They are already regulated. They’ll just be regulated under different regulations. I don’t think regulation as such is the answer here, to be honest. They just seem to be incompetent…
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You beat me! 
Do you think so? They are regulated by the FCA already, aren’t they? And shouldn’t you be able to complain alread? Genuine question here: Do you think this will make a real difference?
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UK licensed emoney institutions and banks are directly under FCA PRA responsibilities but passported banks (and emoney institutions) while permitted by FCA to operate here are technically under the FCA equivalent in the original licensing country. While that regulator may have a complaints proceedure covering banks and emoney institutions, in some countries there are also separate industry operated ombudsmen schemes covering bank and insurance complaints, but I am not aware of any ombudsmen schemes for emoney institutions. If there is only one route for complaint thru the regulators rather than two (i.e. regulator and ombudsman) then that is less advantageous.
As for making a difference. Honestly No. I think it mainly comes down to internal proceedures, company interpretation of regulations, and top management direction or lack of it. I don’t therefore except them to change much if at all.
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Makes sense. thanks. Interesting question would be, since Revolut will be licensed in Lithuania I believe, whether their complaints procedures are really advantageous for UK based customers. I guess only the future will tell…
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When i read the Revolut community discussion, I get the impression that there’s more non-UK users experiencing problems.
If that is the case, does being outside the UK mean they don’t have access to the FCA to complain? Otherwise surely the FCA would be receiving enough complaints to investigate…
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Revolut have a very clear Complaints Policy.
How to contact Revolut regarding an issue
Revolut operates a live in-app chat support system via which you can communicate with a support agent who will assist you in resolving any issue you may have encountered. To ease communication, please ensure that you detail your experience as clearly as possible, including any supporting documentation if necessary.
Our support staff is trained to deal with a wide variety of issues and is afforded the means to do so efficiently. In the event that your query has not been fully satisfied, it may be escalated to a more senior member of the support staff to provide further guidance and assistance.
Escalation procedure for a formal complaint
It has been our experience that our support staff has readily resolved complaints via the approach described above. However, if the issue is still not resolved to your satisfaction or you wish to see a specific matter addressed, you may request to file a formal complaint with Revolut.
If that is the case, a member of our support staff will provide you with the Complaint Form which you may complete and then submit. Please be aware that some of the fields on the Complaint Form are mandatory and it cannot be submitted until these have been correctly filled in.
Once you have successfully submitted the Complaint Form, the following procedure will be followed:
A. We will acknowledge its receipt via email and inform you of the expected timeframe for a response. Enclosed in the mail will also be a link to this Complaints Policy and a copy of your Complaint Form that you can keep for your own personal records.
B. If the information contained in the Complaint Form is sufficient to adequately assess the situation, we will provide you with a final response within the aforementioned timeframe (usually 1 to 2 business days) which may:Conclude that your complaint was valid and, where appropriate, offer adequate compensation or redress; or
Conclude that your complaint was not valid but offer compensation or redress as a good-will gesture to assuage any distress caused; or
Conclude that your complaint was not valid and explain the reasons for our conclusion.
In any case, our final response will be clearly marked as such and will provide you with the necessary information regarding the Financial Ombudsman Service if you wish to request that they review your complaint.
A. If the information contained in the Complaint Form is not deemed to be sufficient to adequately assess the situation, we will contact you via the preferred method of contact you chose in the Complaint Form. We will detail, as much as possible, the information or documentation that is required to proceed with your complaint. Any delay caused by insufficient information will not be taken into account when assessing if the response was provided in the timeframe set in the acknowledgment email.
B. If we are not able to provide you with a response within four weeks from the date we received your Complaint Form, we will contact you to inform you of the reason for the delay and of your rights to see your complaint addressed by the Financial Ombudsman Service.
Once we have received your Complaint Form, all further communication will be handled via the preferred method for communication you selected.
Financial Ombudsman Service
If we fail to provide a response to your satisfaction, you may refer your complaint to the UK’s Financial Ombudsman Service located at Exchange Tower, London E14 9SR or contact them via phone at 0800 023 4567. Please be aware that there are time limits after which the Financial Ombudsman Service may no longer be able to hear your complaint.You can find further details of the service offered by the Financial Ombudsman Service at http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/.
You may also find their consumer leaflet with further information at Our consumer leaflet: 'Want to take your complaint further?'
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While I have knowledge of the German and Estonian regulators and complaints proceedures, I don’t know enough about Latvia or Lithuania set up to comment.
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The FCA approach to complaints about foreign licensed financial institutions is a bit vague. In some materials it says they may be able to help in so far as assist in contact with the foreign regulators, but it does not state clearly that they would get directly involved.
In their materials Fidor AG (trading as Fidor UK) make reference not to the UK ombudsman but the German equivalent. So different banks seem to funnel complaints in different directions, sometimes to their home country
It’s a European banking licence though, and Lithuania seems to be an up and coming Fintech centre which maybe influenced their choice of location.
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I sent $1000 dollars via revolut and the rate they gave me was $0.30 better than TransferWise would have, so not really more expensive…
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I wasn’t necessarily comparing transfers, but accounts: Both Monese and “TransferWise Borderless Accounts” (what a mouth full!) have a range of fees associated with them which Revolut doesn’t have.
Having an account is very beneficial to me, even though I don’t actually keep money in there (as no FSCS protection) as it makes transfers to me by third parties simpler (especially from the Eurozone, where a transfer to Revolut, TransferWise Borderless or Monese is just the same as to any other account, so they are used to the processes, and don’t have to use special references, pre-arrange with me, or similar things).
So, yes, for transfer OUT I have rarely used Revolut because they are just too unreliable. But till now I had kept it around for transfers IN, but I think I will abolish even that, once I have decided between Monese and TransferWise Borderless.
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I have just had a play with Transferwise ie sending Pounds into Euro and I can still see a charge being made
There’s always been a fee as far as I know. Did someone say there wasn’t?
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I read that for EU transfer the fee would be removed
Just trying to remember where I read that post
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You mean this?
“Drops” = “Reduces”, not remove altogether.
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Thank you for reposting
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Just read the spiel and now realise that what I was being charged today is in accordance with Transfer wise new calculations
A slight improvement
Generally the experience with Revolut has been great. I had a xfer to Coinbase that never showed up after a few days and they managed to return the 4k in funds within an hour. Their support has been pretty quick to respond to issues.
Once I was using it for a few months I hit my account limit. Since then it’s been a huge hassle to use the account and every deposit is now scrutinised and takes about a day to validate with their specific team that handles these situations. The account has essentially become unusable. I’ve moved to Monzo for the last two months and had no issues so far. The major downside tough is no SEPA transfers to my € account but using Fidor for this and rates are often better than Revolut if you catch it at a good time of the day. Fidor fixes their rate at the start of the day so if there’s dip it doesn’t reflect in the exchange rate like it would with Revolut.
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And they don’t have a extra cost at weekends like Revolut who use less favourable exchange rates at weekends
Hot on Starling’s heels Revolut announced their Rev Me today. Interesting that Sterling’s Settle Up and Revolut’s Rev Me are released within 24 hours of each other.
Rev Me seems to a little different than mozno.me / settleup.starling because you don’t get a personal URL. App gives you a unique URL to share with your non-revolut contacts if you request a payment.
The best feature for this one I think is support for 9 different currencies.
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