“In 2019, it emerged that the FCA had investigated Revolut after a whistleblower claimed in 2016 that it was failing to conduct adequate money-laundering checks, or properly flag suspect payments. One former employee told the BBC at the time that “the chief executive refused to listen to the compliance team”, leading to the exodus of key staff, including the chief risk officer and money-laundering reporting officer.”
That’s quite interesting and has clearly been addressed since there are now quite a few posters in the Revolut Community who complain that their funds have been frozen whilst security checks are undertaken with little or no information being provided to them about what is going on.
Well, to be frank, some people it seems shovel a significant amount of funds into an unverified account in one hit from an unexplained source and just expect to be able to start spending it almost instantly!
Perhaps some of these “complaints” came from that source and disaffected employees.
I speak as I find. Revolut works for me and thus far, I have had no issues concerning compliance.
Isn’t the real underlying issue that Fincons are forbidden by law to disclose their reasons why accounts have been referred and anyone who shovels significant funds in to an unverified account needs their bumps feeling? I read of one such case in the community where someone paid in 30k+ in one hit as the first transaction and wondered why Revolut hadn’t simply returned the funds to them
If there was ever a trigger for a security check - surely that was it…
Not my usual reading material but a salutary lesson here nonetheless.
All well and good to be wise after the event but Revolut - like most financial institutions - will never ever ring a client and ask them to disclose their pin. Also worthy of note is the relationship with Apple Pay and the hole in securing your funds which can follow.
There are facilities within the app to suspend the card until it is needed and to turn on other security features which could have prevented this crime.
There is some useful advice from a security expert as a side note in the article and I do know that Revolut is doing much to alert it’s user base to prevent this type of thing but people are fickle and often disregard the advice proffered.
My attention was also drawn to one user who indicated that he had been scammed multiple times and Revolut refused to do anything for him (beyond providing the advice about protecting his account). In this case - one cannot help but wonder if the problem was actually the client rather than the Fincon.
Is it too easy for people to set up a scam themselves and then expect the institution to make restitution perhaps. One wonders
I haven’t read this thread because I have been very happy over many years with the service I had transferring money with Worldwide.
I have now been told that, because of Brexit, they can only do it through a 3rd party with whom they have an arrangement (Currency Cloud or something like that).
Thing is I have to be registered with them but the final task was for me to send €1 to them to somehow prove the existence of my bank, La Banque Postale. I tried twice but failed, probably my fault, but I am very wary of a 3rd go which might prove disastrous so am now looking for an alternative.
All I want to do is transfer money at an agreed rate on the day from my bank in England (Yorkshire/Virgin) to my bank here. The only charge till now has been the 1 cent they knock off the current rate. I don’t want to transfer directly from pension providers becauise I want to be free to choose the date.
The only problem has been till now (though not really a problem) I can only send a max of £1,000/day to them in London. As I have always not been in a hurry I was happy to fix the rate and then wait until the necessary number of days had passed when they would then send the euros to me immediately.
I don’t have/want a smartphone, so no apps just a free call from my fixed line.
Revolt is an app based solution requiring a smartphone so that seems to be out of the equation sadly, as it would otherwise satisfy all your other requirements.
The other recommedation I would make then is TorFX who we have used on a number of occasions for larger tranches - they are super efficient and well worth talking to. There used to be a link on SF to them on the Topic bar.
They will look after any money laundering requirements that may arise and can fix rates for you and send your currency direct to your French bank as required.
If you are interested in torFX, I can let you know the details of my senior account manager and his direct UK telephone number.
The people I recommended to him in recent times have found him to be very thorough and enormously helpful.
@Griffin36 but not for money transfer transactions IIRC
So far as Revolut is concerned, the browser option is more a window into your account but the app secures the access.
Interestingly Currency Cloud are the backend for the vast majority of these sorts of things. Wise still do little aside from their own business (I think they possibly run the payments for Bunq and Monzo too) and virtually everyone else who isn’t a specialist forex business uses CC, so they’re normally very good and very smooth, I’m surprised there’s been an issue at the first hurdle.
I’m also quite surprised they suggest to move a pound as a test run as 1p and £1 transfers are far more likely to trigger fraud mechanisms as it’s a very well known tactic of people who steal cards/ card details to do exactly that; a test transaction for either to check the details work before then ordering a half a dozen new MacBooks or 3 magnums of Dom Pérignon, so it’s generally advisable to do other sums. None of which helps @David_Spardo’s situation I appreciate
I think that’s fine most of the time Griffin, for those of us who already have accounts. I think though that David, as a new client, will have to provide a mobile phone number so that he can receive SMS messages. Doesn’t have to have a banking app on a smart phone though - just the messaging capability.
Yes, I can get sms messages on my phone but not, it appears MMS although there is an option to send them. Perhaps I should try Wise then. Can I move individual amounts on a phone call or sms bearing in mind that I can only send £1,000 a day to them with the transfer made after the last payment?
As a last resort I could try and get the various pension providers to pay our pensions direct, as they used to do, but that leaves us at the mercy of the exchange rates. It also means that the money that has built up in the UK account over the last year is locked there,
It will depend on the size of the provider. My state pension and one from Unilever both come into France and they get better exchange rates than I can. I have a couple of small ones with smaller insurance companies and they stay in the UK and I bring the money across when I need it.
Sorry David, don’t understand. If I explain what I do - I do everything via my computer. I log onto Wise, there is a “send money” button I click on. I put in how much I want to send. Typically I send £300 or £400 or £500 in any one transaction. Their programme shows me how much that converts to in euros. I have a list of payees including the details of my own bank account here in France. I click on that. I then am given various alternatives for how I want to pay - I use my UK bank debit card - so click on that. Put in the CVV number of the card. And click “send” and the transaction is done in typically 8 seconds.
I can send money as often as I want in a month. If I haven’t sent any money for a while that’s when they typically will send me an SMS code to my mobile which I have to put in, in addition to my password which I have to put in every time.
My state pension and one from Unilever both come into France and they get better exchange rates than I can.
You can only be sure of the best rate if you determine the date, as I do, unless they don’t send your money on the same date each month.
Sorry David, don’t understand. If I explain what I do -
I ring Worldwide and speak to the same man every time. I tell him how much I want to send and he gives me the rate. As it is always a good rate I agree and tell him the transfer date which is the last date of my £1,000 daily transfers. The euros arrive in my French account within minutes. Sadly it won’t work anymore and their way of getting round it apparently won’t work either.
It does appear to me that your method with Wise would work for me as they are obviously happy with small amounts each time. I’ll have to look at Yorkshire’s view on debiting large daily amounts by debit card although I suppose I could use the same method of doing an online transfer from them.
The only disadvantage I can see of your method as opposed to mine is that I can fix a rate on that first phone call and it doesn’t matter if the rate drops drastically over the next 5 days for example. With Wise it seems that instead of one large transaction, it is several individual daily ones and therefore might suffer from a rate drop.
I’ll look into it with Wise, and thank you for the info.
I may be wrong David, so you will need someone who uses Wise in a different way to confirm this - I think you may be able to fix a rate with them, though I think there is a charge for this.
