Foreword – Account and Card services
Much like Wise, a Revolut account enables currency management without extensive conversion fees. Firstly, Revolut provides personal account details and physical Debit Cards usable globally. Further, there’s the option of a free virtual card which is refreshed automatically after each use. *Wise have just developed a similar feature – free digital Debit Cards for added convenience. Meanwhile, with the Revolut card you can pay and transfer in 140 currencies at the Interbank rate. However, Revolut has other advantages and in this article I discuss 4 of them. Additionally, I’ve summarised the Revolut plans and indicated which features require the paid plans.
Revolut Plans
- Standard – the free plan
- Plus – 12 months – £2.99 per month or £29.99 annually.
- Premium – 12 months – £6.99 per month or £72 annually.
- Metal – 12 months – £12.99 per month or £120 annually.
1. Revolut Insurance
In early 2021 I discovered that Revolut offer the following types of Insurance:
- Medical Insurance (Metal users) – Importantly, Revolut medical insurance ensures you receive global protection (currently U.K. residents only). When I travelled to Thailand during 2021, I needed medical Insurance including COVID-19. Revolut cover you for 90 days and up to £10million emergency, COVID-19 and Winter Sports expenses.
- Travel Insurance (Plus, Premium or Metal users) – This covers trip cancellations, loss or theft of luggage, personal money and passports. Their pay per day feature keeps your insurance active only when you’re overseas.
- Device Insurance (Premium or Metal user) – you can acquire discounted device insurance of 20% for instance.
2. Revolut Cryptocurrency
Revolut promotes instant investment in 21 different coins including a range of Altcoins. This lowers your reliance on Crypto Exchanges which can be time consuming and irritating. To summarise, with Revolut you can, for example:
- Create Price Alerts and Auto Exchanges so you’re prompt in the market.
- Browse market rates and track your performance.
- Buy/sell/hold Crypto.
- Buy Crypto with your debit card.
- Exchange to or from any Crypto up to $15,000 per transaction.
- Withdraw Crypto, however, only Bitcoin currently (requires Metal plan).
When you buy or sell you are telling Revolut to buy or on your behalf, however, you own the Crypto. See the full Cryptocurrency Terms and Conditions and Personal Fees for clarity.
Hold and Send Bitcoin
Metal plan subscribers can enjoy access to Bitcoin withdrawals allowing you to send it from one platform to another. The process requires a Bitcoin address and Revolut runs 2FA to ensure you know exactly where you’re sending it. Note, you can withdraw up to £1000 a month or £500 per day and the following are options for storing Crypto:
- An External Wallet (add up to three of these).
- A Hot Wallet.
- Cold Storage (External Drive).
- A Revolut Personal or Savings Vault – receive daily and annual interest. However, the latter requires a Premium or Metal account).
Airdrops
Flare network has arranged a Spark airdrop for all holders of XRP tokens. Revolut is affiliated with Crypto partners which approve the airdrop, therefore they can also approve it. If you were holding any XRP on your Revolut account on 12/12/2020, you’re eligible to obtain Spark tokens. For those that are not aware:
- An airdrop is a distribution of a Cryptocurrency token or coin, normally for free, to many wallet addresses. This is a method to gain attention and new participants, for instance
- The Flare Network is a new blockchain established on the Flare Consensus Protocol. This is a system intended to bring Ethereum-like performance to the XRP Ledger.
Revoluts involvement in such projects indicate their extensive Crypto coverage when compared to others in the fintech market.
3. Donations
The Revolut app enables you to easily donate to local and global causes. Additionally, you can make one off donations or create a recurring payment for regular donations. Revolut then periodically transfers your funds to the official third-party bank account of respective charities. Your charity receives 100% of your donation as there are no fees charged by Revolut. As yet you cannot donate with Cryptocurrency, however, you can exchange Crypto into Revolut supported currencies.
4. Commodities
Much like with Crypto, Revolut support investment in Commodities such as Precious Metals from as little as $1. You can set up Price Alerts and Stop or Limit Orders to automatically exchange Gold or Silver at your desired price*. In addition, you are able to:
- Buy/sell/exchange/transfer Gold or Silver within the Revolut platform at current market rates. Note, the price reflects the market value of 1 troy ounce which is approximately 31 grams.
- Store them in a Personal or Savings Vault. You can acquire interest and annual bonuses of 4.50% for up to your account amount. With Premium or Metal you receive interest rates of 0.28% Annual Percentage Yield on the funds in your account. Therefore you can earn a total of 4.78% in addition to the 4.50% bonus. Meanwhile, as a Standard User you receive interest rates of 0.15% APY on the funds in your account. Therefore you can earn a total of 4.65% in addition to the 4.50% bonus.
- Use any supported Fiat or Cryptocurrency to exchange as Precious Metals or exchange Precious Metals to Fiat or Cryptocurrency.
*In short, Market Order exchanges between Precious Metals and Fiat or Cryptocurrencies are instant and at Revolut rates. See more on Terms and Conditions in the Commodities FAQs.