Wise vs Revolut

I’m trying to find out what company is better for currency’s and spending abroad

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I have used Chase & Revolut in Europe (various countries), Cape Verde & Morocco with no problems at all. In the USA I think Chase is the way to go.

There are two separate forums for each entity.

What is it you actually want comparing?

There’s some Revolut referrals if you scroll down, a £50 Lloyds referral too (just need to open a standard current account).

Revolut imo has the better app and functionality across many products, plus some nice card designs, Pockets for bills, assign a physical or virtual card to a Pocket to separate your money (similar to Monzo Pots, but free), disposable single use debit cards for making purchases online from places you wouldn’t usually to keep your account safe.

I can’t comment on Wise, as I can’t abide the app.

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For card payments look at Trading212 they offer FX at mid market rate (same as Wise) but with a small 0.15% mark up, lower than Wise dynamic fees which can be anywhere between 0.33% and 0.61%. They by far beat the competition, don’t get me started on Revolut there is no way to compare because they use the world least transparent rate the Revolut rate.

So my order would be

  1. Trading212
  2. Wise
  3. Any other transparent service
  4. Monzo
  5. Revolut
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The (much missed by me) Zing by Hsbc was imo the best for small scale tourist spending abroad. Within its free tier it was truly using mid market rates with no markup. Far better than Hsbc Global Money.

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For spending on card only (ie not for cash withdrawal, or fund transfer with fx exchange), the Lloyds Ultra cc worked pretty well for me recently in Japan too. The fee-free, whole sale, Visa fx rate + the 1% cashback (which was eligible for all of my spendings) actually worked out pretty much at least as good as mid market rate. And no limit apart from the card limit (which can be pushed beyond by simply paying back the card immediately/before the statement due date).

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I heard about zing but never knew it closed shows how much I check up on stuff

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Actually for T212, they use the flat Mastercard exchange rate at all times (including weekend).

The 0.15% rate is if you are exchanging currencies inside the app in the main ‘currency accounts’ and then either transferring this back out, or where currencies are exchanged for the purpose of buying an asset / instrument in a foreign currency - not for debit card purchases.

This is better than Revolut regardless of paid plan and certainly better than Revolut Standard but is probably comparable to other 0% FX cards in the UK (including Monzo).

Although don’t forget the investment cashback if you already use T212! :money_bag:

Oh, and also the interest on the funds in the spending pot if you enable it (currently 2.2% for €)

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Yep certainly better than Revolut even beating Revoluts paid plans as you’ve said and comparable to other 0% FX cards like Monzo. Plenty of better 0% FX and transparent options out there compared to Revolut

The T212 offer is a pretty compelling one all round TBH.

I like it :+1:t2:

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How does this actually work do i need to invest to get the card or can i just use it to spend on

You can order a card and use it without investing, for the full 1.5% cashback you make a pie, otherwise I believe they normally give 0.5% cashback without actively investing paid into a spending pot capped at £15/month.

FX you just get the card, add money and start spending straight away as usual. They do Virtual as well as physical

Yep, I think this is right.

To be truthful I already had investments before the card was released so not sure when signing up.

The only thing to be aware of if you do this, is there is an option in app to convert currencies in the spending pot - if you do this you will be charged 0.15%. If you just pay by card and the conversion is done at point of sale, it’s the card rate of 0%, not the in app conversion rate.

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@AlanDoe I think this thread can be merged here. :slightly_smiling_face:

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i think its a different topic yours is about best way to spend money abroad mine is Wise vs Revolut

@AlanDoe i dont think this needs to be merged as its two different topics

It’s the same topic you can still compare Revolut and Wise within that thread, too many threads on the same topic makes things confusing. The general topic spending money abroad is within the same greater topic/theme

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It’s not far off from “Best way to spend money abroad?” When we’re now discussing other foreign spending methods other than Wise and Monzo.

I don’t mean to hijack your thread, just meant to point out someone already asked similar questions. :woman_shrugging:t2:

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ok well we will see what @AlanDoe says

What is it you actually want to compare between the two?

Travelling abroad rates? That topic above would be correct.

Managing your finances in the UK, bills etc? Revolut is the one.

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