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Forums Payment cards Other payment cards What are the best alternatives to Revolut?

  • 42 posts

    Wondering if anyone has a recommendation for an alternative to revolut. Their customer service is atrocious, but I’ve put up with it because of the ability to have a gbp account with local sort code and account number. I use it like this; top up my euro account from Dutch bank account-exchange € to £ to my revolut £ account -transfer £ to a U.K. based account. I accept being charged to exchange € to £, but I haven’t used it in a while and when I used it today, it’s also now charging me to make transferee in £ from my £ to a U.K. bank account. This is a new charge, I’ve been back through my last few payments (March 2021) and I was not charged to sending £ to £ then. I checked with revolut and they’ve confirmed that this is now the case. I am not happy being charged twice, one to convert € to £ and again to send £ to £. Does anyone know of an alternative where you can truly use your £ account as a local account, or failing that somewhere where at the very least they have better customer service.
    Thanks.

    • This topic was modified 55 years, 3 months ago by .
    18 posts

    Have you considered Wise (Was Transferwise)?

    705 posts

    +1 for Wise. Great customer service and one of the best rates. Been using it for 4 years.

    42 posts

    I’ll give wise a look. Thanks.

    7 posts

    You could try opening accounts with Starling Bank. You get a sterling and euro account as standard and they charge 0.4% conversion fee to move funds between the two currencies. I’ve found them to be excellent – available 24/7. Wise are good too, but a bit more of a process to move between currencies imo.

    42 posts

    Do you need to be a U.K. resident to open a Starling account though?

    7 posts

    Good point. Their website gives this info:
    “You can apply for a Starling account as long as you’re over 16 and live at a UK address. As you’d expect, we welcome all nationalities and you don’t even have to be a UK tax resident.”

    161 posts

    Be warned: I know Revolut is also pretty bad but Starling customer service is truly awful.

    1,613 posts

    Be warned: I know Revolut is also pretty bad but Starling customer service is truly awful.

    As a converse datapoint, I’ve had only one run-in with Starling customer service, and was impressed. Compared to Monese, Revolut and Curve it feels like a ‘proper’ bank. I believe it is actually a proper bank too, so funds are protected.

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