Sending to a UK bank from my Revolut £ balance cost £15 as it was a ‘foreign transaction’. I can send unlimited amounts the other was for free
It’s been a while since I transferred from revolut to UK so not sure if I ever had that charge. Did you get a warning about it being a foreign transaction? £15 seems quite a lot.
I normally transfer to UK using IBKR and that costs £2 if I send more than 1 per month.
Last time I paid 60 pence for a 300 GBP transfer (GBP to UK account). Will check what other payments have cost.
Yes I did, it’s a piss take as the Revolut UK account has a UK sort code so it’s taking the piss. HSBC Expat in Jersey does the same.
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C’mon dude, do your research. UBS has a Key4 package where the foreign transaction rate is 0.5% with the Mastercard rate. Why would you then opt for a normal banking package with them which has 1.75%?
From my perspective, sure you can use Neo banks, but would you store all your life savings in these banks? If the next day your account is closed due to some policy issues they say, then your screwed. Sure you can use them for small foreign transactions, you won’t become a millionaire if you save 1% on foreign transaction fees on few transactions, sure maybe you save at max 50 or 100 CHF per month on foreign transactions, even that is a very large figure already, considering your foreign transactions every month are in 1000s of CHF.
Let’s be realistic here, Neo banks are digital banks, with lesser staff, no branches, so thats why they offer these rates to attract people, as their operational costs are almost so little as negligible, they only pay for their employee salaries and costs to maintain and run their infrastructure. Neon (neon-free.ch) did that, now they went up from 0 to 0.35%, they even ask you to pay 20 CHF to manufacture your debit card and post it to you hehe. Eventually as Neo banks want to grow, they want to get more clients, and they get greedy to earn more, that’s how it works when it comes to profit generation for startups after they have a sufficient-sized client base. You don’t think that Neo banks want to earn? Not saying UBS is a saint, but these Neo banks cannot be trusted, they are good for smaller transactions and small funds injections like pre-paid top-up accounts, as they would increase their rates as well in the future to generate profits and expand, then what you do, shift to another and another?
From my investigations, if I want to use Neo banks, or a platform which has lower fees on foreign transactions, I would probably prefer opening an account with Bank WIR for their infamous Bankpaket top package which they claim has 0% foreign transaction fees, or even a UBS Key4 account with 0.5% foreign currency fees. If I have an issue next day, I know I can physically walk up to the bank and be secure about it. If I have a fraud or misuse on my credit card or even debit card (which can be activated for online shopping), I will be assured I can file a claim for a fraud and get refunded in such situations. With virtual banks, I would be very cautious for such circumstances.
Its just a matter of time before you get screwed by one of these Neo banks. They are so much thinly stretched out in terms of support staff, if you run into a problem, pretty sure even if it gets rectified it’ll take its sweet time, plus the agony and hassle, stress it would cause you. Sure you can try a Swiss Neo bank (Yuh, Neon etc.) and not go with Revolut or Wise, just keep a few 100 or a few 1000 CHF for your traveling or online shopping needs, but I wouldn’t invest in them heavily, as it doesn’t really make sense, its more like startups with a not so transparent operating models plus risky support model.
Would love to hear experiences from people who have had negative encounters with Neo banks.
It’s not just about saving on transations - Revolut, Wise, etc - offer ~3% interest on cash in your current account…
Isn’t UBS Key4 in the same basket of neo banks? It’s cheap just because it doesn’t give you the Bank support, so to me it looks similar to Zak, Yuh, Alpian…
I even had Zak account for a “backup” but it’s so inconvenient. They don’t allow you to have it on multiple devices (so you can’t have it on the phone + tablet), but also they don’t have any digital means to transfer the app from device to device - you need to send a letter to get a new activation code. The pattern is clear, make the user feel the pain of not paying ~5 chf/m for a regular banking service.
Yeah the Key4 is indeed the cheapest UBS option, with less or minimal support. I would still recon if you want to go with a proper bank, open a regular UBS account and then a Key4 on top of that. Or if you don’t want to open a Key4, then get a Bank WIR account, but just make sure you deposit 1,500 CHF monthly into that or buy at least one of their shares which costs 200 CHF. Only downside to Bank WIR is their App and website is not in English, and people have said that their App sucks.
For sure, if you are looking for cheap options (low foreign exchange fees), then you have to compromise somewhere, either on the: language side (no English), clunky App or website (low tech), less or non-existent support model (mostly the case with Neo banks).
Sure a 3% reward is there, but the higher the reward the higher the risk, so I definitely weigh my options on both pros and cons. Revolut and Wise have been in many controversies, they have had security issues, account freezes and closures etc. Unless your probably a UK citizen as their are based out of the UK, I wouldn’t recommend them. There are many banks and card companies which offer cashback points, and key club points etc., essentially it’s the same model, for whatever you spend on your card you get some points in return, everyone does that.
Obviously the smaller companies they offer more cashback points and rewards as they want to grow and get more clients, the larger companies as they are more established and have more client bases they don’t need to offer a lot and can get away with smaller and lesser rewards.
It’s not a 3% reward on spend, it’s 3% interest on any money you have sitting in the account.
Even better, it’s paid out daily. So over a year, if you have the maximum covered by the FSCS (120k), that’s just shy of £3600 you get… not spending a single penny. If you have the metal or premium models, you get a little more (4% I think). As it’s a “current” account, you can withdraw/spend the cash at any point, with no penalties.
On the opposite side, UBS gives no interest on the current account - and on the savings account nowhere near 3%. Then when I had to withdraw some cash from the savings account to pay the taxman, UBS charged a fee for that too, that negated any form of interest I may have gotten.
There is also points/cashback (revpoints) - but I’ve never used those, so cannot comment.
Wait, what?! Credit cards offer 3% interest on positive CHF balances? How is this possible when banks offer less than 1%?
Revolut is a prepaid credit card right? I don’t remember getting any interest from them, so maybe you are referring to another service that they have?
Revolut do a lot more than a prepaid card. You can trade crypto, ETFs, metals, etc. You can put money as any other bank (it’s a current account, with a banking license). You can open a savings account (with instant withdrawal and no penalties). Recently you can do joint accounts and children’s accounts (this last one I like as it let’s you teach the little ones about savings, investments, etc).
I believe you even get a Swiss IBAN now (haven’t checked, as I use UBS for my salary then route it from there).
The “how” I haven’t looked into, but it’s not just revolut. Wise do the same.
Revolut: (apparently 4% now)
https://www.revolut.com/savings/
Wise:
I’m sure there’s others…
I see, these are GBP rates, which makes sense. Trying to find someone paying decent interest on CHF balances is more challenging.
No it is a pre-paid debit card. (Among other things).
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Indeed - GBP, EUR or USD.
USD is a bit of a gamble… but GBR and EUR seem a little more stable (for now at least).
Its not just UBS, the Swiss bank interest rates are very low, for virtually any bank, be it PostFinance or any other, I believe its like 0.1%, which is obviously nothing. Swiss banks reputation are known for security, safety rather than interest rewards on savings. Neo banks they put such lucrative offers to draw in more clients and crowds, yeah. Swiss Neo banks also don’t offer anything like those numbers 3% or 4%.
In third world countries around Asia bank interest rewards can go up to 10% or 12% or even more on foreign currency accounts for USD, GBP or EUR, but obviously its about safety of your assets and higher risk of losing liquidity if the bank fails, and if you don’t have any relationship with those countries doesn’t make sense to open an account there.
Even more trivial, banks simply follow the interest rate of the Swiss national bank to determine their interest rates, like banks in any other country follow their national bank.
Yes I second to that, most banks follow their national bank policies in terms of interests rates.
Doesn’t look like Revolut’s security has improved.