Best option when travelling - Revolut?

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Deckchair

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I will be travelling to the UK later this year and possibly to the USA sometime next year. I usually bring a bit of cash with me in the relevant currency and use my credit card for accommodation and suchlike.

Is Revolut a better option for purchases as regards exchange rate etc? I have it set up, just never really used it.
Thanks for any advice.
 
This thread may be of use:

Best way of making payments on a US holiday

I'm off to the US soon with the kids for the first time since, well, long before I had kids. The last time I was there I just used cash but assume card and contactless payment is much more prevalent than then. If I can avoid cash at all I'd like to. For hotels, car rental, etc, I'll use my...
www.askaboutmoney.com
 
I can speak for leisure travelling in the USA over 10 weeks between 2022 and 2023. I opened a free N26 account and got a N26 Debit Mastercard which cost €10. Deposited money before I departed and topped up remotely while away. I used it extensively for all sorts of transactions including retail, leisure, tourist, hospitality, markets as wasn't carrying cash, other than tip money. I had no issues apart from payment failing in Walmart (which also declined my AIB/BOI CR/DR cards). The currency conversion throughout was at rates almost identical to XE.COM. No charges were applied to my account. I did not use any ATMs so can't comment on this. I haven't been to the UK recently so again won't comment, but if I were to visit I'd be relying on my N26 card in the first instance.
 
i am just back from the UK and used my Revolut card for everything including the tube. My Mrs also used Revolut as did our two children who had the Revolut Junior cards. We rarely took out the cards and used Apple Pay all the time. I had a Curve card as a back up but ended up never using it.
 
Revolut all the way, have been in USA twice in the last 2 years, tap tap tap for everything with the funds held in the USD account no issues.
I have purchase a lot of cruises via a US site as well and again do all my buying in USD and no issues.

Again buy a lot from the UK and travel there regularly and tap for everything including the Tube.

I use Revolut for all my banking I just get paid into my BOI account and have some DD coming from it, I do all my day to day banking and short term saving on Revolut.
 
I have run into some difficulty using my Revolut debit card to pay for hotels in the US where they put a lock on, say, $2,000 and then charge you $1,800, but you’re down $3,800 for a while.

As a result, I use my credit card for the preauthorisation lock and then pay with Revolut.
 
The issue that I’ve encountered is a credit card preauthorisation falling away immediately, but a debit card preauthorisation taking more than a week to reverse, with th latter constituting real cash.

The US is surprisingly clunky generally where card payments are involved, e.g. being asked for a signature, difficulty tipping, difficulty closing out a tab after you’ve set one up, difficulty with Apple Pay, etc.
 
Gordon Gekko said:
The US is surprisingly clunky generally where card payments are involved, e.g. being asked for a signature, difficulty tipping, difficulty closing out a tab after you’ve set one up, difficulty with Apple Pay, etc.
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This was always my impression too but things have changed a lot based on a trip I made a few months ago.

I made maybe a hundred payments and signature never requested, Apple Pay accepted almost everywhere or otherwise a physical card. Tipping via card or Apple Pay too.

The only place I absolutely needed cash was an ice cream van.

For a hotel pre-authorsation I (unwisely) used a Revolut debit card but after checkout my account was credited a day later.
 
I used Revolut for casual spending on some trips to the UK in the last year. No issues at all Just tap away.
They only charge the exchange rate Mon to Fri, but be aware that if used at the weekend, there is a 1% markup.
Its still way less than the exchange rate + fees charged by Irish banks for DR/CR cards.

I've never used it for hotel bills though.
 
For those using a Revolut card abroad, can you exchange the currency in your Revolut account before you travel? If so, when you tap you card abroad, does it automatically pay in the local currency that you have pre-exchanged, instead of Euro? Or is the Revolut card fixed to Euro only?
 
Lisboa said:
For those using a Revolut card abroad, can you exchange the currency in your Revolut account before you travel? If so, when you tap you card abroad, does it automatically pay in the local currency that you have pre-exchanged, instead of Euro? Or is the Revolut card fixed to Euro only?
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Yes, you can exchange before you travel and therefore lock down the exchange rate. If you have sufficient funds in the currency that you are paying in, then it would first use up these funds. A couple of points:
- if you exchange in advance (Monday - Friday) then you avoid the 1% charge mentioned above
- If you have funds in another currency but not sufficient for the specific transaction, it will take the full amount from your Euro account rather than first using up what is available in the local currency.
 
Nobodys mentioned Curve so I thought I'd add it. It's a card that you register your credit cards into. Then you use the Curve card and it does the currency conversion and sends the transaction to your existing credit / debit cards (whichever one you've set up in the app).

It allows €200 of withdrawals a month in ATMs with no fee. So I could point it at my Irish Debit card and withdraw €200 while abroad at an ATM in whatever currency. Curve will handle the currency conversion.
Obviously you can use the card in normal credit card transactions so you tap / swipe as normal while abroad and it converts the currency to Euro and sends the transaction to your home Debit or Credit card.

If you use the paid plans the €200 withdrawal amount increases.
 
One item that hasn't been mentioned. Free Revolut users are allowed to exchange 1000 euro each month before incurring additional fees (0.5%) This is separate to the weekend exchange markup mentioned by another poster.

You can see the monthly running total under Card settings in the app.

Edit to update: apologies, the running currency exchange total is found under "plan", which is accessed from the home or user icon, not the Card Settings (which shows the contactless running total).
 
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selfbuilder said:
i am just back from the UK and used my Revolut card for everything including the tube. My Mrs also used Revolut as did our two children who had the Revolut Junior cards. We rarely took out the cards and used Apple Pay all the time. I had a Curve card as a back up but ended up never using it.
Click to expand...

Did the same used Revolut for fares and pretty much everything in the UK. Except big items where I used credit card.
 
gipimann said:
One item that hasn't been mentioned. Free Revolut users are allowed to exchange 1000 euro each month before incurring additional fees (0.5%) This is separate to the weekend exchange markup mentioned by another poster.

You can see the monthly running total under Card settings in the app.

Edit to update: apologies, the running currency exchange total is found under "plan", which is accessed from the home or user icon, not the Card Settings (which shows the contactless running total).
Click to expand...
Thanks for that..re: running FX xfer.......nice and simple
 
Using Revolut in Czechia this week. *************************! Moving into another non € country next week. Will convert any leftover Czech Kc then. Good system. Not exceeding €1,000 pm or exchanging at weekend.
 
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