I want to start with a premise: this is only true for me, and other people may have different experiences.

BUT, what I can tell you is that I've never - not once - lost a dispute through PayPal or Apple, and in a few days I'll let you know if that also applies to Revolut.

I never raise a dispute unless I have to, and I've done that a couple of times with Apple and a couple of times with PayPal.

I've never lost. I've given Apple and PayPal my side of the story, explained what happened, and I've always been refunded.

Always.

Now, I'm doing the same thing for probably only the second time with Revolut.

I was charged twice for a cab ride the other night - about $40, which is not nothing.

I haven't even tried reaching out the 'merchant' (because they wouldn't reply), I simply told Revolut 'you do it', and I've provided proof of payment etc.

So let's see how that pans out.

But, to a broader point, I know a lot of people don't trust Apple and maybe PayPal even less, and I get it. But the point is, if you pay for an item or a service from XYZ company and don't get what you paid for, and you contact XYZ directly, they're not even going to reply - 90 times out of 100.

But with PayPal and Apple? I don't know what goes behind the scenes, but these companies (and others, I guess) seem to be able to somehow strongarm companies into refunding customers.

And that, if you're the customer, is nice.