
Neither of us has any deep insight into Revolut’s business model, so we can only speculate but let’s not perpetuate the myth of poor Revolut and evil customers looking to impoverish it further through the means of incessant, “unfair” ATM withdrawals.
The 2% commission on ATM withdrawals is likely rounded up very generously so as to cover the cost of even the most expensive ATM operators worldwide. It can be reasonably assumed that at least 50% of all ATM withdrawals cost Revolut less than 1% while the other 1% is a pure profit. Revolut is also free to negotiate better deals with any ATM networks where it sees significant usage and/or where the costs soar.
The purpose of the ATM fee might actually be to incentivize users towards cashless purchases, where Revolut gets up to ca. 3% of the amount of every transaction.
Besides, growing the user base is the only way to go for a start-up company, even if it initially incurs some losses. Amazon did not grow to its current size by charging 2% for shipping (and a further 1.5% on the weekends).
At the same time, the money deposits serve as a perpetual, interest-free loan to the company, while the endgame is most likely to monetize the financial data collected from users, at which point, with enough momentum, Revolut could become nominally “free” like Gmail.
Meanwhile, if profitability were an issue, there are lots of other options on the table, such as relocating the headquarters from central London, for instance. But realistically, I don’t think there’s a problem here. If Revolut fails it will not be due to excessive ATM usage but arrogance towards the users.