Revolut Just Raised Prices Across Europe — Is It Still Worth Paying For?

Revolut has increased subscription prices across several European markets — including Germany, France and the Netherlands — while adding a wave of new perks to Premium, Metal and Ultra.

But are these benefits actually useful… or are they just designed to justify higher monthly fees?

In this episode, Jonny and Jan break down:

•  The exact Revolut price increases across Europe 
•  Whether Metal and Ultra still offer good value 
•  New perks like Super Duolingo, eSIM data, airport fast track and AI website builder Lovable 
•  Why some of these “benefits” may really be funnels to spend more money 
•  Huge differences between countries and subscription value 
•  Why the UK could be next for price hikes 
•  Whether Revolut is becoming too complicated for its own good 

They also discuss subscription fatigue, hidden value most users never activate, and whether Revolut’s strategy is becoming more about recurring revenue than genuinely improving the product.

If you use Revolut Premium, Metal or Ultra — or you’re considering upgrading — this episode will help you decide whether the new pricing actually makes sense.

Check out our website DepositScout.com for the latest savings rates. 

Connect with us (via LinkedIn)

Jan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jan-watermann/

Jonny: http://www.linkedin.com/in/jonny-pease

Got a question or topic you want us to cover? Drop us a message at jonny@technicallymoney.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Alright, so Revolute just got more expensive. Premium, Metal, Ultra. They're all going up across Germany, France, the Netherlands, and beyond. But they're not just raising prices, they're also introducing new lifestyle perks, including Duolingo, Flow, a period tracker, an AI web builder, even a laundry service. And now they're calling it a better product. So the question we're going to answer is simple. Is Revolue actually getting better or just getting more expensive? We'll run through the actual numbers, give you our honest verdict on these new perks, and also talk about what this could mean for plans and prices here in the UK. And by the way, we're actually already paying some of the highest Revolue fees in the world. So raising prices here will probably go down about as well as a lead balloon. So Jan, can you start us off with what's gone up in price and which markets have been hit?

SPEAKER_00 0:46

Johnny, oh pay tiers above plus have uh had uh some sort of price increase across different markets in the EEA. You know, if you're you're unlucky and you're living in the Netherlands, for example, you can pay 20 euros every single month for metal now. That's from what I can tell the most expensive uh metal plan that's available at the moment. Um in general, we can say that uh premium on metal went up by 1 to 2 euros depending on the market, and ultra went up by 5 euros in most markets. Then you're looking at up to 65 euros for ultra in certain markets, like the Netherlands, Germany, for example. Um that's that's quite harsh. Um, and you know, spending 20 euros on on metal for the Netherlands and then not even having Uber 1. I'm not sure if you know that, but the Netherlands doesn't have Uber 1 and Revolute Metal. Not sure what to think about that personally. I mean, this this reaches a point where I I'd ask myself, um, literally, do I really need that before making a decision? You know, you could argue that 2 euros price increase is not that much, but if you if you calculate on the whole year, you know, it's it's it's what's that like uh 24 to 60 euros for for uh be for between metal and ultra um in additional additional price that you're paying. You know, I I I literally I would I would think about it before making that decision personally. And I I disqualified metal uh for for me personally. I had a look at the benefits recently, very recently, actually, was literally interested in signing up for perplexity pro and then I decided it was just not worth it. I have some other AI subscriptions already. I thought, hey, is that a cheap way to also get Perplexity Premium? Uh Perplexity Pro, sorry. And I said uh yeah for $30.99 maybe, but $50.99, you know, really makes me think, is that it? Should I do this? And uh decid not to. Maybe that's just a German in me um speaking, but uh yeah. Not sure if I'm stingy or not, but uh it's it's getting expensive.

SPEAKER_01 2:41

Yeah, it is getting expensive. There's two ways that you can look at it, isn't there? You can either say that, well, Revolute have added benefits, they've increased the value of these plans and made them better for the user, so as a result, they have to increase the fees, or you could look at it and say Revolute are generating a large proportion of their revenue from subscription. It accounts for 15.7%. That's huge, and it's a fantastic source of income. It's reliable, consistent, recurring, and they're looking to increase that revenue stream. So they're increasing fees, and to justify those fee increases, they've added some benefits. Now, do those benefits justify the fee increase, Jan. Let's start with Duolingo. This one's really quite fascinating. Anybody use Duolingo listening to this, watching this? Ah, for sure. Did you bother paying for it? Most people in my circle just typically would use like jump in and out of like the ads tier where it's free. With Revolute, you get like ad free, you get the premium tier. And I'm wondering, Jan, if that's even necessary.

SPEAKER_00 3:46

Yeah, for me personally, I also use the the free tier, so the the paid tier is not not necessarily, especially considering costs 89 euros per month. Um, but if you're anyway subscribe to that and you also have revolute premium, now is a good time to just cancel Super Duolingo and switch switch over to Revolute Premium. Then it makes sense, you know. But besides that, is Super Duolingo a reason to just uh yeah, a standalone reason to switch to Revolute Premium? For me, it wouldn't be.

SPEAKER_01 4:12

Also wouldn't be for Flow Premium, would it, uh Buddy?

SPEAKER_00 4:15

Yeah, for me personally, um no, not really. I mean I I I get it. For 50% of the people, this is probably very, very useful. Um, and from what I I heard, Flow is also a very good um period app, you know, um has good reviews, app store ratings are nice. I think 4.7 out of 5 stars, um, people seem to like it, people seem to like the design um and some of the features it provides, good for people that are you know trying to track their menstrual cycle, but also everything that comes with that. If they want to maybe make a baby, um flow premium can help with that. Um, if they don't want to make a baby, flow premium can help with that. Um, so it's good for all yeah, all kinds of things um around the period. Um great app costs 40 euros a year normally. If you already have it, you know, you might as well cancel it and uh and go go for a volute premium. But is that how many women actually actually use a paid period app? I'd be curious. Um, if there's any any woman listening, please write into the comments.

SPEAKER_01 5:12

Um I I I I know I know my wife just uses uh the inbuilt app or health tracking stuff.

SPEAKER_00 5:18

And that's totally fine, right? That solves the problem. It's free, huh?

SPEAKER_01 5:20

Yeah. Well, there is one red flag that I was reading. These like period menstrual cycle apps have like a privacy thing where you can have like anonymous mode where your health data is private and it's not shared. If you want to activate this perk through Revolut, you do have to waiver the anonymous mode setting as well.

SPEAKER_00 5:37

Oh.

SPEAKER_01 5:38

Which is yeah, that's a bit of a red flag. You're essentially giving up your health data in return for getting access for free. That one's quite interesting.

SPEAKER_00 5:46

Yeah, I'd be curious, why is that? Uh they're using that for marketing purposes. Or is that just to authenticate that uh you actually have Revolut, you know, that could also be a could also be a thing.

SPEAKER_01 5:55

Laundry Heap Plus, this arguably has a little bit of a red flag immediately when you see that you get just 10 euros of credit every month, which isn't going to cover a six kilo load of washing, which is typically 30 euros, and it's probably the default setting for most people. The credit does roll over though, Jan, which means within three months you could cover that load, but ultimately this just feels like a coupon. Yeah. Right? Like a little discount code, essentially a funnel, really, just pushing you towards spending more money at Laundry Heap.

SPEAKER_00 6:26

You know, when when are when are these kind of subscriptions, laundry, laundry service subscriptions, really useful? I guess if you can rely on them regularly and then replace your washing machine. Um if you if you can use them four times a year for free. Is there an actual benefit? Although, I mean more of a nuisance. Is it's a nuisance, yeah. Um it's it's probably nice to have, but uh, maybe if you have something really, really dirty, you know, you can give it to them. I don't know. But besides that, I mean I'm fine washing my own laundry at home.

SPEAKER_01 6:50

I've used one of these services once when my washing machine broke down. The ad hoc nature of that means that you may have the credit built up. I understand that it rolls over for three months and I think it remains in your account at 30 euros. I could be wrong. Um so maybe having that there as backup could be beneficial. But again, I mean, we talked about this perk when we were discussing Klana Max in a previous episode. We weren't very impressed with it, were we?

SPEAKER_00 7:15

No.

SPEAKER_01 7:15

I'll I'll say what I just said, it just feels more like a funnel into spending more money with laundry heap, which is possibly the same case with Lovable.

SPEAKER_00 7:24

Absolutely it is.

SPEAKER_01 7:25

So lovable is this AI app website builder that you use credits to build apps, build websites. You're prompting the AI, it's costing money every time there are changes, updates, things are created. And as far as I can tell, around a hundred credits should in allow you to build something. You may have bugs, you may have problems, you may want to make changes, and that will require more credits. With Revolute Premium Metal Ultra, you get a hundred credits with Lovable across the year. But that's not going to be enough to build much. It really isn't. If you get started, Jan, in my experience using these things, I use Replit. Once you get started, you get hooked, you see something building, maybe people start using it, maybe you see some monetary gain, you really then start to spend money on making changes and improvements. And a hundred credits is is not gonna touch anything, but it might be enough, Jan, to get you a little bit interested, and then you'll spend a little bit more money.

SPEAKER_00 8:28

This is an extended trial, in my opinion, Johnny.

SPEAKER_01 8:31

There's no value at um, honestly, and uh do you think Revolute would get an ongoing kickback as a result of people that they've referred to lovable spending money consistently?

SPEAKER_00 8:42

Incredibly clever way to do business because uh, on a first look, it seems like a feature. It seems like another subscription that's being added. Um, but then if you look at the details, figure out that that plan doesn't actually exist, probably for a good reason, because you don't you need more credits. You know, I mean uh it just tastes weird uh to me. I mean there's a there's a bad taste in it. Um agreed. Maybe they get a kickback, that'll be a clever way of doing business. I don't know. We don't know for sure. Is anyone at Revolute is listening willing to share that information? Right into the comments, but I doubt it.

SPEAKER_01 9:14

Maybe, maybe come on as an anonymous source. Oh I'd be curious to know how this is all working. There are a couple of benefits that you get with Ultra, like a couple of subscription benefits that are like overwhelming in terms of value. One being like the FT Digital, for example. But a couple of these fall short, and as a means of trying to justify these fee increases, I'm not sure if Laundry Heat Plus or Lovable Light are enough. Possibly flow premium for women and Duolingo for those that are really committed to learning a language. But I'm struggling. What about eSIM data, Yan? So premium's gonna get one gigabyte, metal's gonna get three, and Ultra's gonna get five. Global eSIM data available in a hundred countries. Is that really useful to someone that's from the EU unless they're gonna travel outside of the EU?

SPEAKER_00 10:00

Well, for travel outside of the EU, it is useful and it's probably nice to have. And you know, with three gigabytes, you can probably do something already. One gigabyte is a little feels a little short. Um doesn't doesn't feel like it's enough for for an extended holiday. Uh why bother?

SPEAKER_01 10:14

I almost feel like why bother?

SPEAKER_00 10:15

Yeah, why bother? But three gigabytes, to be fair, um if you're traveling let's let's say you're going to Switzerland for a week, you know, or for a weekend even. That's enough for most people, at least for me it would be. Um then it's probably nice. Yeah, again, within within the EU, you don't need that at all because there's EU roaming, it's free. Um that's a law, so it's only only useful for these these yeah uh travels outside of the EU. And um, yeah, how often do you actually do that every single year? Um I g I'd say the average Revolute customer maybe does it twice or three times.

SPEAKER_01 10:48

If you do decide to use your one gigabyte of data with your premium membership and it runs out while you're away, Jan, what what do you have to do? That's a really good question. We have to top up.

SPEAKER_00 11:00

You have to top up, right? Johnny. I mean it's obvious, but uh I haven't really thought of that. And if you top up, who gets paid? Who gets paid? Revolute. Revolute gets paid. Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 11:13

So when I when I when I said it almost feels pointless, all of a sudden you're thinking, well, is it? Because it could be a funnel to spend more money on their eSIM data.

SPEAKER_00 11:23

Oh, for sure. You could obviously go ahead and and purchase a different e-SIM while abroad if you run out of data, but um most people realistically um they'd they'd prefer the convenience of just tubbing up the existing eSIM and interesting, interesting perspective to look at.

SPEAKER_01 11:39

Yeah, that's a cynix perspective. I think we could look at this more uh uh positively and just say, look, Revolut are just enabling more access to eSIM data, which is a good thing, showing people what you can do with eSIMs, I think it's fantastic. People are tied to expensive carriers using physical SIMs. Also at the same time, you know, it's important to have a look at this from both perspectives. There is also now a security fast track for ultra users, yeah, but there is a arguably a caveat. I don't know, mate. Is this a caveat to qualify for fast track?

SPEAKER_00 12:08

Got to book it through Revolute, right?

SPEAKER_01 12:10

Yeah, that seems like you probably would be doing that though, right? If you're an ultra user, because A, you want to get the accelerated rev points, and B, you want to qualify for the travel insurance, which requires paying for 75% of your trip with your Revolu card. So I think most ultra users will qualify for that, but that is something to be aware of. Um, yeah, you get unlimited fast track passes in over 90 airports. There's obviously real value there, particularly for like high-frequency business travelers.

SPEAKER_00 12:38

Well, maybe not for business travelers, if they're anyways flying in business class, because then they would get access to that already. Um, but for people who are not flying in business class, maybe Yeah, but no, no, some some business travelers probably also fly economy class and do not have a status yet that would allow that for them. Um, yeah, interesting. Good, good value at in my opinion, for sure. And as someone who is I mean, if if you've done it once, if you've been through through fast track once, uh Frankfurt Airport has one, for example, um, an excellent one where you don't even have to take your liquids out of your baggage, um, it's great. It's great. Save a lot of time, um, people seem nicer, feels premium.

SPEAKER_01 13:13

So we've got Super Duolingo, Flow Premium, Laundry Heat Plus, Lovable Light, ESIM data for premium metal and ultra, which is increased from three to five gigabytes, and fast track. Let us know in the comments what you think of these. Do you see these benefits as being like useful for your use case? Are you using premium, metal, or ultra? Can you see yourself really utilizing them? There are some interesting geographical um discrepancies. For example, users in Italy and Romania will now get access to Glovo, and those with metal and ultra get Glovo Prime, which enables um unlimited food delivery. The Spanish market have Uber One, for example, so does the German market. But Jan, you mentioned something to me earlier about the Netherlands, which was yeah, which was a bit weird, because they don't have anything, but they're paying more, right?

SPEAKER_00 14:04

Yeah, metal in Germany is literally four euros a month cheaper than it is in the Netherlands. Considering the fact that Uber One is included in Germany, but it is not included in the Netherlands, it's similar, but it's not the same, for sure. And that's what I dislike about this. You need to make a scientific analysis in order to figure out what benefit is available in which country, and that's something that we struggle with when doing research for these videos as well. Um, it's just so complicated, man. It's complicated. And the fact that Revolut doesn't keep the website up to date, because they literally don't. This morning I checked uh within my Revolut app the price for for Ultra in Germany 65 euros. If I sign up right now, if I look at the Revolut website, it still says 60 euros, like it was before. It's I mean, what are they doing? They're licensed bank, it shouldn't be that um yeah, it shouldn't be that difficult to keep your data up to date. I mean, maybe the people in charge of the German website haven't updated it yet, maybe they are during leave, I don't know. Uh but it shouldn't be like that. And uh that's actually a big red flag in my opinion. What also is a red flag is the the availability of these subscriptions. We've mentioned uh the laundry perk, right? That's not available in Germany. That's due to the fact that this laundry service doesn't operate in Germany. Okay, it makes sense, right? Yeah, um, but then you also have uh in France you get now l'Équipe essentielle. I guess that's how you pronounce it. I don't know. That's right, my very Lequipe, yeah. Lequip Essentiel, which is a sports news subscription, which uh is worth about 12 euros a month. Fine, which is you only get it in France.

SPEAKER_01 15:29

Sure. You might get it in Switzerland, maybe, because Swiss French people might want to read it or no idea. What's being substituted elsewhere? Are you getting you know a nothing? Okay, I was gonna say like a sports broadcaster in Poland, for example, on the Polish plan.

SPEAKER_00 15:47

I thought the athletic would be something like that, and the French people would not get the athletic, but they do. They also get the athletic, right? They get the athletic and then they get le quip essentiel. Um they get it both. So um it's kind of yeah, they they they they get more value out of it, for sure.

SPEAKER_01 16:04

We should speak about which country has the most value when it comes to revolution. They'll be interesting, which but and it feels like the French are getting the best deal.

SPEAKER_00 16:13

Also pay almost the highest price, right? What's what's it now? 18.99 a month. Um, it's almost at the top. Netherlands is above that, but uh 19 euros a month. Whew, that's quite significant, Johnny. That's quite significant.

SPEAKER_01 16:25

It's close to what the UK are paying at 14 pounds.99, which is what's that, about 17 and a half euros. The UK right now, as of today, May the 12th, don't have any of these new benefits. And not yet. Yeah, not yet. And I was gonna say, and I don't know whether we'll see a price hike or not. I said this at the beginning, I don't think it'll go down very well. Revolute metal's already £15 a month. I mean, they'll add new benefits, and to justify it, I'm sure they will do it, Jan. They are taking certain risks with increasing fees, but at the same time, there's very little competition, so they probably think that they can get away with it. I don't know, sorry. I think maybe the UK will see price increases eventually, Jan, but I'm not sure.

SPEAKER_00 17:06

Yeah, I could I could see two scenarios. Uh what I'm what I'm sure about is that they they will add it eventually. These benefits will come to the UK. I'm I'm certain. I would I would literally bet my money on it.

SPEAKER_01 17:16

Yeah, yeah, they're all available.

SPEAKER_00 17:17

And then I could see a scenario where they keep the price, where they just try to increase the value in order to get more people to sign up. You know, that would be a very intelligent way of doing it because they make these packages and these subscriptions more attractive to users, get more customers in the process. Other scenario would be they just raise the price, you know, try to earn money, more money, right? Per customer, which also makes sense. You know, it's it's a matter of strategy. But I see these two different scenarios. What I'm sure about is the fact that they will add these subscriptions sooner or later.

SPEAKER_01 17:45

When I edit these videos, I often, when we're talking about Revolut Ultra Yan, I display all of the different subscriptions on the screen. On the Revolut website, they are individual cards, and I'll I'll put it up for those that are watching. It's actually becoming increasingly harder, Yan, to get it all on one page. I have to zoom out on the website to show all of the different cards because there are so many.

SPEAKER_00 18:08

Which is a good thing, right? I mean, that's it's not bad. Sounds like a disadvantage.

SPEAKER_01 18:13

I want to make the point though of saying that do you think eventually there's a chance that there can be too many? That it can be the paradox of choice, I think it's called. There's a phrase. Something around supermarkets and having too much can actually impact revenue. It's better to have less, it's less overwhelming. It's easier for people to pick a couple and make the most of them. They can't continue to increase prices and continue to add benefits, surely. They'll have to remove stuff and to curate. A little bit like the Yonder credit card, right? Yonder don't keep all of the benefits available or all of the partners that you can redeem with. They curate and they bring some in, bring some, they take some away and they make you miss them. I'm not saying Revolute are gonna do that, but because you might be quite mad if you're enjoying the athletic and suddenly it goes away. But do you think there's a chance, Jan, that eventually they have to do something? They can't can they keep just adding and adding and adding and making this longer and longer?

SPEAKER_00 19:05

I think they might be able to do that. And I have a feeling that most Revolute customers they don't use the the full spectrum of subscriptions that are available to them. Quick anecdote, I have a friend um who's also uh also also living uh yeah close to where I live, and um he has Revolute Metal for quite some time. He got that for the fact that he wanted a good exchange rate or something, which is a bad reason to get Revolute Metal in the first place. It was his reason, it was his reason to get it, um, which I you know somewhat understand. Um listened to the marketing, thought he'd sign up. Um and then I asked him the other day if he could just activate Uber One within his metal tier for an existing account, or whether he had to set up a separate account and he had no idea that Uber One was even included. He was like, What? That's included? I'm paying for that separately already, right? Um so I saved him I I think it was uh $5.99 in the process by telling him he can just switch it to metal. Um and that guy had no idea what other subscriptions were included. And I think some people, some people are just like that. They just don't know. Um they don't know what they can take advantage of. And um, you know, considering that's the case for probably um yeah, quite quite a significant amount of Revolut customers, I think they can continue adding stuff and they don't they probably pay providers per activation. That's what I believe, you know. That's so if if someone goes ahead, signs up for Revolute Metal, activates Super Duolingo, um, but doesn't choose to activate, give me another example, Uber One, right? Then I guess SuperDolingo gets some some sort of payment from Revolute, but Uber One would not. That's my assumption. Um, and as soon as long as that's the case, you know, and as long as people don't use more subscriptions on average, even though they have access to more, what's the issue? They can just continue adding whatever they want. Yeah, um, but what I dislike is the fact that they just sum up the value from all of these subscriptions and they tell you, hey, that's worth 5,500 euros for you. Um, when in fact you'd only consume um, let's say, a thousand euros worth of subscriptions, maybe, maybe not even.

SPEAKER_01 21:02

Because these additional benefits are niche, flow might arguably not be, but they're kind of specific to some degree. That I think that it's more likely that people currently using these plans will have second thoughts. They'll look at these benefits and go, I might be wrong, please let me know in the comments. But I think most people are going to look at these new benefits and think I don't really see anything there that I'm that into. I I I could be wrong. I'm I'm struggling with lovable because the credits are so weak. You may as well get the Lovable Pro plan. Duolingo feels unnecessary, super Duolingo, I should say. Not Duolingo, not the free one, it's very necessary if you if you very useful if you want to learn a language. I'm just struggling to see the real sort of compelling argument or justification for these fee increases with these new benefits. But of course, you know, if you're in Europe and you you you know you've got access to these, have you know, have we changed your thoughts or what do you think about these new benefits? Benefits. Do you see the justification here for increasing the fees? We'll love to hear from you. And we'll be back when they come to the UK to talk about it as well. Hundred percent. Yeah, it's probably gonna happen, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00 22:12

So this has been a pleasure, as always, and uh yeah, this topic's a very subjective one. So I'm really curious about what you think about it. Right into the comments. Let's have a conversation there, as Johnny just said. Um, and yeah, enjoy it as always. See you in the next episode.