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Revolut raises $500M at a $5.5B valuation

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Re: Revolut raises $500M at a $5.5B valuation

#161

Post by rchaud »

DoubleGlazing wrote: post #67
klausjensen wrote: post #38

Revolut closed my business account with them and would not give me any reason why (all documentation was OK, all my clients are lilly-white busineses). It is not clear to me if they would not tell me because they're not allowed to by law - or "just because". Anyway - then the remaining balance on my account - they simply sent that back to the last payment that had been made => They sent my remaining balance to one of…

When I opened my Revolut account I took advantage of their referral scheme. I would get €15 for every customer I referred to them and who used their debit card. The new customers would also get €15. I got five people to sign up, the max. We never saw the money. When I raised the issue over chat they told me that all my referrals took too long to setup their account and make the first payments. They wouldn't tell me w…

The fact that they'd nickel and dime you over a measly 75 EUR is worrying. Customer acquisition for this kind of product should cost far, far more.

Re: Revolut raises $500M at a $5.5B valuation

#162

Post by tempotemporary »

thesimon wrote: post #6

Quite impressed with the valuation. Transferwise Borderless seems to have a better business model with sane prices and not "everything free". And Revolut still uses their e-money license instead of their proper Lithuanian banking license. Quite surprising.

I wouldn’t say it’s “everything free”. If you purchase outside of FOREX hours you pay 2% on top of every tx. People tend to spend more when they have free time, i.e. on weekends, where the 2% fee applies.

My guess is that Revolut is doing just great in terms of revenue.

Re: Revolut raises $500M at a $5.5B valuation

#163

Post by ValentineC »

angry_octet wrote: post #147
interfixus wrote: post #100

I 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).

This should not be an issue as long as the topup is done with a debit card.

> Also, from an investment pov I think Apple Pay is going to crush them.

Apple Pay doesn't have any "special" features that help with travel and paying in foreign currencies. Interestingly enough, Revolut supports Apple Pay in a couple of countries.

Re: Revolut raises $500M at a $5.5B valuation

#164

Post by Kkoala »

ValentineC wrote: post #55
Kkoala wrote: post #29

Earlier 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€?? I found a help section that is vague too saying "We can provide an estimate of the potential fees...", so not very transparent. Transferwise you can see/calculate on the frontpage what the fee will be.

> 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…

I don't really care about the ATM fees, that was just an example. On Transferwise landing page it does list the fees if you scroll down a bit.

Thank for /legal/fees link didn't think to look there. Imo that should be linked to the pricing page.

Re: Revolut raises $500M at a $5.5B valuation

#165

Post by netcan »

cosmodisk wrote: post #101

Revolut is where WeWork was a few years ago. Eventually a few guys will make some nice money and the whole thing will go down the drain. VC money is nice, however at some point you need to start making your own money and how they are planning to do so is a question nobody has an answer to.

The difference is the industry, and that counts.

Wework was silly because real estate is not software. The profits needed to eventually justify all that "burn-to-grow" money was never possible regardless of scale.

It's not an AdWords Vs Yahoo ads situation. The market leader isn't taking all the profits.

Banking isn't software either, but banking is banking... It's where the money is, lol.

Seriously, financial services is rich, rich pickings... Insurance, lending, business accounts, transfers....

A bank with low operating costs and millions of employees is worth a lot.

If it was a truly American company, I suspect the market cap would be way higher... UK investors are more cautious, and the company is a little dicey

Re: Revolut raises $500M at a $5.5B valuation

#166

Post by loceng »

rchaud wrote: post #161
DoubleGlazing wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I opened my Revolut account I took advantage of their referral scheme. I would get €15 for every customer I referred to them and who used their debit card. The new customers would also get €15. I got five people to sign up, the max. We never saw the money. When I raised the issue over chat they told me that all my referrals took too long to setup their account and make the first payments. They wouldn't tell me w…

The fact that they'd nickel and dime you over a measly 75 EUR is worrying. Customer acquisition for this kind of product should cost far, far more.

You're thinking too small: if they nickel and dime a million people that becomes 75mm EUR. How many people are going to cause a big enough stink over 75 EUR though individually? Not really anyone, so they could get away with it - maybe if enough people posted similar stories then it would gain interest from enforcement agencies.

Re: Revolut raises $500M at a $5.5B valuation

#167

Post by tim333 »

jermaustin1 wrote: post #103
Aeolun wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

I cannot tell if you are being sarcastic or not, but here in the US almost ever ATM that isn't at YOUR bank will charge a $2-$5 fee for withdrawal and then the bank will hit you with another $2-$5 fee. So depending on your bank, if you want $20, it could cost you $10. OR (story time) if you are like me, and you end up needing cash in rural Oklahoma to pay an upcoming cash-only toll, and you pull off at the ONLY gas s…

An interesting thing when I was in the US with a non US visa card was most of the ATMs didn't charge any fee. Something to do with international legal agreements. It might be worth you trying to use a non US card, perhaps transferwise or revolut.

Re: Revolut raises $500M at a $5.5B valuation

#168

Post by Aeolun »

jermaustin1 wrote: post #103
Aeolun wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

I cannot tell if you are being sarcastic or not, but here in the US almost ever ATM that isn't at YOUR bank will charge a $2-$5 fee for withdrawal and then the bank will hit you with another $2-$5 fee. So depending on your bank, if you want $20, it could cost you $10. OR (story time) if you are like me, and you end up needing cash in rural Oklahoma to pay an upcoming cash-only toll, and you pull off at the ONLY gas s…

I’m not being sarcastic. The two countries I have experience with are the Netherlands and Japan, and the cost is 0 and the equivalent of $1.5, regardless of the amount withdrawn, respectively.

In the Netherlands I think I pay a $3 monthly fee for the privilege of having an account, but Japan is free.

Re: Revolut raises $500M at a $5.5B valuation

#169

Post by Aeolun »

virgilp wrote: post #123
Aeolun wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Do you know many other banks that let you withdraw abroad for less? I mean, in Romania there are technically banks that give you zero-cost withdrawals abroad... but only because they figured they could shift that cost into the exchange rate and most people wouldn't notice (although it's far worse, now they charge you for online & offline payments too, not just ATM withdrawals!) Transferwise for instance (which was pr…

> Do you know many other banks that let you withdraw abroad for less?

Abroad? Mostly a slight markup on the default exchange rate, which is hard to pin down, but certainly less than 2%.

But my problem is mostly this applies on any withdrawal. Not only abroad.

Re: Revolut raises $500M at a $5.5B valuation

#170

Post by terrycody »

whylo wrote: post #64
appleshore wrote: post #63

On the name, I doubt it would be successful in the US. The “lution” part of revolution makes the word sound better. Without it, it invokes “revolting”. Incidentally, Revolution Money in the US became American Express Serve. Also the no human support, chat bot only thing is frightening on various levels. It’s great until something actually goes wrong or the system deems you unfavorable.

I've had various issues with Revolut, but there is human support available (eventually) - if you type 'human' in the bot chat you get connected to an agent. The fact that it's the only support channel available - no phone - is frustrating, and it's even worse that it's in-app only. It gets tiring trying to type up your problem on a phone keyboard, especially when it takes multiple chats to get resolved.

And it seems does not support US customers, only support in EU.
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