I have been a Revolut user since December 5th 2017, almost 7 years ago, Revolut was for a a kind of separate saving account I would use on a daily basic. At the beginning it was more a debit card provider then a full fetch bank.
At the beginning there was only basic features, the only extra thing I had was contactless payment which wasn't available with my primary bank at the time, it wasn't the norm and you could only pay like 20€ at the time. The card was useful for automated coffee machine that would only accept coins and contactless.
Investing with Revolut
At some point I did sign up for their trading feature, they offered a way to buy stocks on the US market and it as very easy to to. At a time where banking apps where complicated, Revolut with their focus on software and user experience made it really easy. A few simple clicks and it was done.
After a while they started to offer the ability to buy "fake" crypto and only a few of the big ones like Bitcoin and Ether. Thought you would only be able to get price exposition since there was no way to withdraw or deposit in crypto. It was a way to invest extra capital in crypto which you could convert back to EUR or USD and book profits.
Now days you can buy a wide range of crypto tokens and even earn on stacked tokens like Polkadot and Solana. As of writing this article there is now 183 available crypto for me to buy on the app but I only have exposition to Bitcoin via the App.
I don't now how they choose which crypto gets listed, probably a lot to do with the size of community or potential trading volume they can capture. I would be happy to be able to buy Hive tokens directly on the app, to me it would be a big sign that Hive is becoming more mainstream if it got listed on banks like Revolut because of the potential exposition to a lot of users at their figertips.
I guess it is easier to add Ether base tokens or even Solana based ones when you have the tech already, since Hive is a bit different, they would need a reason to integrate it.
With Revolut you can even buy collections of tokens grouped together like an ETF, there is one for memes can you imagine, that was not even considered 7 years ago.
Nobody can predict how the market/industry will evolve but nowadays we can see that crypto is here to stay and even government are realizing that, let's not forget this wasn't a given.
RevPoints
Today I saw an article where Revolut was showing their loyalty program called Revpoints, you can get points like major US credit card for spending with the card, they even have challenges you can do in order to win more.
Over the years it really became a super banking App with a lot of partnership, you can book airport lounges, flight, travel stuff, tech stuff... A very complete app for all your financial services.
That what got me to try out Premium for one year since I plan on going to Asia for a few months this card is helpful.
Travel focus and Exchange rate
One of the selling killer feature at the beginning which still holds true is that you have bank type rate for currency exchange meaning you don't get rip off when using your card overseas. You also have the option to create additional sub accounts in another currency.
Since I am going to Indonesia at the end of the year, I have already open an account in IDR and I started buying a bit of the currency with practically no conversion cost.
Premium
I got test premium in September last year after having a problem with their service, they offered me a month free subscription to premium. At the time I didn't keep the service because I saw no use in it but now I can see the value for me.
On top of being great for travel, premium which I paid 100€ for a year (or 9,99€/month) is the middle tiers of subscription type. Below is a screenshot of the UK prices which are similar to Euro prices.
With my premium subscription, I also get a free subscription to partner service which is why I now consider it worth it for me as it is already paying itself. Nord VPN is a service I use and will be using during my trip and the basic account comes free with me Revolut sub.
I also get a free subscription to deliver Plus Silver and Toner Plus which is covering the price of the yearly Revolut subscription without the actual hard product of the Revolut card, atm withdraw, reduced fess on trading act...
If you want to spend more money you could even get some perks with rework and a financial times subscription.
I have also discovered apps I wouldn't use like sleep cycle, having free stuff make you want to try it. Affiliation is really a good business model for business with a lot of customers. I can make a small parallel with Hive where it would make sense for brands to integrate just to get access to a potential pool of new customers.
This is all my perks with Premium on Revolut.
Basic features
Revolut became better for French users in the past two years since they got a full banking licence which means deposit are covered up to 100k€ and it allowed them to offer services like Loans and savings account with competitive rates.
To bring more user to buy a premium subscription, they make it a no brainer like amazon, if you use the service then no reason not to user premium.
Due to my upgrade I now get better rate on my savings account, currently offering:
- 3.53% APY on EURO account
- 4,77% APY on £
- 4,73% APY on $ USD
Insurance is a lower on those product as they kind of are investments account.
Those rate are flexible and competition with traditional banks in France where saving rates bassicly got frozen this year.
Another cool feature with Revolut are vaults you can create with other for common budget and the ability to transfer instantly and for free to other Revolut users making it easier to pay friends and family back.
You also have the ability to do SEPA transfer for free and international transfer for a very small fee, I sent money once to New Zealand and it was easier then with a traditional bank.
