Top up in Switzerland

Revolut has introduced a fee to top up by CHF credit cards:

!

Very sad. Revolut advertises its transparency, yet its FAQ says:
“Topping up in GBP, EUR, PLN, DKK, SEK, NOK, RON and CHF with a debit card or credit card is completely free.”
And then there is a misterious fee and an explanation link (Learn more) leading to the fair usage policy without any mention of this fee.

@anon33247966 Could you update the faq so it’s not in contradiction with reality?

Hi there.

Topping up with an EEA issued debit card or credit card is completely free.

Please note that if you top up with a card that has not been issued within the EEA (e.g. a US based card) or you top up with a commercial card then we may charge a small fee just to cover our costs.

In these cases, it might be cheaper for you to top up via bank transfer.

It’s still significantly cheaper to use your Revolut card abroad than a typical UK credit card.

Well, just for the third time: are there any plans to enable a bank transfer (that makes sense)? If yes (because that is what the App says) what is the timeline?

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@anon33247966 Is there a reason why you/revolut does not open a swiss account in order to make it easier for us to top-up our revolut account?

According to your comment, it obviously would also be beneficial for revolut (reducing costs).
As already mentioned by several others, a CH IBAN would be the most important USP (Unique Selling Proposition) for customers in Switzerland!

If not, why does revolut not consider this option? I don’t see any reason and it bothers me, that revolut does not comment on this issue. If revolut thinks, that the market for Swiss clients is not big enough to justify the efforts for a CH IBAN, it would be fair to say so.

Thank you very much in advance for you honest answer!

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Hi @Couby11 from the information available on Twitter, they should be able to provide personal CH IBAN around February.
Really hope that it comes really soon. Obviously, laws, regulations and banks try to make this really difficult as they usually provide similar services with much more fees.

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Hi there. I’ve posted this before somewhere here :slight_smile: We’re working on it as we speak. It should be live soon.

You are right, however, I could say March @saphirblanc :slight_smile:

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Will you announce this next month. I am using Postfinance which doesn’t have debit card so I can only transfer to Revolut from my credit card attached to my account. The fee charged by Revolut for doing this is a flat 1.78% when I tried to do it recently. I was going to move 10k until I saw the fee was 178 CHF. Hence I am not using my Revolut card at present. Eagerly waiting on your CHF IBAN account. Hurry up!

As a foreigner in Switzerland I have come to realize that whilstbthe country has a financial reputation it is an outdated reputation. The country is still stuck in the dark ages regarding allowing foreigners to download banking apps whilst using their home Apple account for instance, or fee’less international transfers, or providing debit cards for instance to align with how Revolut prefers to receive top ups. Maybe Revolut can push them for some positive change!

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There are many debit card available in Switzerland. Postfinance has one as well. However, it doesn’t help you much since they are not issued in the EEA so subject to a fee. Please read the other topic in this forum. You’ll find a free way to topup Revolut there.

@Bratensauce Which Debit cards are you referring to? The only ones I am aware of are the Postcard and Maestro Card. All others are either Prepaid or Credit Cards.

Yes I am not aware of a debit card with Postfinance. Are you sure they offer them?

Also the free way to top up from a CHF account in switzerland? How is that possible given the Revolut account is in the UK. postfinance charges me CHF20 for every transfer I make. If I try to do from my Postfinance credit card Revolut chargea me 1.78%. I read most of the forum yesterday and still can’t figure out how to move cash from my Postfinance account in CHF in Switzerland to Revolut in the UK for free!

The Postcard is a Debit Card. But of course not MasterCard and thus only good within CH.

There currently is no free way to move CHF to a Revolut CHF balance directly from Switzerland.
A workaround is to go via TransferWise.

It is being widely discussed in this topic:
https://community.revolut.com/t/switzerland-most-cost-efficient-top-up-methods/10424

Postfinance Value is a Debit/Prepaid card which is being topped up directly from the Postfinance account. It used to be free to topup Revolut a few weeks back. Again, ALL cards issued outside of EEA (which includes Swiss) are now subject to a charge from Revolut side.
So what you need to get is a debit/prepaid card which holds CHF and is issued in a EEA country.
Transferwise is now issuing such cards for free and they also have a swiss IBAN so you can top i t up for free.

Even after the changes since in January, it’s still possible to top-up CHF to Revolut for free with ApplePay. I’ve associated ApplePay with a Prepaid Credit Card from Swissbankers.

It’s a clunky way to do it but at least it’s free up to now. Nonetheless, I hope there will be a Revolut CH-IBAN soon…

Hello, a few people mention using TransferWise to get CHF out of Switzerland. I have used TW before and indeed the only fee is the approx 0.5% charged by TW on the currency conversion step. Will TW move the funds onward in CHF to Revolut and therefore there is finally no fee to get CHF into Revolut?

PS - I am with Credit Suisse and pay CS a CHF5 fee to transfer CHF to Revolut London. On 5000 this is then 0.1% so I think this is the better deal (better than 0.5% to TW)

Yes, exactly. Since you are using the CHF on your TW account and are topping up your Revolut account in CHF, there is no fee.

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Hello RoiSoleil - I am missing something - I just logged in to my TW account and it seems to only allow a conversion, e.g. CHF to EUR or CHF to GBP. … do I need the borderless account first?
Thanks!

Hi! Yes, you would need to get a borderless account first. That’s then the account your TW card will be linked to - basically like with your Revolut account and the Revolut card.

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