Offers And New Customer Experience - What is Revolut?
The first thing that grabbed us during our Revolut review was the simplicity of opening an account. You can enter your mobile number to be sent a link to the Revolut app and to begin the registration process. The opening process is entirely digital and there is no minimum account balance to begin. The verification process is much like any other operator, and our account was verified within a single business day during our Revolut review.
New customers will also be able to access Revolut rewards upon sign up. Revolut rewards can vary during the year and are typically offers such as cashback at selected retailers. Revolut also regularly runs a refer a friend bonus that sees traders earn rewards for getting their friends and colleagues to sign up and use Revolut.
Usability - How to trade at Revolut
The only trading platform seen during our Revolut review is the mobile trading app. With a very basic setup and little in the way of trading tools, this platform is totally intuitive and novice traders will pick it up instantly. Traders can access their account by either entering their 4-digit pin or via their device’s Touch ID, if your phone supports it.
Selecting an asset takes a single click and a window will open with every piece of information you’ll need to conduct a trade. If an investor wants to seek out a specific asset in particular, they’ll find the search function to be very simple to use. Relevant assets appear when you type in an asset name or ticker. However, we unfortunately found very little categorisation, during our Revolut review, such as searching by price level or industry.
Placing an order is easy and you’ll be able to access different order types like stop-losses, limit orders, and out of hours orders too. The benefit of using a mobile app is that Revolut also provides price alerts via notifications to your mobile device.
Accounts - Multiple levels of trader
Our detailed Revolut review uncovered 4 account types: Standard, Plus, Premium, and Metal. Commission-free trading is available on all the platforms and the differences between the accounts can mostly be found in their cost and the free trades available. The standard account is only allowed 1 free trade per month, while the plus account gains 2 more free stock trades. Premium account holders get 5 free stock trades per month, but the metal account has unlimited free stock trades. All these accounts are investment accounts, so you won’t find any IRA or ISA accounts at Revolut.
Our Revolut review uncovered the prices of these accounts too. The standard account is free while the plus account will cost investors $2.99 per month. Moving up to the Premium account costs $6.99 per month and the top-tiered Metal account costs $12.99 per month.
The investment arm of the Revolut platform is entirely mobile. That means no third-party trading application like MetaTrader 4, such as observed in our Forex.com review, and no WebTrader like in our WeBull review. Web Traders are incredibly convenient, so it is disappointing to see a lack of any other trading platform at Revolut. The only trading platform on offer at Revolut is found on the Revolut App. The App is the home of all of Revolut’s services and can be downloaded via the Google Play Store or Apple Store. During our Revolut review, we easily located the apps on either store.
The app supports 24 languages with no real analysis tools to speak of. In fact, the trading platform doesn’t offer a lot for typical trading and is very much catered to the lowest level of retail investors. You wouldn’t be day trading on this platform, rather Revolut is more suited to holding an asset for an extended period before selling.
Trading Payments - Is Revolut reliable?
It is important to reiterate that trading accounts can only be USD accounts. No, this isn’t a Revolut scam but the trading platform is only in its infancy. This means you need to exchange your currency if you are choosing to use a base currency that is not US-based. During our Revolut review, we noted 3 ways to deposit at this trading platform.
- Credit/Debit Cards
- Bank Transfer
- e-Wallets
No matter the method you choose to use, deposits at Revolut are free. If choosing the credit/debit card method, Revolut also supports both Apple and Google Pay. During our Revolut review, we confirmed that Bank Transfer deposits can take up to 3 – 5 business days to appear in your account, but all the other methods are instant.
During our Revolut review, we found out that only bank transfers are supported for withdrawals. Withdrawals are completely free and instant too. That’s because you can transfer funds from your trading account to your Revolut account. Once in your Revolut account, you can then make a bank transfer to any standard bank account. This process took us 1 business day.
An odd practice we did learn during our Revolut review, is that Revolut will block your funds for a few days if you cancel an order. We haven’t seen this at any trading platform such as in our M1 Finance review.
Fees – No commissions and low fees
The first thing we noticed when check fees during our Revolut review was a complete lack of the standard account management fees, outside of the monthly account fee – standard accounts have no monthly account fee at all. There are no inactivity fees and no deposit or withdrawal fees. Digging deeper though in our Revolut review and we did uncover an annual custody fee of 0.12%.
When it comes to trading fees, every account type has a set number of free stock trades – for example, the Plus Account has 3 free stock trades. Once your monthly free limit has been reached, every stock trade will cost 0.25% or £1 (or currency equivalent), whichever is greater. Commodities have a 0.25% mark-up during market hours and that goes up to 1% outside of market hours. We found commodities incurred a 1.5% fixed fee during our Revolut review.
When cryptocurrency trading at Revolut, cryptocurrencies are provided via the Bitstamp cryptocurrency exchange. Traders will see a 1.5% mark-up on the bid and ask prices. Cryptocurrency trades incur a 2.5% fee for every transaction when trading using a standard or plus account. Premium and Metal account holders will incur a 1.5% fee on cryptocurrency trades.
Customer Service - Revolut customer experience
We found other Revolut reviews in the past that raised several negative issues about the customer support experience and the trading platform has addressed some of those issues. Unlike in the past, Revolut has followed suit with operators – see our Interactive Brokers review for an example – and offer 24/7 Live Chat. Premium and Metal account holders even get priority Live Chat service. You can also contact Revolut via an automated phone-line, but it is only regarding issues about your Revolut card. This level of phone support is seriously disappointing and really needs to be improved. We were also disappointed during our Revolut review by the complete lack of email support.
The chatbot is fast and rather useful, quickly directing us to relevant sections of the Revolut website or providing clear information of specific financial instruments or order types. Live chat can be slow and during our Revolut review, we didn’t always receive the most relevant information. Without question, this is a department that Revolut could seriously improve on.
Regulation and Deposit Insurance - Is Revolut safe?
Regulation is a seriously important factor when considering a trading platform online. A regulated platform, such as that seen in our JPMorgan You Invest review, must have safe business practices, high levels of security, and be overseen by government or government-backed agencies. Our Revolut review confirmed top-tier regulation. In the US, Revolut is regulated by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the US Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). In the UK, Revolut is regulated by the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). These are all major and well-respected Tier-1 regulators.
US Clients are protected up to $500,000 ($250,000 Cash) under the Securities Investment Protection Corporations (SIPC) insurance. This insurance covers traders in the event that Revolut were to become insolvent and no longer had the funds to pay clients. Of course, this isn’t necessary either, as our Revolut review uncovered that this trading platform segregates client funds from their own. This means that your money is protected in the unlikely event of insolvency.
Another unique protection in place is the savings vault. Our Revolut review uncovered that this feature is only currently available to UK residents. The savings vault is another way to deposit funds into a segregated bank account and is protected up to £85,000 by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS).
Additional Features - Banking at Revolut
Besides offering a trading platform, Revolut is first and foremost a digital, online-only bank. So, traders benefit from a lot more than just a trading platform. Our Revolut review confirms that signing up to a Revolut account gets you not just a trading platform, but a personal bank account too. Depending on which account you choose to sign up to, traders can get a variety of benefits such as fast currency exchanges, easy budgeting tools, and low fees.
Overall Conclusion – Revolut experience and rating
Revolut is well regarded as one of the most important financial start-ups in the world and the company has quickly been revolutionising the online banking system. In 2021, Revolut have advanced from basic digital-only bank accounts to multiple accounts for trading stocks and cryptocurrencies. With more than 800 stocks and beyond 50 cryptocurrencies, Revolut is a small but handy trading platform.
There unfortunately isn’t much in the way of trading tools and this platform really favours novice traders who wish to buy an asset and watch it grow. Experienced traders may find themselves looking for much more. Revolut is highly regulated and one of the safest platforms to trade on. During our Revolut review, we noted poor customer support but reliably fast transactions.
Revolut is a useful trading platform for beginners, but highly experienced traders may wish to look for a platform with more charting capabilities and trading options.
