NEW: Revolut launches Avios for debit card spending in five countries – coming to the UK?

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• Novice says:

  15 Jan15 January 08:09

  Can a person pay credit card bills using the card and get avios?

  • Rob says:

    15 Jan15 January 08:39

    How exactly are we meant to know that, given that product hasn’t even launched yet?!

• TimM says:

  15 Jan15 January 08:25

  Revolut has been my main bank account for 7 years. It is most useful for direct debits in other countries, FX transfers and cash withdrawals which are all applied at around 0.2% off the spot interbank rate with no fee (except when the currency markets are closed e.g. at weekends when 0.5% is added much like the Visa and Mastercard daily rates are set).

  Not having to pay a £15-30 SWIFT fee each transfer has saved me a fortune over the years plus the debit card is a great travel card. Not having to open local banks accounts to pay bills overseas is also a huge boon.

  It takes around three clicks in the app to open an account in any most of the World’s currencies and I can exchange if and when I like. However, if I run down one currency’s account in spending while travelling, then Revolut defaults to a spot-rate conversion from the home currency, GBP in my case.

  I certainly would welcome free Avios on my Revolut accounts!

  • Arch says:

    15 Jan15 January 09:42

    Agreed. I don’t use it as sole bank account due to ongoing service concerns, but have most bills coming out of it now and use the pockets extensively. If I can get free points on what I’m going already, then that’s “free money”. Interestingly, at £16/month for metal and hence earning 1point/£2, then considering an Avios value of 1avios=1p, one would need to spend £3,200pm to break even on the upgrade costs. Given the metal benefits (and because of them I’d say there are readers here who do upgrade and hence would benefit) I’ve already considered upgrading myself. If all my bill payments (stop-orders, direct debits etc.) can earn Avios, then I’d essentially be getting a free upgrade based on my existing bill payments, so not a bad deal at all. Proof will be in the pudding once launched and intricacies are fully understood though, but even at half price it’s decent value for something I’m considering anyway.

    • Roy says:

      15 Jan15 January 12:35

      Do you really have £3,200 a month of bills that you can pay with debit card but not credit card?

      I guess if you’re renting, and they accept rent via debit card, it could be possible? Struggling to see what other books could average that kind of figure, assuming the likes of HMRC doesn’t earn points.

    • Peter says:

      15 Jan15 January 12:48

      Genuine question: why the assumption that bill payments would be RevPoints relevant? My understanding is that only card use is. I only use Revolut to pay bills, don’t have a card, am not planning to get one, and based on what I’m reading, I wouldn’t hold my breath for getting RevPoints on my bill payments.

      • Roy says:

        15 Jan15 January 13:13

        Depends if you can pay your bills by debit card. Certainly no revpoints on direct debits!

    • Chrisasaurus says:

      15 Jan15 January 13:51

      Not into it in a big enough way for it to make a lot of difference but found Revolut a straightforward and inexpensive custodian of shares too – have a small number of shares in a small number of businesses and Revolut (Metal) doesn’t seem to charge a lot

  • Nic says:

    15 Jan15 January 10:11

    Revolut charges 1% on weekends, so on weekends its is 1.2% from the spot rates versus Visa/Mastercard at 0.5%. Plus on the free plan, you only get £1000 a month at no fees. Given how much travel spending I do at the weekend, Revolut does not work out cheaper than using a fee free credit card.

    Revolut also only gives £250 a month of free withdrawals, versus Starling that is unlimited. This is critical in countries like Egypt where withdrawing cash is soo much cheaper than getting it from an exchange company.

    Add Revolut’s legendary terrible customer service when something goes wrong, and as a travel card I have long since moved on

    • Arch says:

      15 Jan15 January 11:16

      Easy to avoid the weekend charges – just transfer funds to that currency in advance to cover estimated weekend costs. Bit of a hassle, sure, but an easy avoidance solution.

    • TimM says:

      15 Jan15 January 11:26

      Currensea is my 2nd travel card – tiny fee, taken instantly from the linked bank account. I usually stay all-inclusive so don’t spend that much on top hence Revolut’s limits are not a concern. It is all about use-cases.

      Revolut does not work with some sites they deem morally dubious so when I have the occasional flutter on Huddersfield Town, I have to use a second bank account to fund it.

      Then, going over the limit on the free card only brings you into the realm of the costs of other ‘fee-free’ cards.

      As I said above, Revolut is far more than a card. It is essentially a free bank account in 26 currencies with practically zero transaction costs in any of them, or, importantly, between them. Have you any idea how much it costs to pay bills by direct debit and the hassle involved in Spain, Greece or Turkey with a local bank account? Revolut was made for me.

      • anuj says:

        15 Jan15 January 13:40

        I’d much rather use Wise, for a start it’s less dodgy than Revolut’s ownership structure.. and secondly their app isn’t littered for ads for all their services.

      • Nic says:

        15 Jan15 January 18:41

        “Then, going over the limit on the free card only brings you into the realm of the costs of other ‘fee-free’ cards.”

        No it doesn’t – after the free £1000, you pay 1%, on top of the 0.2% spread versus a fee free card where you pay around 0.5%. On a £10,000 hotel bill, that is £70 in fee difference.

        I appreciate for some people Revolut works, but it is now a far cry from what it was when it launched and for many people is neither cheaper nor safer than using a high street bank credit card.

    • Alex G says:

      15 Jan15 January 11:57

      Revolut only gives £200 a month of free withdrawals.

      Chase has no monthly limits for cash withdrawals.

      I usually carry Chase, Monzo, and Revolut when overseas. (Used to use Curve, but don’t see any use for the free Curve card anymore.)

      I do like being able to pre-load Revolut with foreign currencies at a known exchange rate.

• Lilly says:

  15 Jan15 January 08:38

  Doesn’t seem to be worthwhile for a tax bill. I paid £4.5k to HMRC for my self assessment at the weekend using my Curve card, paid £5.61 to HMRC for banking fees and in exchange I got 6750 Avios on my Barclaycard. This still seems to be the best route for maximising the Avios earn. Under the same route I would only get 450 Avios using Revolut – although would be marginally less fiddly.

  • Super Secret Stuff says:

    15 Jan15 January 08:55

    And presumably free with revolut?

    • Harrier25 says:

      15 Jan15 January 09:47

      Yes, paying HMRC with a Revolut debit card if free of all charges.

  • David W says:

    15 Jan15 January 08:58

    You will also have paid a 1.5% Fronted fee for that, as you went over £3k

  • Qrfan says:

    15 Jan15 January 09:04

    Which curve card do you have which has such high fronted limits? Presumably a paid curve? Or have you ignored the curve fronted fees?

  • Gosia44 says:

    15 Jan15 January 10:14

    Curve fronted fees are paid on a fronted transaction above £3k. So unless you split the £4.5k into £3k + £1.5k you paid 1.5% fee on the entire £4.5k bill. Curve is definitely not cheap if you not are careful. Their rolling 30 day period is difficult to track with multiple fronted transactions. I now have a system of paying with Curve-fronted just once a month exactly £2.99k

    • sayling says:

      15 Jan15 January 11:49

      Are you sure about this – I thought the charge was levied on the amount in excess of £3k, so on £1.5k in your example?

      • Gosia44 says:

        15 Jan15 January 12:41

        Yes. I had an argument with Curve about it. They applied the fee to the entire transaction that exceeded £3k not just to the amount above £3k. Since then I am very careful. Not sure if that is the standard way they do it but the rules are vague and the counter should reset on day 31 but I was advised by an agent to “wait until day 32 to be safe”.. What kind of advise it that?? They aren’t sure about their own processes, it seems.

        • sayling says:

          15 Jan15 January 14:23

          I’d suggest you had already exceeded the £3k before you posted the £4.5k, so the fee was charged on the full amount.

• David W says:

  15 Jan15 January 08:53

  This could replace Curve for me, IF it’s possible to make HMRC payments

  • Harrier25 says:

    15 Jan15 January 09:47

    Yes you can free of charge.

• lee says:

  15 Jan15 January 09:49

  As far as I know this wont be available in Ireland due to some odd law about rewards not being allowed on card transactions. I think it is why we dont have any cards which offer Points per € spend.

  • Rob says:

    15 Jan15 January 10:09

    Aer Lingus has its Bank of Ireland credit card ….

    • ADS says:

      15 Jan15 January 11:25

      and Amex MR cards definitely used to be available in Ireland …

      I presume they still are

  • Roy says:

    15 Jan15 January 12:44

    Revolut made a statement about it being rolled out across the EU+UK, so unless Revolut knows something about Ireland’s future membership of the EU (or lack thereof) that the rest of us don’t…

• NigelthePensioner says:

  15 Jan15 January 10:07

  Nowhere has it stated how many revpoints you will need to get 1 avios!! What is the exchange rate in the EU currently?

  • Rob says:

    15 Jan15 January 10:09

    1:1

• patrick C says:

  15 Jan15 January 10:34

  Basically for anyone who pays for the ft, revolit metal is already paid for.
  The wework membership is also useful for occasional office needs.
  So free avios on top is an excellent extra benefit

  • Rob says:

    15 Jan15 January 11:21

    Anyone with We Work On Demand should be jumping on Ultra. Whilst the headline price is £25+VAT per day, the key London ones seems to be £45 these days. You’re saving £90 + VAT per month by getting Ultra if you do 3 ‘On Demand’ days.

    Similarly FT Premium Digital is £60/month bought separately.

    On the offchance you use car share app Turo (which I admit few do) the £50 credit also covers your entire £45 Ultra sub.

    • daveinitalia says:

      15 Jan15 January 14:56

      This is very useful thanks. When I’m in the UK this would be handy sometimes. Being able to have an office for the day can be useful sometimes but it’d be rare I’d need that more than 3 times a month.

      Which provider do they use for lounge access? If it’s LoungeKey/Priority Pass then I assume they get the bar/restaurant £15 off deals that Amex doesn’t. If it’s not Priority Pass does the lounge access provided offer anything similar?

      • Pangolin says:

        15 Jan15 January 18:04

        They use Dragon Pass, so similar treatment to Priority Pass.

        • His Holyness says:

          15 Jan15 January 19:54

          You need LoungeKey for all the restaurant credits.

• Aston100 says:

  15 Jan15 January 10:51

  Do you reckon they’ll move to 24/7 customer support via a phone line and/or real time live chat support?

  • ADS says:

    15 Jan15 January 11:28

    this is why I stopped using Revolut for my EUR-GBP transfers. the app stopped working on my iPhone for a few weeks, and I couldn’t access my money. no phone support, no website, no other way of accessing your funds – app or nothing. and Revolut block you on Twitter if you complain!

    • Roy says:

      15 Jan15 January 13:12

      They’ve had desktop access via browser for a while now. It looks like you only get limited functionality in the browser unless you sign in using a push notification to the app – which obviously wouldn’t help you if you can’t use the app for some reason – but hopefully the limited functionality includes support? Doesn’t help if you’re having problems logging in, of course.

      • ADS says:

        15 Jan15 January 17:20

        at least they’ve started desktop access … but as you say, if the app isn’t working then you presumably can’t do much.
        and presumably it won’t allow customers to access their funds.

    • Lux says:

      15 Jan15 January 19:03

      If consistent, then Twitter blocking says all I’d need to know about the company.

  • Peter says:

    15 Jan15 January 12:48

    No. They cut costs where they can.

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