Revolut was funded with the money stolen from Russia. Father of the founder was one of the top Gazprom managers.
Revolut raises $500M at a $5.5B valuation
141–150 of 177 posts
Re: Revolut raises $500M at a $5.5B valuation
#142Earlier quoted context omitted.
You could say the same about Transferwise. Revolut is setting themselves up as a bank for millenials/gen Z. It is light years ahead of traditional banks in terms of user experience. Banks are a proven way of making money.
"It is light years ahead of traditional banks in terms of user experience." Show me a proper US bank that doesn't care that it's "Presidents Day" or "Labor Day" or "Sunday" (since nobody else does) and let's me conduct proper business 365 days per year - then we can talk about user experience ... I am annoyed and amused (mostly annoyed) that I am using a global internet to access remote banking that credits bank tran…
What is funnier still is I have tried to transfer from one Wells Fargo account to another Wells Fargo account, and it still took 3 days to deposit (of course, they took it from me immediately).
Re: Revolut raises $500M at a $5.5B valuation
#143Earlier quoted context omitted.
It feels like they are going the traditional bank route, give away a basic product and charge fees for everything over a threshold. Looking at their business pricing page, it looks like they are going to get into commercial lending, which could prove profitable. I don't know if it is VC-scale, though. Most big, successful banks that have withstood the test of time have grown VERY slowly over nearly 200 years and acqu…
It's one thing to get high growth among millennials with a shiny app and completely another to get into commercial banking.The reason why majority of the banks rather do mortgage and some other 'easier' products is because of how difficult and complex commercial lending is. I don't think it's fair to compare a local town bank in the US to challenger bank in Europe. I suspect a very high percentage of revolut accounts…
I agree, which is why I'm saying that I don't think that Revolut can be a VC-scale commercial bank. But I do believe it will be profitable if they can convince their users to use it as an actual bank, and not just a novelty app and debit card.
Re: Revolut raises $500M at a $5.5B valuation
#144I'm also very sceptical of that 10 million customers line. Do you think its just people that have opened an account with them at any point? I bet the DAU (a reasonable metric for someones main bank, especially in today's cashless society) is a very small percentage of that.
I'm less skeptical that they have a high number of active users, but probably not a high number of users that use this "bank" like a real bank. I use another "neobank" called Simple in the US. It is not a primary account. It is how I divvy up allowance to my wife and I for our weekly fun money ($70/person/week). Can be spent on anything we want, but once it's gone its gone. I use mine for lunches, she packs a lunch a…
I'm with Monzo in the UK and use it similarly, Twice a month or so, £100 goes in there to pay for things like dining out and the occasional grocery shop. It's a nice way of separating the dailies from the monthlies. It means my Old Fashioned Bank's statement is readable.
Re: Revolut raises $500M at a $5.5B valuation
#145I'm also very sceptical of that 10 million customers line. Do you think its just people that have opened an account with them at any point? I bet the DAU (a reasonable metric for someones main bank, especially in today's cashless society) is a very small percentage of that.
I'm one of those "customers". I tried using connecting to my old account to check out the app after 4 years but I was asked for ID verification, which for some reason failed, in order to be able to do anything. I can't close my account since there's a 20 eurocent balance on it, so it probably still counts as a "customer" account even though I can't use it in any way.
Re: Revolut raises $500M at a $5.5B valuation
#146Earlier quoted context omitted.
You could say the same about Transferwise. Revolut is setting themselves up as a bank for millenials/gen Z. It is light years ahead of traditional banks in terms of user experience. Banks are a proven way of making money.
> It is light years ahead of traditional banks in terms of user experience. Their app experience is mostly stellar, but I wouldn't say the same of their support, and the fear that one's account would be locked because they hit some undisclosed limit. I haven't had to deal with TransferWise's support yet, but I've heard that it's one of the "better" ones.
Any bank account can be locked at any time because an algorithm disagrees with you, traditional or online. That's just the reality of banking, especially in the post-HSBC scandal era. I wouldn't keep my savings in Revolut for sure, but it's not really designed for that.
Re: Revolut raises $500M at a $5.5B valuation
#147I have kept a paid Revolut account for the last nearly two years, and it has performed flawlessly. The one time when I needed support, reply was prompt, polite, professional, and to the point. This is service I use for day-to-day business. I never keep large sums there, so if the whole thing goes belly up one day, it will cause a shrug and not much more. Topping up from my 'real' bank - or wherever - is easy enough t…
You may soon discover (depending on your jurisdiction) that topping up is no longer an option, because your actual bank starts treating these transactions as cash advances, 3%-4% fee (and trashing your credit rating too).
Revolut has been completely useless about this, and their chat teams are just there to waste your time.
Multiple currencies and cheap exchange are great when you travel a lot, and virtual credit cards and a nice spending UI are nice to haves. But nothing makes up for being jerked around for hours because their system is broken and they won't fix it.
Also, from an investment pov I think Apple Pay is going to crush them.
Re: Revolut raises $500M at a $5.5B valuation
#148I'm also very sceptical of that 10 million customers line. Do you think its just people that have opened an account with them at any point? I bet the DAU (a reasonable metric for someones main bank, especially in today's cashless society) is a very small percentage of that.
> a reasonable metric for someones main bank, especially in today's cashless society
In Europe, the primary region for Revolut at the moment, cashlessness is highly variable. In a country like the UK or The Netherlands, DAU might be a reasonable measure but in say Germany, which is largely still cash-based, it's less relevant.
I'd say MAU or something like that makes more sense for a predominantly European financial service (Revolut is not a bank, it does not offer bank accounts).
Re: Revolut raises $500M at a $5.5B valuation
#149I have kept a paid Revolut account for the last nearly two years, and it has performed flawlessly. The one time when I needed support, reply was prompt, polite, professional, and to the point. This is service I use for day-to-day business. I never keep large sums there, so if the whole thing goes belly up one day, it will cause a shrug and not much more. Topping up from my 'real' bank - or wherever - is easy enough t…
You may soon discover (depending on your jurisdiction) that topping up is no longer an option, because your actual bank starts treating these transactions as cash advances, 3%-4% fee (and trashing your credit rating too). Revolut has been completely useless about this, and their chat teams are just there to waste your time. Multiple currencies and cheap exchange are great when you travel a lot, and virtual credit car…
>>You may soon discover (depending on your jurisdiction) that topping up is no longer an option, because your actual bank starts treating these transactions as cash advances, 3%-4% fee (and trashing your credit rating too)
I may not. In fact, I have no idea what you mean by 'cash advance'. By HN standards I am pennyless, but wouldn't ever dream of spending or withdrawing money that I haven't got.
Re: Revolut raises $500M at a $5.5B valuation
#150Earlier quoted context omitted.
> On the website it just says things like "No fee ATM withdrawals up to €200 per month", but what about after 200€?? TransferWise debit card's landing page [1] doesn't have the ATM fee either. Their pricing page [2] does. I was able to find Revolut's pricing page [3], which includes the ATM fee, with a simple search. [1] https://transferwise.com/gb/borderless/card [2] https://transferwise.com/gb/borderless/pricing [3…
2% of all withdrawals?! WTF is this insanity. I thought it might be interesting for a bit, but never mind. Are they preying on people that live in countries without a working banking system?
If you’re in the US, First Republic rebates you all the atm fees and supports high ATM withdrawal limits ($K) per transaction/per day if you have high balances (both of these features worldwide BTW). Some countries (cough USA) don’t have machines with limits that high but places like Germany, Dubai, Japan do