We can now hold a balance in CHF and PLN! Great news!
However, I’m disappointed to see that if I want to top up my account via CHF bank transfer from my Swiss bank account (also in CHF), the money has to go via SWIFT since the receiving account is in London (the free SEPA transfers only work for euros…).
Thus again, this defeats the whole purpose, if topping up in CHF costs me money… (Of course, first changing from CHF to €, and then sending € avoids the SWIFT fees, but then there is the conversion fee).
I would be much more convenient if you could have an account located in Switzerland, so that we could send some CHF for free…
What about spending in PLN? If I have some balance in PLN and will try to use card in Poland (ie merchant or online purchase in PLN) will my account be charged in PLN without any fees/exchanges from EUR?
FAQ at the moment states "Your Revolut account can hold a balance in EUR, GBP and USD. The card selects which balance to use in the following order:
The local currency of the merchant/ATM e.g. if you are in the U.K. it will use GBP, your base currency (for a UK resident this would be GBP, if you are within the Eurozone this will be EUR and anywhere else will be USD).".
So this FAQ states if I spend PLN I will be charged in EUR. Even when not having EUR balance but only PLN? I hope this FAQ is only outdated.
I’m not aware of any bank offering a Mastercard or Visa debit card in Switzerland… Only debit cards that are not supported by Revolut, or credit cards for which Revolut charges a fee…
@anon33247966, @edward, is there any way we can top up from Switzerland without paying either an out-of-country/non-SEPA bank transfer fee, or a credit card 1% fee?
Thanks, but again, I’m not aware of any Swiss bank offering a compatible debit card. Most banks offer Maestro cards (which don’t come with an XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX number), and the same is true of the debit card of the postal bank. Visa Debit and Mastercard Debit cards simply don’t exist here as far as I know…
Yes, that is unfortunate, but there is not much Revolut could do about it right now. Introduction of Visa / MC Debit cards in countries with other traditional payment schemes is painfully slow. For US customers, Apple pay is a good intermediate service to avoid the fees. Since Apple pay is available in Switzerland, that would be an option, I assume.
Good point, but I don’t have an iPhone, so no Apple pay.
And yes, there is something Revolut could do about it: have the CHF account in a Swiss bank. When you send money from a Revolut account to a Swiss bank account, the money is actually sent from a (intermediary) Swiss account. So we would just need to have the same thing the other way around when topping up…
I agree with c0stin, I’ve only seen credit&prepaid Mastercards here… (same for Visa). Maestro is really the norm for debit cards, except for Postfinance which has a different card.
Okay let’s say that’s true, but there should be way where you can top-up your Revolut card with one of them.
For example: You will transfer CHF to your CHF Prepaid card and then you will top-up with that card to Revolut. Maybe that’s complicated way for you but If that the only way you have that works, you need to adjust on it. Or even find another way! I believe that for Revolut it’s not easy to open CHF account in Swiss!
Sure, they could do that. They eventually might. But maybe not. It is more (cost) effective for them to not rely on that many partner banks. And 1 percent for topping up is not too bad, I think.
(They are using currency cloud and its intermediate banks for sending money, but use their own accounts with Barclays, Lloyds, and their IT infrastructure for top-ups, I believe. It is actually two different systems, as far as I understand it.)
I understand the situation. What I’m trying to say is that it is kind of pointless to give us an IBAN in CHF if we end up paying SWIFT fees for sending money there.
As far as I understand it the fees for the transfer are fees your Swiss bank charges you. There might be another Swiss bank with lower fees. Some customers might have a Swiss account, but no credit card. There might be customers from different countries that have foreign currency accounts in CHF that could use this IBAN. Once Revolut offers unique IBANs, an American Uncle could send his grandson CHF per Transferwise for a trip. And there might be a situation were a flat fee for the transfer is actually cheeper than a 1% fee from a credit card top-up.
