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How to Get Cheap Holiday Money – My Revolut Card Review

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Accessing money while you’re abroad can be expensive and inconvenient.

The conversion rates for holiday money at most high street banks and bureaux de change are far from competitive, as everyone in the chain takes their own commission. What’s more, carrying round a huge wad of cash on holiday is filled with risk. And what if you happen to run out of cash while away?

The other common alternative is to use a credit or debit card while abroad, but these too often come with expensive currency-conversion costs, plus fees for using your card abroad.

Mulling over this issue before we set off on our recent jaunt to France I decided to do some digging into the cheapest way to get hold of foreign currency while abroad. Not only was I looking for the most competitive rates, but I also wanted to be able to withdraw additional cash during our holiday.

The eventual solution I settled on was a company called Revolut, who issue a combination travel money card and mobile app which work together seamlessly.

The Benefits of a Revolut Card

The key reason I chose the Revolut card was because of their exceptional currency conversion rates; they offer the same rates that banks themselves use to exchange currency between one another. In other words you’re getting currency at a “wholesale” price – before the banks mark it up. This has the potential to save you a considerable sum of money while away.

As it turns out, however, the Revolut card also has a surprising number of other benefits for managing your money while away…

Rapid Order Fulfillment

Transferring money from your bank account to your Revolut card is simplicity itself. Just register a bank account or debit card and you can top up your account in a matter of moments.

Having downloaded the app onto my phone I simply need to select the amount, and which of my registered accounts I’d like to draw money from, to receive almost instant deposit into my Revolut account.

To save on fees levied by your bank, it is recommended to top up your account in your native currency, then transfer it to others once in your account.

Bearing in mind the app also gives you an instant balance of my funds at any moment, it’s super-simple to manage your finances while abroad. Just check in every so often to ensure you have a comfortable buffer, and top it up a little if necessary.

Revolut makes it easy to check on your balance in all currencies.

No worries about running out of cash, and no concerns over the safety of using your standard credit card or debit card abroad.

Hold Money in Multiple Currencies

The Revolut card lets you hold money in Pounds Sterling, US Dollars and Euros, and it takes moments to transfer money from one balance to another. While the card is billed as a holiday money card this also means that it can be used like a prepaid debit card at home if you have remaining funds on your return from holiday.

Transferring money from one currency to another couldn't be simpler - and is almost instantaneous.

Withdraw Cash or Pay by Card

The Revolut card is a fully-functional Mastercard which allows you either to pay by card (generally the easiest) or to withdraw cash from any standard cashpoint. While Revolut don’t charge you for either process, some cash machines may charge for withdrawals so take care.

What I found interesting was that many of the cash points and card payment machines in France either offer language options or seem to instantly recognise my card and change the instructions into English. Therefore don’t be nervous about paying with your card – I have found it to be simplicity itself even with my very basic French language skills!

Superior Fraud Prevention Tools

One element I really like about Revolut is how much attention they pay to fraud prevention. For example, every time I spend money on my card or withdraw cash I get an instant alert to let me know. This is a nice “check” on your funds, ensuring no money is withdrawn without your knowledge.

Even more impressively, however, is that using the Revolut app you can turn on and off various features of your card. You can change the pin, turn off contactless payments and more. This means you can set up the security elements which make you feel comfortable – and change them at a moment’s notice.

Lastly if you’re unlucky enough to mislay your card while abroad you can even block the whole card to prevent fraud. Then, if you find it again, it is simple to re-activate the card via the app.

This all helps to protect you and make me feel more confident while away from “home territory”.

Built-In Budgeting Tools

Not only does the app attached to your Revolut card show you the balances left on your card in various currencies but it also includes a handy budgeting tool. Here you can not only see how much money has been spent while away, but the tool also tries to break down your spending into categories.

While the categorisation isn’t 100% accurate in my experience it’s still nice to be able to quickly look back over your spending at any time, helping you budget for the remainder of your holiday.

Easily see how much money you've spent while away with Revolut's simple budget management tool.

How Does the Revolut Card Work?

Using the card couldn’t be much simpler. Just download the app from Revolut, then sign up via your phone. Your travel money card will arrive within a week or so – and pleasantly I found that I got continual updates to let me know that the card was being made, was ready for dispatch and had then been posted. In the busy days running up to a holiday this is ideal, and allows you keep on top of your new card with minimum effort.

My own card arrived earlier than expected. From here you’ll want to link up a debit card or bank account, so you can quickly transfer money in. Use the simple conversion window to transfer it into the currency of your choice and you’re all ready to go.

Simply keep an eye on your balance while you’re away using the mobile app, and top-up as needed.

How I Use my Revolut Card

Before leaving the UK we wondered whether to rely on the Revolut card entirely, or whether to grab some Euros in cash too. We chose the second option so that we had two forms of payment on our journey driving through France. The goal was to reach our villa in one long, smooth drive without having to worry about stopping to find a cashpoint etc. On arrival we could then experiment with withdrawing cash.

As it turned out, this was a solid idea. We travelled on a number of toll roads in France and while some accepted my Revolut card, we found a couple did not. If we hadn’t had some cash to go alongside we might have found ourselves in a rather annoying position.

The way I use my Revolut card now is to try and keep a balance of 100 Euros or so in cash at all times to cover any eventuality. We then pay pretty much every bill with our Revolut card. Apart from the toll road, we haven’t yet found a cash machine, shop or restaurant that won’t accept the card. That said, having some cash ready can make life easier when it comes to shopping in the wonderful markets and so on.

So that’s how I use my Revolut card – simplicity itself.  

Should You Get a Revolut Card?

At the time of writing this review we’re roughly a month into a summer-long trip to France. So far the card has worked without fault, while the app is reliable and very user-friendly. Taking into consideration all the features that it offers, and the way the super-competitive currency conversion rates can help you to save money while away I’m very happy with Revolut.

If you’re heading abroad this year, I’d strongly encourage you to reserve a little money with your local bank – just to see you through the first few days. Then order a Revolut card to deal with all your day-to-day payments while abroad. You won’t believe how easy having a money card can make managing your finances while on holiday – allowing you to enjoy your time away to the full.

Save money when going on holiday by getting better rates on currency conversion. Find out how the Revolut card can save you time, money and effort when getting hold of foreign currency.

Richard

Sun-worshipper and obsessive frugality blogger. For loads more money-saving advice come and join us on Facebook.

21 comments

  • Keith Lock says:

    Thanks for the review, i to have recently got a revolut through money saving expert as it gripes me paying fees to access my own money and also being stung on poor exchange rates as well.
    As we are going to italy and switzerland in August my only concern is that i have read reviews where the card has been blocked, that is no good if you have all your money on the card, as you said it is better to keep topping up.
    Also worth mentioning that if you use the card on weekends you have to pay a small fee ( which is far better than the banks anyway)

    • I wouldn’t want to rely on any one source of finances while away. I had no major issues with my Revolut card, but I still kept a load of cash (some in my wallet, some at the villa) and had back-up credit & debit cards to get me out of any situations. Just be sure to let your bank know you’re going abroad – you wouldn’t want them to also block your card!

    • Andrew O'Higgins says:

      100 pounds…Hmm
      Wait until you put some more money,they lock you out for months at a time without any meaningful explanation. But their
      heavy guns are the live chat agents.This is the first time in my life I’d rather chat with the pathetic bot named Rita than with the parrots repeating the same absurd notice over and over again
      Stay away!! You gave been warned many times!!an cdookStay away from these brazen Russian crooks!

  • You list all the pros and make no mention of any potential cons, so it reads a bit like you work there!

    • Hi Angelica – you make a reasonable point – though in all fairness I truly haven’t had any issues to date. All the same, I’ve had a few comments from other visitors who haven’t had quite such a good experience – and I’m publishing them as they come in for a balanced piece.

  • I’ve just got one of these for my trip to Greece. When you’re taking out of the atm abroad if you’ve loaded it with euros do you still get the question about accepting the rate with or without conversion or does it recognise the fact you have euros?

    • I can only speak from my experiences in France (and subsequently Cyprus) where I didn’t get asked. I did the conversion on my phone (via the app) and withdrew Euros abroad as easily as I would GBP in the UK with my normal debit card.

      • Tony Carne says:

        My experience in Spain is you do get asked the conversion question and if you decline the ATM cancels the transaction leaving you without cash. Resolut’s customer service were some what unsympathetic and took a “your problem” attitude!

  • It didn’t work on road tolls and it didn’t work on petrol pumps. Then it started refusing top-ups. Its help service was busy with live chats denied much of the time due to backlogs of several hours due to being ‘extremely busy’. So to me unsatisfactory and disappointing.

    • I have to admit I paid for petrol at the kiosk so I can’t comment on the pump situation, but like you I had issues at toll roads. There does seem to be a recurring theme that customer service if/when you need it isn’t living up to expectations. I guess I’ve been lucky that I haven’t needed to contact them at all with issues.

  • I’ve also been tested the card for a month, then decided to do a larger transaction of booking 2 flights. Funds were debited from account no problem on transaction date. 3 days later transaction debited again. Am now left with deficit balance. Keep getting to top up however Moines responses to my chat for answers. Original debit was now 8 days ago. Very frustrating and has already changed my opinion after recommending to 2 colleagues a couple of weeks back.

  • Revolut suffers from management failings. Although Revolut is trying to provide an innovative solution in a financial product, it is far from 21st century in the basic customer handling sense. When Revolut works, it does what it says on the tin, but when it doesn’t (which is a too frequent experience) the support is severely lacking. The support staff are clearly under pressure and do not respect customers – I have had blame and supercilious answers on their chat facility. Too often there is no reason for a failed transaction, and no support from Revolut. Their response times are slow – perhaps because of good growth, but also a sign of a management out of its depth. Try Starling, or Halifax Clarity – both of which are both superior in use and have better customer support.

    • That’s interesting Richard – thanks for your feedback. While, as I say, I’ve had no issues at all, I wanted to publish your comment to give a fair and balanced view when other readers arrive here. I’d be interested to hear what issues you had with the app – and whether recent updates have resolved these issues?

  • Hey Richard, nice summary.

    Could the card be used for payment of recurring monthly business expenses? For example, using Revolut instead of a standard debit card to save on the bad FX but also the super pricey transaction fees a high street bank slugs you for!

    I’ve got several USD software subs and the fees really add up.

    • Hi Jamie – I’m pretty sure the card would work fine for that. I’ve also got a Transferwise Borderless Account which I use for recurring payments in foreign currencies and – so far – no issues. I plan to write an article about this soon as being based in the UK I get stung quite heavily for USD transactions!

  • Brilliant info richard thank u for u taking the time to relay all this i wasnt sure before whether to bother with this ..but u certainly convinced me its worthiness ..so often we hear about great new things on the financial front and its normally the same old …dressed up different..thank u again ..i will avail of it as i travel a lot..

    • You’re very welcome Graham – and to be clear I’m still using my Revolut card to this day 🙂

  • John Vernon says:

    I am considering getting a revolut card. I have approximately 1000 euros cash which I am loathe to carry in cash. If I get a card how do I actually credit my euros to the card. Is this done through my bank, as it is cash and not in an account from where it could be transferred. I realise there is an app. but not sure how to credit cash on to the card.

    I appreciate that I can transfer money from an account that is registered but not sure how to cope with euros through a bank.

  • Hi richard,

    Two topics you failed to mentioned about revolut:

    Many times customer accounts were locked with hardly any explanation under the general definition of due diligence.

    Another problem is with missing money transfers using all types of delays with poor customer services passing the buck from one team to another trying to justify the delays.

  • Hi.
    I love Revolut. The only issues I’ve had are 1. It’s a Mastercard or Visa so u couldn’t use it at a festival in the Netherlands because they didn’t take credit cards.
    2. I discovered whilst on holiday that there is a limit on free ATM withdrawals.
    Jan 2020