Personal Features

Revolut

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Revolut provides digital banking and international money transfer services for personal customers from different countries.

What Revolut does

  • International money transfers.
  • Debit cards.
  • Unique multi-currency accounts.
  • Direct debits.
  • Receive money.
  • Budgeting tools.
  • Create Vaults to save money faster.
  • Access to cryptocurrencies.
  • Bill splitting.
  • Revolut Junior Account for children aged 12 to 17.

What Revolut doesn’t do

  • Personal account managers.
  • Hedging tools.
  • Cash pickup.

Monese

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Personal customers can sign up with Monese from the UK and countries in the European Economic Area (EEA).

What Monese does

  • International money transfers.
  • Mastercard debit card.
  • Direct debits.
  • Regular transfers.
  • Request money.
  • Create Pots to save faster.
  • Earn interest through Raisin.

What Monese doesn’t do

  • Personal account managers.
  • Hedging tools.
  • Unique local multi-currency accounts.
  • Cash pickup.

Monese wins!

Monese and Revolut are evenly matched with the services they both provide to individuals. Monese has the slight upper hand with cash deposit capabilities and joint account capabilities.

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Winner

Business Benefits

Revolut

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Businesses signing up with Revolut can receive multiple benefits.

What Revolut for business offers

  • International money transfers.
  • Unique multi-currency accounts.
  • Business debit cards.
  • Automated accounting with Xero, Freeagent and QuickBooks.
  • Integration with Zapier and Slack.

What Revolut for business doesn’t do

  • Account managers.
  • Solutions for online sellers.
  • Hedging tools.
  • Mass payments.

Monese

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Monese provides mobile money accounts for UK-registered businesses.

What Monese business account offers

  • International money transfers.
  • Mastercard debit card.
  • Create invoices.
  • Receive money.
  • Direct debits.

What Monese business account doesn’t offer

  • Account managers.
  • Solutions for online sellers.
  • Unique local multi-currency bank accounts.
  • Hedging tools.
  • Mass payments.

Revolut wins!

Close scoring again for both digital banks for business. Revolut inches ahead with its Xero and Quickbook accounting integration capabilities.

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Fees & Exchange Rates

Revolut

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When you use your Revolut card to make international transactions, you could benefit by getting existing interbank rates. Revolut fees depend on the type of account you open and where you live. As you will see to get the best out of Revolut for international transactions, you need to choose a monthly subscription plan to match your forecasted monthly international money transactions volume, and most importantly.. don't use Revolut on the weekends for currency conversions! Read on to see why…

Subscription fees

RegionAccount typeMonthly subscription fee
The USStandard$0
Premium$9.99
Metal$16.99
The UKStandard£0
Premium£6.99 
Metal£12.99
AustraliaStandard$0
Premium$10.99
Metal$24.99

Other fees for US customers

Fees for ATM withdrawals

Account typeFees
StandardNo fee up to $300 per month, then a 2% fee applies.
PremiumNo fee up to $600 per month, then a 2% fee applies.
MetalNo fee up to $1,200 per month, then a 2% fee applies.

Fees for international money transfers

Account typeFees
StandardNo fee up to $6,500 per month, then a 0.5% exchange rate margin applies.
PremiumNo fee up to $20,000 per month, then a 0.5% exchange rate margin applies.
MetalUnlimited free transfers.

Fees for same currency international money transfers

For example, you have an Australian Revolut account but have a USD balance. You may have converted your AUD balance to USD and are holding it in your Revolut multi-currency account. Since early 2021, a new fee is applied. The fee for same currency international money transfers from your Revolut account to a non-Revolut bank account is 0.3% of the transfer amount. The minimum charge is $0.30 and the maximum charge is $8. 

Same currency transfers between Revolut customers internationally still does not cost anything.

Revolut exchange rates

Revolut provides interbank exchange rates when processing international money transfers involving major currencies, provided they fall within a customer's monthly allowance limit. Transfers that involve THB (Thailand) and UAH Ukraine) come with markups, as do cryptocurrency exchanges. The markup depends on the type of account you hold.

Fees for foreign exchange outside market hours (weekends)

 High-frequency Standard customersPremium customersMetal customers
Major currencies1%1%1%
THB and UAH1.5%2%2%
Cryptocurrencies3%1.5%1.5%

Using Revolut on the weekend (GMT), incurs high exchange rate fees of 1%. This is not highlighted very well when signing up and can mean surprise costs for weekend international travellers or travellers on extended trips. 

iCompareFX Top Tip: It pays to not use Revolut on the weekends!

Fees for receiving money

You don't have to pay any fees to receive money into your Revolut multi-currency accounts. However, the sender might need to pay intermediary bank fees. For example, a sender transferring EUR from Ireland into your EUR-denominated account in the UK might still need to pay intermediary bank fees. This is because the multi-currency accounts offered by Revolut are physically located in the UK.


Monese

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Monthly fee

Monthly fees depend on the type of account you have.

  • Simple - £0 per month.
  • Classic - £5.95 per month.
  • Premium - £14.95 per month.
  • Business - £9.95 per month.

Transfer fee

Transferring money between Monese accounts is free. The fee for transfers to non-Monese accounts varies based on account type.

  • Simple - 2% with a £2 minimum fee.
  • Classic - From 0.5% with a £2 minimum fee.
  • Premium - Free.

ATM withdrawals and cash top ups

  • Simple - Free up to £200.
  • Classic - Free up to £900.
  • Premium - Free.

Foreign currency card spending fees

  • Simple - Free up to £2,000.
  • Classic - Free up to £9,000.
  • Premium - Free.

Monese exchange rates

Monese provides competitive exchange rates when carrying out international money transfers. You can get an indication of existing rates by using the Monese currency calculator. You find out the real-time conversion rate before your transfer's confirmation.


Monese wins!

Very even scoring for Monese and Revolut’s monthly accounting fees. These fee free thresholds for overseas spending are also very similar. 2% exchange rate margins above the monthly thresholds. What puts Monese in the lead are the offers available for new basic account customers.

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Ease of Use

Revolut

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What Revolut does well

Sign up process - Create a new account with ease by using the Revolut app.

Payment options - Bank account transfers, debit cards and credit cards..

Apple Pay and Google Pay - Link your Revolut account to Apple Pay or Google Pay to make fast and easy payments.

Mobile app - Available for iOS and Android.
 

Where Revolut could improve

Website access - Customers can not use the Revolut website to access their accounts or send money. They need to use the Revolut app.


Monese

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What Monese does well

Registration process - Creating a new account is fairly straightforward.

Payment options -  Bank account transfer, debit card and cash.

Linking third-party accounts - You may link your PayPal and Avios accounts with your Monese account.

Apple Pay and Google Pay - Link your Monese account to Apple Pay or Google Pay, and make payments using the same.

Mobile app - Available for iOS and Android.
 

Where Monese could improve

Phone transfers - You cannot carry out transfers over the phone.


Monese wins!

A neobanks, end to end customer experience is built into their design and development. Both companies score well in this section.

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Support & Countries

Revolut

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What Revolut does well

Supported currencies for transfers - Use Revolut to send money in 28 currencies.

Customer support - Local phone support in different countries and 24/7 chat support.
 

Where Revolut could improve

Supported registration countries - Revolut can improve by increasing the number of registration countries outside of Europe.


Monese

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What Monese does well

Supported destination countries for transfers - Monese lets you transfer money to more than 30 countries.

Multilingual customer support - Get customer support in English, French, German, Brazilian Portuguese, European Portuguese, Bulgarian, Italian, Spanish, Romanian, Polish, Czech, Turkish, Estonian or Lithuanian.

Where Monese could improve

Supported registration countries - Monese can improve by expanding its supported registration countries beyond Europe.


Monese wins!

Monese supports sending money to more currencies. Monese also supports more languages in-app and through its customer service. 

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Trust & Transparency

Revolut

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What Revolut does well

  • Revolut is licensed to provide services in the US, the UK, the European Union, Australia and Singapore.
  • Fingerprint identification.
  • Rating of Excellent on Trustpilot.

Where Revolut could improve

Addressing customer complaints - Some Revolut reviews on Trustpilot mention customers' accounts being locked and their money going missing. Quick resolution of such complaints would work well in increasing trust levels.


Monese

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What Monese does well

  • Monese Ltd. and Monese Finance Ltd. are registered as companies in England and Wales.
  • Use of biometric login.
  • Rating of Great on Trustpilot.

Where Monese could improve

Responding to customer complaints - A number of Monese reviews on Trustpilot mention delayed transfers and accounts being blocked. Unfortunately, it looks like Monese does not respond to these complaints.


Revolut wins!

Monese hasn’t scored well in this category. Monese’s customer reviews have meant that it has lost points. These need to be addressed. 

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Winner

The Result

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 Monese

Monese wins overall against Revolut by a small margin. Their fees and monthly account costs are generally evenly matched. What has led to Monese winning overall is support of more languages and currencies.