Of course there are satisfied customers as the company wouldn’t exist otherwise, but personally I feel my money is too precious to take any unnecessary risks so choose not to use Revolut.
Joyce that must have been a relatively small transfer as everytime I did the same calulation in the past transferwise was better unless Currencyfair have increased their rate a bit under pressure from the competition?
In the years I’ve been using Revolut, I have never had a problem.
You need to appreciate that some of the so called issues with Revolut stem from unconfirmed sources of funds and other “funny money” currencies but never Sterling to Euro (or vice versa).
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The £3.69 is the currency exchange fee - you do get Interbank rate which normally works out cheaper than the usual ForEx “no fee” (but we do skim 1% off interbank rate). The only way of working out which is best is literally how many Euros do I get. That fee exists whether you do a stand alone transfer (from a UK bank to a French recipient) or inside your Borderless account.
There’s no such thing as “free” currency exchange its simply whether the fee is explicit (Neo Banks) or hidden (For Ex traders) or both (banks). As before how many Euros do I get is the only number that matters.
I didn’t like Revolut (only on tablet and phone which is annoying) - I did like N26 but found that after TW and couldn’t be bothered to start a new account.
What I like about TW is it always works - its fast - if there’s a problem they sort it quickly - and best of all no posh twat rings you up every week telling you its the perfect week to change money. There’s no haggling either - thats the rate - end of - as opposed to the ForEx we’ll give you this rate - oh well I guess we can match that …
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My experience as well - its nothing meteoric - 4-5 Euros more with TW on a £1000 switch from memory - and its still that. today
I think there’s a benefit to be had in being a client of more than one. There are times, only very occasionally, when things go wrong and that is ALWAYS the moment when you need the money, like NOW.
I remember Currency Fair making a hash of changing their bank a/c to Barclays and money going missing for several days. That was when I moved to Transferwise and I’ve stuck with them ever since. But I do still have an a/c with Currency Fair, just in case.
I nearly ditched Transferwise a couple of months or so back when I urgently needed to send money and they chose that moment to demand that I sent them a photo of myself as an additional level of security, assuming I would have no difficulty doing it on a mobile phone. It took me several days and some very stressed calls to their helpline to sort this out and I threatened them with Currency Fair. 
In the meantime OH had to move the money for me using his Currency Fair a/c. So we got there in the end.
I had exactly the same issue with Currency Fair - except they told me it was my problem until I went for the jugular on Trustpilot and Facebook.
But I would agree with the broad sentiment - I still have a For Ex account with one of the established players - and they did beat TW on moving six figures but only after haggling.
I was wondering about adding an N26 account for that reason - but equally - local CA account - First Direct UK accounts - TW personal account - TW ME account - Lloyds UK Business Account - I’ve probably got enough bank accounts.
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IMO the difference is that Revolut is a bank but Transferwise is just a, well, transfer company. So I guess they live or die by their competitiveness in that limited field. I’ve accounts with both but I’ve found Transferwise cheaper to/from Sterling and to Aussie dollars.
I am completely aware of that! Which is why I say “forex trader, where the element of the rate used for fees…” No so fussed with small amounts, but when I make a bigger amount I usually check several different routes and calculate exact amounts. When I checked yesterday once fees whether hidden or not are factored in transferwise ends up a pip or two off what I could get via forex - but looks v simple.
Sorry if that came up as a reply to you - it was meant as a general reply to the initial post.
Oh, ok…was a bit “teach granny”…
I come back to what I’ve said before about Revolut. Your money is perfectly safe with them, so you need not worry. However there are plenty of reasons to possibly not use them based around some of their very shady operational procedures and toxic company culture. But as a company they’re not going to half inch your money and disappear into the night with it, they provide an excellent service to customers, and hopefully they are making/ have made changes so that they don’t treat their staff in such an appalling manner that they have done so in the past, although of course they are not the only company in the world to do so, much of the tech world has had issues of this kind.
Currencyfair also charge €3 flat fee, so it’s much of a muchness for everyday transfers. I use both Currencyfair and Transferwise regularly so that I have options in case one or the other is out of service or otherwise having troubles. TW definitely has the edge on speed, CF has been a bit dilatory recently, with Euro transfers arriving the day after they should.
@Brian Clapham I’ve dealt with Currencyfair for many years so I’m well aware that their flat fee is 3€ per transaction. On the day I did my comparison TW’s fee was £7.50 for an exchange of £2000 plus a very small charge for the transfer into my French bank account. At that moment in time by using CF I would have received a few more euros than I would using TW. I have stated that TW do provide a very rapid service. As an aside, having just received an email from them TransferWise are now to be known as Wise!
Wise? Who dreamt up that bit of rebranding, I wonder.
Indeed, I was agreeing with your points, and pointing out that because CF use a flat fee, rather than a percentage, they would be a better choice for larger amounts.
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I guess nobody has looked into this with Revolut?
It’s probably relevant to the rebrand from Transferwise to ‘Wise’ - they obviously see themselves as much broader than forex.
Yes Revolut can do this, you have a separate account for each currency. (you get sort code, account numbers, IBAN etc).
With Revolut you hold a number of accounts - you can then (if you wish) move money between the accounts and in doing so you have exchanged currency at the full interbank rate.
This post Link detailed recently why I was very impressed with Revolut.
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I always use CurrenciesDirect, and I find them very efficient and an acceptable exchange rate.
Jane Jones, I agree with you, if a company cannot spell correctly or starts to use bad language just to sell a product I give them a wide berth.
A bit of assistance please.
I bank with Nationwide in UK, and Credit Mutuel in France. Up until now, I have just transferred money from UK to France using Nationwide’s transfer money system.
The rate is usually a couple of pence under the efx rate, but I don’t pay a charge as such, whatever the amount, it seems to be calculated into the exchange rate, although they do tell me what the charge was!!. The largest amount I have transferred is £10,000 and the charge (!) was £38.
In the near future I am going to have to transfer a much larger amount, so the exchange rate difference may make it cheaper to use an FX company, but if they charge a commission per £k of around the same amount, which, do you think, is my best way?