Hello everyone, welcome to BudgetHolics. In today’s video I’m going to review Revolut. Revolut is a digital bank that I’ve been using for the past two years as my main bank and stock brokerage. It offers a free base tier that includes most features, with some other pricing plans available.

Revolut’s retail services are divided into three categories: Everyday Banking, Wealth and Travel. The kinds of services you have access to depend on your country. For the purpose of this video I will be reviewing the features offered to UK customers, since Revolut is a UK company. You can refer to the company’s website to learn more about the features offered in your area: https://revolut.com/referral/parasknoc8!JUMC

Everyday Banking

Making payments and getting paid are the baseline service for any bank. Due to a lack of physical stores you can deposit money into your Revolut account via bank transfer, via a credit/debit card, or via Apple Pay/Google Pay. Payments from and to other Revolut customers are free, and you can also make transfers to other local banks at no extra cost to you. You can also send and receive money by creating custom links which you will send and the other party will have to fill in their card details (to send you money) or their bank account details (to receive money from you). International transfers are free or come with a low fee, depending on which plan you’re on.

Budgeting and analytics is another great Revolut feature. You can set monthly budgets with allocations to existing and custom categories. At the beginning of each week you get a review of how much you spent and where, and you can track your spending at any time through the app. Whenever you are projected to go off budget, the app will let you know. For those of us striving towards financial freedom a strong budgeting feature is a must. Much better than keeping track of your expenses using a Spreadsheet.

You can also group your payments and subscriptions in Pockets. This way you can put money on the side for all payments, including Water, Gas, Rent, Netflix etc, without needing to worry about spending that money before your next paycheck. Also, putting that money aside reflects on your remaining budget, thus painting a more accurate picture of how much money you have left to spend.

Travel

Revolut has been dubbed the best travel card out there. The reason is that you have access to more than 30 currencies at all times. You can either track ForEx in real time and choose when to convert your currency, or use your card normally and Revolut will make the exchange on your behalf at no extra cost to you. Keep in mind that if you’re traveling, ForEx is usually more expensive during weekends, so converting on a Friday is advisable. Revolut also offers free Travel Insurance for Metal subscribers, which can also be accessed by subscribers of other tiers for a small fee.

Wealth

Revolut is one of the few commission-free trading apps in Europe. Through the wealth section you track the performance of your portfolio, and find key metrics and news for stocks available in the app. Moreover, it has no withdrawal fees for both Standard and paying customers. The downside is that you only have access to a limited number of US stocks, and ETFs are not currently available through Revolut. Through Revolut you can also trade cryptocurrencies, however you don’t have actual custody of your coins. However, most crypto holdings are secured in cold storage devices. Gold and silver are the commodities you can hold on Revolut. Although Crypto and Commodities are great places for beginners, I would advise having a loot at the fees. Other exchanges might provide cheaper options. The last wealth feature is Vaults. Vaults allow you to put some of your money on the side. You can fund vaults via one time transfers, via recurring transfers or you can deposit spare change. Revolut also offers savings vaults which operate as high interest rate savings accounts. You can also create group vaults to save together with friends and family towards common goals.

If you wanna give Revolut a spin, you can do so using my referral link: https://revolut.com/referral/parasknoc8!JUMC