Review contents
Manage your money, save, invest, transfer money (worldwide), and more. It’s everything money related in one packed-out app. Plus, it’s excellent as a travel card abroad, with very low fees. It’s great for businesses too, with all you need to manage your team and finances. It's 5 stars from us.
Think of Revolut as an app for anything to do with your money – and we mean everything! It’s super popular worldwide, with over 28 million customers. Wow.
The underlying concept is that it’s a place to keep your money, send and receive money and buy goods and services online and in-store with the Revolut card, everything you would expect and more.
For example, it’s one of the lowest cost places to spend money abroad (e.g. spending Euros on holiday) – you can store multiple currencies (e.g. Euros or Dollars), which means you can spend these currencies directly when abroad, and on top of that the exchange rate (e.g. Pounds to Euros) is one of the cheapest out there. (It’s far cheaper than using your regular bank account.)
There’s also other travel perks, such as lounge passes in airports and even cheap holidays. Anyway, we’ll cover this later.
Savings wise, you can earn interest on your money, with a pretty good interest rate, and you can even buy investments and crypto if you want to (more on that later too).
There’s lots of features to help you budget, round up your spare change, save more, and manage all your subscriptions and even rewards like cashback when shopping. You can even link all your bank accounts to get a whole view of all your money.
The app itself is pretty great, and very highly rated. With an outstanding rating of 4.9 out of 5 on the Apple app store, and 4.5 out of 5 on Google. And that’s from over 2.5 million reviews overall.
Oh one more thing. If you’re running a business, or work for yourself (e.g. a freelancer), you can get a business account too – with a lot of features to help you or your business manage your money. We’ll cover all that below.
This is an account with all the regular features you would expect, such as an account number, sort code, and debit card. You can then use the app to manage your money and use all the great features.
There’s no actual high street branches, you manage everything through an app on your phone. Within the app, you’ll see things like your balance, make payments, freeze your card, set spending limits, view your pin code, and other things like that. There’s also a customer service team you can speak to (more on that later).
There's great additional features, like split bills with friends and family (even if they’re not with Revolut), send payment request links (so it's easy for people to pay you money they owe), and you’ll even get a public account tag where people can pay you safely without sharing your account details, it's a great idea.
You can also manage your subscriptions, and block them from within the app. If you sign up for a free trial somewhere, you can even block it right away so you’ll never get charged.
You can also view any bank accounts you have too, and view your money all in one place.
There’s budgeting and spending tools too, these help you plan your finances better, and you can set money aside in ‘pockets’ for specific things, such as bills.
All sounds pretty great right? If you’re interested in specific features, learn even more on the Revolut website¹. With Nuts About Money, you’ll even get 3 months of the premium plan free to try it out.
Revolut is EPIC for travel. Forget the currency exchange queues at the airport, you can swap your money on the app in a few clicks, and start spending right away on Revolut's contactless debit card – and there’s 29 currencies available (e.g. Euros and Dollars), so it pretty much covers most countries you'll visit.
But more than just the ease, the exchange rate is one of the lowest you’ll find – far cheaper than any bureau de change, or using a card with a high street bank.
Plus, there’s way more than just the foreign exchange side, they’ve got great deals with airport lounges and even a platform to book accommodation which gives you a massive 10% cashback.
Currensea tops the list – it's super simple to use, just connect it to your bank account. It’s low cost too. You'll also get a £5 welcome gift.
Revolut uses the ‘real exchange rate’, which is what banks use when exchanging currencies themselves, and only adds a small fee on some currencies during weekdays – if you convert over £1,000 per month, there will likely be a ‘fair usage’ fee of 1% (or 0.50% on paid plans). And on weekends, there’s an extra 1% fee to exchange money.
Although, what’s good with Revolut is you can exchange money beforehand and store it in your account, so you can simply change your money during the week to avoid that 1% weekend fee.
You might have heard of a prepaid travel card as a good way to spend abroad, and they are! You can spend just as you would in the UK, but abroad, and in the local currency – meaning you could save a small fortune on transaction fees, conversion fees and ATM fees. Banks and other currency exchange places love to charge high fees when abroad.
With Revolut, you’ll automatically have a travel card ready to spend, without needing another card or cash.
All you need to do is convert some Pounds to the local currency (e.g. Euros in Spain) in the Revolut app, and then start spending – you’ll benefit from the low exchange rate we mentioned above.
If you travel regularly, you might want to upgrade yourself to a Premium or Metal plan (we’ll cover the plans below). You’ll get access to over 1,000 airport lounges across the world (at a discounted rate).
If you book your holiday accommodation with Revolut, you’ll get 10% cashback. Awesome! However there’s a catch, you have to use the app to book, and you can only stay in places found on the app. But there are places all around the world and it's easy to do.
If you want to send money abroad, perhaps to friends or family in another country. Revolut is a great option. You can send money to any bank account in the world, in 29 different currencies – all handled within the app.
There’s no transfer fees to send money to another Revolut account, but there could be if it’s not a Revolut account, and you’ll also pay the low currency conversion fee. Typically, it’s one of the cheapest money transfer options available.
Of course, you can send money to your friends and family in the UK too (for free).
Vaults are effectively savings accounts within your Revolut account. You can stash your money away for a rainy day and earn interest while it’s there. Well actually, rather than for rainy days, you get to set a goal beforehand, such as a new car, or whatever you’d like, and the vault will keep you on track and help you save for it.
You can ‘round up’ your purchases so the spare change goes straight into a vault. Imagine you buy a coffee for £2.49, to round up to the next pound, £3, would be 51p. So this 51p would go straight into your savings vault automatically – hopefully you won’t even notice it. It’s a great way to save regularly.
Plus, you can even share a vault with friends and family if you’re all saving towards the same thing – such as your next holiday.
There’s more than just one type of account, there’s actually 4! The more you pay the more features you get.
Note: you can save 20% on the fee by paying yearly.
The plans are:
You get an actual metal card on the Metal plan, hence the name, which is super cool, but is it worth £12.99 per month cool? Maybe…
We can’t recommend a best plan as they all suit different types of people and how they manage their finances. But essentially, if you think you’ll be using a lot of the features, such as the investing and travel features, then it pays to get a better plan such as Metal, as you’ll save on lower trading fees and get free travel insurance.
If you just want a basic account, the standard plan is for you, and you can be set up in just a few minutes. In fact, maybe it's a good idea to start with the standard plan, have a play around with the app, and as you discover things you’d like that are restricted then simply upgrade when you are ready.
You can trade stocks and shares within the app. There’s around 1,500 to trade, which is a good range, and you’ll get access to most of the top companies across the UK and US.
You get one trade commission free every month as standard, but if you update to a paid plan, you’ll be able to trade more (there’s 10 free trades on the Metal plan). If you don’t have any commission free trades left, you’ll pay the higher of 0.25% or £1.
There’s also fees to hold your investments, which is 0.12% per year, and currency conversion fees when buying foreign stocks (e.g. stocks in the US).
There can be other fees too. If this interests you, it’s best to check and compare on the Revolut website¹.
Overall, it’s not the cheapest out there, but there’s lots more expensive options out there.
We don’t recommend you trade stocks and shares unless you know what you’re doing. If you’re looking to build your wealth over time, it’s a good idea to let the experts handle things. Check out our investment platforms to find some great expert-managed options.
Nuts About Money tip: if you’re only looking for an app to make investments, check out our best investing platforms, you’ll find some great options overall, such as eToro¹, which is perfect for beginners.
Interested in the future huh? Well with Revolut you can trade Bitcoin, Ethereum and many other cryptocurrencies within the app.
It’s a great way to hold crypto without needing to create, manage and more importantly safely store a wallet and keys yourself (which can be complicated, so we won’t go into it here).
There’s a 1.49% fee when you buy, which isn’t the cheapest – but you do get the convenience.
You can also receive notifications for certain prices and get the latest crypto news from various trusted publishers right in the app itself. It’s pretty handy actually.
Nuts About Money tip: if you’re only looking to trade crypto, check out our best crypto exchanges – we’ve reviewed the best places, and again, eToro¹ is great for beginners.
If you are a bit more ‘old school’ and want a more classic investment, you can also buy gold and silver within the app too. It’s a good way to diversify your investments, but only if you have a solid investment strategy.
Browser extension (Chrome): this is pretty cool, add the browser extension to the Chrome internet browser and when you’re shopping online you’ll get notified if there’s any cashback deals or promo codes available. Plus use a single-use virtual card if you don’t trust a site (so you don't share your account details), or set up virtual cards just for shopping.
Early salary payment: if you’re struggling a bit at the end of the month, you can get your salary paid a day earlier if you need it.
Manage subscriptions: view all your subscriptions, such as Netflix and Amazon Prime, and see how much money you’re really paying for all those services. A good reminder to see if you really need it – they all add up!
Split the bill: you can split bills with your friends and family, for instance in a restaurant or if you’re renting a property, all done via their phone number – they don’t have to be a Revolut customer. It’s pretty cool.
Revolut junior: we really like this. Your kids can get their own app and card so they can start learning about money management, all linked to your account. It’s designed for ages 6-17. Great job to Revolut for helping the next generation learn about money. If you’re looking specifically for this, check out GoHenry and Rooster Money too.
Next up, we'll run through the Revolut business account. If you're not interested, skip to the end to read our thoughts on Revolut overall. Or, if you're keen to learn more and get started, head to the Revolut website¹ (you'll get 3 months free of the Premium plan).
Looking for a new account for your business? Or just starting up? Maybe you’re a freelancer and looking for a new account for everything work-related.
Revolut is super popular across the UK and Europe for both personal accounts, and business accounts. In fact, there’s over 100,000 businesses using it.
Like the personal account, it's got some pretty great features to run your business effectively. Here’s a run through:
There’s a multi-currency account, so you can accept payments from international customers in the local currency, such as Euros if you have customers in Europe, and even Dollars from the US.
This is quite a big deal. It means you won’t have to open a bank account in the country you trade in, in order to send and receive payments, so you won’t have to pay excessive fees with a high street bank (if they’ll even let you receive international payments).
Revolut will simply create account details for you in the currency you want (over 25 currencies), and you can manage it all from the Revolut app (or website).
You can then convert the money you receive to Pounds (GBP), with the low exchange rate Revolut offers, or keep it as the local currency and spend it directly.
You’ll get a debit card to spend when you’re out and about too. And, you can have as many cards as you like, for all of your team. They can spend away, and it will all be tracked within the Revolut app, so everything can be accounted for. You can also set spending limits, set rules on how money is spent, and block and freeze cards when you need to.
Your team will also be able to request expenses, and upload receipts too.
This is a pretty cool feature. You can take payments from people in-person, by simply creating a QR code and showing it to your customers. They can then scan it and pay you there and then in a few clicks (all the details have been pre-filled, they just need to sign in to their bank and approve the payment). It's super quick and easy to do.
Or, you can get a contactless payment machine (called a Revolut reader), and scan customer cards just like the shops do – with low transaction fees.
You can also send a payment link via email or a text message, and your customers can pay you instantly, again, it's quick and easy to do.
You can add plugins to your website (if you have one), to get paid online, and even build your own checkout system. Pretty cool.
You can also create invoices from the app (or website) and send them directly to your customers. You can even set payment options so they can pay you directly instantly, for instance with a credit or debit card.
Invoices are also tracked in the app, so you’ll know which ones are paid, and which ones are overdue!
If you have employees, you can set up your payroll with Revolut too. So your employees can get paid automatically, with all the right tax deductions, and whenever you set it (such as every month). It will also connect to HMRC to file everything you need to, too.
Note: if needed, you can also pay some employees early if you like, with just a partial amount of their salary.
Revolut also integrates with accounting software such as Xero and QuickBooks – so all of your financial reporting is automated (such as your profit and loss account and balance sheet).
If you’re not doing this already, it’s definitely worth considering – it makes your business finances super easy.
All sounds pretty great right? Accept payments easily, in-person, online or even internationally. Manage your payroll, expenses and team – all from Revolut's great app (or website). it’s got pretty much everything you need to run a business.
It’s also great for freelancers, small businesses and even large corporations – and it gets better, you can start with a completely free account, and then scale up from there, as and when you need.
Learn more about the business account and get started on the Revolut website¹ (get 1 month free too).
The customer support is pretty great.
There’s a help centre with pretty much everything covered that you might want to ask. And if you do want to speak to someone, there’s live-chat in the app (chat to them through the app).
You can also email in if you’ve lost your phone or can’t access the app for various reasons. Unfortunately there’s no actual phone number to call.
Here’s a quick recap and the pros and cons of Revolut:
Now if you’ve just heard of Revolut you might be surprised – they have a lot of customers. They are a lot bigger than you might think, with over 28 million customers! And 130,000 of those were nice enough to leave a review on TrustPilot, the popular reviews website.
The customer score is excellent, a big 4.3 out of 5. That’s pretty amazing for a company in financial services, who normally get very low scores, for instance Barclays is just 1.4 out of 5.
Lots of reviews mention how great it is for travelling abroad, and great for managing their money overall – and that includes businesses too.
Revolut is revolutionising how you manage your money, and more importantly making your money more transparent so you can control it better.
We think it’s great, and really does help you with your finances. On top of that, it gives you an introduction to savings and investing – which is a real game changer to having a better financial future.
Plus, if you’re a keen traveller, the travel features such as spending money abroad on the same card, currency exchange and holding different currencies in your account just makes things easy – and a lot cheaper than using alternatives such as your high street bank. And discounted access to airport lounges is pretty great too.
It’s potentially quite expensive however, it’s one of those where you have to pay to get the features you want. Well you can’t expect everything for free I guess! You’ll just have to weigh up if the features are worth the price for you – but you can start with the free plan and see how you go.
It takes a little bit of time to understand how the app works too, and features tend to move around a bit as they update it – although great to see it’s continually being improved.
We like it, alot, and it’s top marks, 5 stars from Nuts About Money. If you’re keen to learn more or open an account, here's the Revolut website¹.
Currensea tops the list – it's super simple to use, just connect it to your bank account. It’s low cost too. You'll also get a £5 welcome gift.
Currensea tops the list – it's super simple to use, just connect it to your bank account. It’s low cost too. You'll also get a £5 welcome gift.
Currensea tops the list – it's super simple to use, just connect it to your bank account. It’s low cost too. You'll also get a £5 welcome gift.
Christopher Dowling combines a communications degree with over 10 years experience in the financial services industry in London – with focus on educating people on a wide range of money topics in an easy to understand way. He writes about savings, investing, pensions, mortgages, insurance, banking, loans, business finance and other money topics.
This article was written, reviewed and fact checked by the expert team at Nuts About Money. You’re in safe hands. Learn more.
We're experts in all things money, with years of combined experience working in the finance industry and writing about money. We understand the ins and outs, how to get the best deals, save money, and how to communicate money in an easy to understand way (we hope you agree).
More than 20 years of combined experience researching and writing about money
Researched and reviewed a wide range of financial services companies, and have a transparent review process
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Currensea tops the list – it's super simple to use, just connect it to your bank account. It’s low cost too. You'll also get a £5 welcome gift.
