Use Revolut as my main bank, but my account is frozen and I can't get them to fix it

Good news!
Finally the Revolut chat function became unblocked this afternoon (Sunday), after 5 days of a brick wall!

Bottom line: I now have access again to my salary, after 11 days of account suspension.

Looks like the live-chat agent from last time had posted after I was locked out saying she was passing it to another team and was marking it as resolved! I had no way to even see that. And nobody from new team ever got in touch. I just randomly checked in and discovered the chat function was working again (it wasn't yesterday).

This time, when we started the verification process again, the help agent seemed less confused.

In the end, they didn't even make me change pin at all (though last time they insisted on me changing my google password!?).

Lesson learned. Moving most of money out and will only use for small bills and incidentals. Salary never going in there again!

I set up a credit union current account on Friday afternoon. The CU app going ok so far, has biometric sign-in, Google Pay functionality and there are branch opening hours on Saturday. Might be slower with money movement, but I can plan for that, and use Revolut to actually bridge the gap and do what it's good at. I'm hoping I'll have a happy blend now?

Might do review after I know more about the pros and cons. Not really many user experience stories out there about Credit Union current account facilities.

Not many about Revolut either. Hopefully others who might be needing to make a late move from KBC will read this thread and give Revolut a miss for current account facilities.
 
SharonC said:
Might do review after I know more about the pros and cons. Not really many user experience stories out there about Credit Union current account facilities.
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Hi Sharon

That is great news. How long did it take you today to sort it out?

This is a bit of a downside in some credit unions:

Credit Union deposit of cheque limit of €3500

Got a bit of a lump sum , a cheque for €4 k so I said I'd stick it in my local credit union account for a rainy day. The teller told me that they could only accept cheques for €3500 or less . Is this common practice ?
www.askaboutmoney.com
 
Brendan Burgess said:
Hi Sharon

That is great news. How long did it take you today to sort it out?

This is a bit of a downside in some credit unions:

Credit Union deposit of cheque limit of €3500

Got a bit of a lump sum , a cheque for €4 k so I said I'd stick it in my local credit union account for a rainy day. The teller told me that they could only accept cheques for €3500 or less . Is this common practice ?
www.askaboutmoney.com
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Thanks Brendan :)
It took about an hour or so today with Revolut. But a lot of chasing on my side to keep it in play. That sums up the whole chapter in general to be honest.

Appreciate the heads up on the Credit Union issues, wonder if it's all transfers or just cheques. Will find out!
 
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Brendan Burgess said:
Hi Sharon

I have just been corrected.


The limits apply to share accounts but not current accounts.

Brendan
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Thanks a million Brendan. I got a mail from my own CU that confirms as much, with a bit more detail. They have been very friendly and helpful.

". . . the most any member can hold in the Link Credit Union is €100,000.00. So if you have €25,000.00 in your shares you can have up to €75,000.00 in your current account. So no monthly limit yet on what comes in each month."

Great to have the clarity.
 
Revolut got a qualified audit opinion this year for its 2021 accounts from its auditor. That is an extremely rare occurrence for a company (never mind a Bank!) to get and should ring alarm bells for whoever has an account with them myself included. I now ensure there's not more than a couple of hundred euro in the account unless im going to use it to buy something in a foreign currency.

Reuters

LONDON, March 1 (Reuters) - Revolut Ltd's auditor BDO LLP was not able to independently verify three-quarters of the 636 million pounds ($765 million) of revenue reported by the fintech firm in its long-delayed 2021 accounts.

The accounts were signed off this week after months of delays, following a revamp of Revolut's internal accounting systems and heavy regulatory scrutiny.

In Revolut's annual report, BDO was quoted as saying that the financial statements gave a "true and fair view of the state of the group", although it warned that some information may be "materially misstated".
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telco said:
Watching this thread ..also a KBC user & Revolut user , have an EBS account in tandem ( not used much in recent years had some form filling to re activate it ) so currently have set up all direct debits from EBS ( mortgage, utilities , savings etc..) and day to day spending is still with KBC ...we will remain until we can. very last minute !

Going from the KBC platform to EBS platform equates to going from 5 star to 2 star ...sorry to see KBC exit the Irish market, their customer service and their app is /was super , and I am loathe to pay any bank fees for minding our money , so we will stick with 2 star for now. I got an email from Revolut last month to say they are researching joint accounts and their viability in the Irish market. In my enthusiasm I immediately expressed interest but after reading this tread , it looks like we are doomed with the EBS account for now ( no app, need user ID number , customer passcode & 2 step verification to access on a laptop )

Thanks to OP for raising this issue with Revolut and I am happy to see you got sorted eventually after a lot of heartburn
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Thank you @telco, I am glad it has been useful to share what happened to me. A fair amount of people are about to make hurried decisions in the next week or two before the final curtain comes down at KBC. I feel same about hanging on til last minute btw! Still using. Will miss the KBC app, it was a pleasure compared to other bank apps I've seen or used. You have more tolerance than me to be able to stick with that EBS experience though. For my part, suddenly "free" didn't seem so important after the Revolut episode, but each of us has our own line in the sand I guess.
 
I'm using Revolut as my main bank account for the past 5 months with government salary being paid in. I've had no issues whatsoever and the app is far superior to offerings from Irish banks. I don't keep a big balance as I transfer funds into a savings account.
 
finlma said:
I've had no issues whatsoever
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Hi finlma

I have had no issues with my AIB account for the last couple of years. But when I do have an issue, I will be able to speak to someone to sort it.

The problem with Revolut is that it works well most of the time, but when there is a problem, there really is no way of fixing it.

Brendan
 
Brendan Burgess said:
The problem with Revolut is that it works well most of the time, but when there is a problem, there really is no way of fixing it.
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This is not true.
Revolut operate a system of online agents who deal with problems very efficiently when they are given a clear explanation of the issues.
I have used this service a few times and on every occasion the issues were dealt with swiftly and satisfactory.
 
SharonC said:
A fair amount of people are about to make hurried decisions in the next week or two before the final curtain comes down at KBC.
Click to expand...
Yes, it’s an absolute disgrace that KBC and Ulster Bank have only just announced that they’re leaving Ireland.

They should give people sufficient notice.

People shouldn’t be forced into hurried decisions in the next week or two.
 
S class said:
This is not true.
Revolut operate a system of online agents who deal with problems very efficiently when they are given a clear explanation of the issues.
I have used this service a few times and on every occasion the issues were dealt with swiftly and satisfactory.
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HI S class, in my case, the issue was on their side (in-app selfie function would not work to allow pin update, in addition, their system would not issue a pin update email to me). When they couldn't fix it, the agent's response was to pull down the shutters and leave me without chat access for 5 days. The inital block of my account happened because my salary was paid into the account. Believe me, they had clear and concise details about what the problem was.
 
Gordon Gekko said:
Yes, it’s an absolute disgrace that KBC and Ulster Bank have only just announced that they’re leaving Ireland.

They should give people sufficient notice.

People shouldn’t be forced into hurried decisions in the next week or two.
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While hillarious, your point is unhelpdul and moot. There are still people remaining who have not made the move to a new bank.

The choices have not been great out there, not at all strange that some people have dragged their feet. Some people may have been waiting for the long anticipated Irish ibans from Revolut,. Several press articles have sprung up about Revolut's expanding offering being an option for those looking for banking services.
 
I've used Revolut as my standard current account for over a year. I've had no real problems and the odd time I've had to engage with support via the app, they have been fairly responsive.

Do I fully trust Revolut as a company? Nope. But I don't really "trust" any financial institution and I don't know why people think more traditional banks are any more secure. As long as I'm protected by the Deposit Guarantee Scheme, I consider Revolut a good option.

I always have some funds elsewhere, just in case there is an access issue. But I do think this can happen with many banks, especially if you have the hard luck of being put through to a particularly clueless support agent.

You're not going to use Revolut for a mortgage or a savings account, but for day-to-day budgeting/transactions/spending the user experience is generally excellent.

If you want to see a real basket case, open an An Post Money account. Let's just say it puts things in perspective...
 
I've gone the 3 account route.

Main - Bunq
Secondary - AIB basic
And Revolut just for odds and ends and travel

AIB basic because I can still receive a couple of cheques from people and need a place to lodge them. And if I ever win a few bob at the races, they accept cash

€36/year for Bunq and the others are free
 
peemac said:
I've gone the 3 account route.

Main - Bunq
Secondary - AIB basic
And Revolut just for odds and ends and travel

AIB basic because I can still receive a couple of cheques from people and need a place to lodge them. And if I ever win a few bob at the races, they accept cash

€36/year for Bunq and the others are free
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Your AIB basic account will be converted to a regular current account after 12 months if the total annual value of lodgements to your AIB Basic Bank Account in the previous year exceeds the national minimum wage threshold, otherwise, after 5 years.
I'd have either use AIB current account to receive wages and then EBS/Revolut for DD's and daily transactions. This way it'd be cheaper than using Bunq.
 
S class said:
This is not true.
Revolut operate a system of online agents who deal with problems very efficiently when they are given a clear explanation of the issues.
I have used this service a few times and on every occasion the issues were dealt with swiftly and satisfactory.
Click to expand...
Well id say you are in the minority here and I am (so far) a happy revolut user.
 
ArthurMcB said:
Well id say you are in the minority here and I am (so far) a happy revolut user.
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That's probably because I am good at clearly explaining a problem and willing to engage with the agent to add any further assistance, and then allow them some time to resolve it.
Some of the regular posters on this thread appear to have a bad attitude.
They would likely start a chat with an agent with a predetermined idea that the agent is stupid and not engage to assist in the resolution of the problem.
 
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PGF2016 said:
Pick the two banks with the lowest fees and have some money in both. Then if one goes rogue (like in this case you) have a back up option.
Expect poor service from all banks.
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Currently I have my salary going into AIB, but all my payments go through Revolut (I started using Revolut full time (everything but salary) at the start of 2018 (nearly 6 years now, and no issues, with all spending & bills going through Revolut).
Their chat agents have been great with sorting out refunds, and issues with transactions (where as with AIB I wouldn't even bother as I find phone calls and going in branch a pain compared to just talking to a chat agent).

I recently moved my savings to Lightyear and Trade Republic to avail of near ECB rate (3/4% deposit interest) so I literally just use AIB as a temporary holding place for my salary.
I also like that if I move house and the landlord lord asks for statements, they are happy to just get the AIB one showing the salary going in (this happened a few years ago)........ and I know they should take a Revenue generated statement of salary instead of a bank statement, but some landlords/agencies just have a set way of doing things unfortunately, and you can't be picky with renting in this rental climate.

I was considering setting up an N26 account to take the place of AIB.
That way there is some redundancy if Revolut gets locked.
I'm currently trying to figure out if there is a better alternative to N26 for my salary account (like Bunq or something, and advice appreciated).

On a side note:
I also have a Revolut Business account which was a breeze to setup, and is incredibly straight forward.
With the business account you can book a video call online if you want some feature explained.
It has expensing built in, employee card management, and the card readers are pretty inexpensive (not that I'm using any of those features), but if I had a need for those features it would be great.
 
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FireDuck said:
Currently I have my salary going into AIB, but all my payments go through Revolut (I started using Revolut full time (everything but salary) at the start of 2018 (nearly 6 years now, and no issues, with all spending & bills going through Revolut).
Their chat agents have been great with sorting out refunds, and issues with transactions (where as with AIB I wouldn't even bother as I find phone calls and going in branch a pain compared to just talking to a chat agent).

I recently moved my savings to Lightyear and Trade Republic to avail of near ECB rate (3/4% deposit interest) so I literally just use AIB as a temporary holding place for my salary.
I also like that if I move house and the landlord lord asks for statements, they are happy to just get the AIB one showing the salary going in (this happened a few years ago)........ and I know they should take a Revenue generated statement of salary instead of a bank statement, but some landlords/agencies just have a set way of doing things unfortunately, and you can't be picky with renting in this rental climate.

I was considering setting up an N26 account to take the place of AIB.
That way there is some redundancy if Revolut gets locked.
I'm currently trying to figure out if there is a better alternative to N26 for my salary account (like Bunq or something, and advice appreciated).

On a side note:
I also have a Revolut Business account which was a breeze to setup, and is incredibly straight forward.
With the business account you can book a video call online if you want some feature explained.
It has expensing built in, employee card management, and the card readers are pretty inexpensive (not that I'm using any of those features), but if I had a need for those features it would be great.
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You could set up an N26 and a Bunq as backups. Even if you don't use them at all there is no harm as they have no fees. I use EBS as my main account. I use it similar to how you use AIB. EBS are a pain and their systems are archaic but I have it set up in a way that I never really need to log in. Wages go in, rent and savings go out. I use Revolut for day to day spending.
 
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