Monzo/Starling Banking/Revolut

Maccy · 1 Mar 2019 at 12:00

Well after the recent issues in the media and the issues I've been facing with the app, plus the fact I don't need the premium/metal benefits, I'm ditching Revolut and going to focus on Starling. Hopefully I can get the benefits of a Euro account soon!

inferno · 3 Mar 2019 at 15:29

Just got a revolut card. Can someone tell me the benefits?

I travel a lot and regularly change money from AED to GBP. What are the benefits I'll see?

Basher · 3 Mar 2019 at 15:31

inferno said:
Just got a revolut card. Can someone tell me the benefits?

I travel a lot and regularly change money from AED to GBP. What are the benefits I'll see?

Personally I just use Starling and it converts at the MasterCard rate. So you avoid transaction fees and rubbish rates. With Rev, do you need to convert into AED before you travel? With Rev you’d also avoid transaction fees and get a good FEX rate.

I use Rev to accept USD from stock purchases and Starling for everything else.

englishpremier · 4 Mar 2019 at 17:10

inferno said:
Just got a revolut card. Can someone tell me the benefits?

I travel a lot and regularly change money from AED to GBP. What are the benefits I'll see?

Mostly, sending payments/transfers to people in foreign currencies. For paying by card, it's better to use something like Starling, or Halifax Clarity.

I would use Starling for transfers, but they charge £5.50 for SWIFT. There is a local partner option for £0.30 that I'm yet to explore, but either way there is an additional fee on top of those mentioned.

Noxia · 4 Mar 2019 at 18:29

englishpremier said:
Mostly, sending payments/transfers to people in foreign currencies. For paying by card, it's better to use something like Starling, or Halifax Clarity.

I would use Starling for transfers, but they charge £5.50 for SWIFT. There is a local partner option for £0.30 that I'm yet to explore, but either way there is an additional fee on top of those mentioned.

FWIW I've used the locks partner option on some small transfers to Portugal and one went through next day and another time it took 2-3

gizmoy2k · 5 Mar 2019 at 08:12

Revolut under further investigation, no smoke without fire and all.
Wouldn't use it for anything more than spending money on a holiday, even then plenty of alternatives

Financial Times: City of London Police launch fraud investigation into Revolut.

https://www.ft.com/content/bd58f570-3e87-11e9-b896-fe36ec32aece

Jimbeam3678 · 5 Mar 2019 at 08:23

gizmoy2k said:
Revolut under further investigation, no smoke without fire and all.
Wouldn't use it for anything more than spending money on a holiday, even then plenty of alternatives

Financial Times: City of London Police launch fraud investigation into Revolut.

https://www.ft.com/content/bd58f570-3e87-11e9-b896-fe36ec32aece

Behind a paywall, copy and paste ?

The_Abyss · 5 Mar 2019 at 09:22

Police have launched a fraud investigation over a complaint on a money transfer by British digital bank Revolut, adding further pressure to a fintech company that is already facing probes on other issues from regulators. The City of London Police confirmed that an investigation by the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau was now under way, after the Metropolitan Police received a complaint about the London-based company in early February. Revolut, which was valued at $1.7bn in its most recent fundraising, has expanded rapidly from its beginnings as an app focused on travel money. It currently has plans to offer services ranging from personal loans to commission-free stock trading. The company is best-known for its consumer banking services, but the case being investigated by police relates to its Revolut for Business service, which provides multicurrency accounts with free currency exchange and international transfers for small and medium-sized businesses. Paul Carlier, a former foreign exchange trader, filed a complaint on behalf of his wife, who said she had not received a payment of more than £70,000 owed to her in January. Mr Carlier said he pursued the fintech firm over the hold-up for more than two weeks, at which point Revolut informed his wife that it was shutting down her account. A customer support officer told her that he “cannot confirm you’ll receive a full and detailed explanation as of [sic] why the account is being closed”. According to official emails seen by the Financial Times, it appears the £70,000 sum was incorrectly paid into another person’s account. Revolut’s banking infrastructure partner, PrePay Technologies, later told Mr Carlier it had contacted Revolut in an attempt to have the money redirected to its proper recipient. Mr Carlier said: “Revolut went to extraordinary lengths to prevent acknowledging both a complaint made by [my wife’s] business and the authority given by the business for me to investigate and communicate on their behalf. “Revolut ignored requests for information, forcing the business to turn to social media to request information,” he added. “They were quickly blocked for daring to raise genuine concerns and questions.” Revolut said: “We are unable to comment on individual cases but we would like to apologise for any distress that may have been caused.” Revolut is currently facing pressure from regulators in the UK and politicians in Lithuania, where it received a European banking licence last year. It is common practice in Lithuania for security commissions to investigate businesses when applying for licences. But Revolut was investigated a second time after concerns were raised about the source of some of its shareholders’ money. Revolut’s founder Nikolay Storonsky hit back against criticism in Lithuania in January, saying in an open letter that while the country was “making a name for itself” as a fintech hub, “scaremongering campaigns such as this will make foreign investors run in the opposite direction, potentially risking thousands of jobs”. Recommended Fintech Revolut’s Russian founder stirs up Lithuania’s fintech debate Meanwhile, in the UK, the Financial Conduct Authority is looking into whether Revolut failed to abide by rules requiring it to be open and frank with its regulator, after it failed to inform it of an alleged lapse in its anti-money laundering controls last year. It had previously reported a string of suspected money-laundering issues on its digital payments system to the FCA and National Crime Agency earlier in 2018. Revolut declined to comment on the FCA investigation but said: “There never was any lapse in our anti-money laundering controls or our sanction screening process. At no point did we fail to meet our legal or regulatory requirements.” Revolut’s chief financial officer, Peter O’Higgins, resigned last week, saying he wanted to make way for someone with “global retail banking experience at this level”. The company confirmed that it was looking for a new CFO with more experience in retail banking, but stressed that Mr O’Higgins’s departure was not related to compliance issues.

Kainz · 5 Mar 2019 at 09:58

Uninstalled their app on my S8+ last night. Since the last update the 'firewall' on AdHell 3 was blocking a lot of outbound comms from the app and a lot of it was 'error logs'. Given I hardly used the app anymore I was suspicious. Of course all the other apps do similar things too but not to the frequency of the revolut app.

Diddums · 5 Mar 2019 at 10:30

Been saying it for ages. Revolut are shady as ****.

Maccy · 5 Mar 2019 at 10:44

Interesting that the CEO has released 2 blog posts in the last week to try and 'clear some things up'...

https://blog.revolut.com/let-me-sec-the-record-straight/
https://blog.revolut.com/weve-made-mistakes-but-were-learning/

randomshenans · 5 Mar 2019 at 10:49

Not surprised their CFO left, they're all about 12 and way out of their depth for a 1.7b dollar company.

McPhee · 5 Mar 2019 at 12:18

Based in London, founded by Russian stock traders, with a banking license from Lithuania, rather than the UK.

The alarm bells have been deafening for some time.

englishpremier · 5 Mar 2019 at 13:07

Diddums said:
Been saying it for ages. Revolut are shady as ****.

Seems right.

Will start looking at other options as this isn't going to end well.

Just yesterday I sent another EUR transfer to someone, which worked well. Will test something else for the next one

The_Abyss · 5 Mar 2019 at 13:14

People tend to cling on to their chosen solution if it either works for them or if they feel defensive about it. There may be nothing wrong with Revolut at all, at a level where client funds are at risk. But that doesn't mean that people should blindly ignore the risk warnings that I and others have been flagging up for months.

XeNoN89 · 5 Mar 2019 at 14:36

I have both a Monzo and Revolut card that i only really use for traveling. Thinking about ditching the Revolut and getting Starling!

chroniclard · 5 Mar 2019 at 14:39

Whats the alternative then, Monzo? I dont want another bank account just an easier way to move cash around/pre paid travel usage.

Raymond Lin · 5 Mar 2019 at 14:41

chroniclard said:
Whats the alternative then, Monzo? I dont want another bank account just an easier way to move cash around/pre paid travel usage.

Monzo or Starling. Much are muchness between them. I have both, their features are very similar too. I prefer Starling for the fact that I can get a Business Account with it. In terms of rates they are the same for overseas purchases. Both have NPC wallet support, both have categories of spending and alerts etc.

I also have Revolut as well.

chroniclard · 5 Mar 2019 at 14:45

Have to say I have been completely happy with Revolut, I use it daily for the "vault" feature and used for several trips abroad, just worrying they are shady now.

McPhee · 5 Mar 2019 at 15:05

The_Abyss said:
People tend to cling on to their chosen solution if it either works for them or if they feel defensive about it. There may be nothing wrong with Revolut at all, at a level where client funds are at risk. But that doesn't mean that people should blindly ignore the risk warnings that I and others have been flagging up for months.

There's absolutely no risk to funds. It's all backed by the ~€50bn GDP Lithuanian state...