Every Revolut Plan Explained — What Nobody Tells You Before You Upgrade

In this episode, Jonny and Jan go through every Revolut plan — Standard, Plus, Premium, Metal, and Ultra — breaking down what you actually get, what each one costs, and the catches Revolut doesn't shout about. Whether you're brand new to Revolut or wondering whether to upgrade, this episode will tell you exactly which plan makes sense for your lifestyle.

What we cover:

• The Standard account — decent app, underwhelming product, and how it compares to free alternatives like Monzo
• Why the Plus plan is mostly a pricing decoy — and who it's genuinely useful for
• Premium's subscription arbitrage trick: how one included app can make the whole plan free
• Metal's insurance value for skiers, car renters, and daily FT readers
• Ultra — worth £660 a year? The honest answer
• Revolut's cancellation policy and the costly trap hiding in the small print

Join the new Banking Without Borders Discord community 

https://link.bankingwithoutborders.co.uk/discord

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

Introduction

0:00

Okay, so Revolute has five plans in total. And whether you're joining for the first time or thinking about upgrading your Revolut plan, it's genuinely hard to know which one's worth it or whether you should be paying for one at all. And Jan and I have both used Revolute for years, and between us, we've tested every account they offer. So today we're gonna go through them all. We'll talk about what you get, what they cost, and crucially what the catches are. Because there are a few red flags, especially the cancellation policies, which we'll talk about shortly. And if there is a specific plan that you want to open, we've put chapters in the description on YouTube, and they should also be available on most podcast apps like Apple and Spotify. So

Standard Plan (Free)

0:38

yeah, let's start with the free standard account. You've used it for a few years, so what do you get and who's it for? Johnny, standard is the right word here because these benefits are definitely not outstanding. They look pretty standard to me. Um, so it's free to get, but you have a uh 200 pounds per month cap on free ATM cash withdrawals. Afterwards, it's a 2% fee. Also, if you'd like to use that card to spend in a foreign currency, you have an allowance of a thousand pounds every single month or euros, and afterwards it's a one percent fee. If you want to use the card to spend in foreign currencies on a weekend, there's a 1% markup every time you do that. Um, to be fair, that can be easily avoided by converting the cash, let's say on Friday, um, that you that you want to spend on Saturday. You know, but you really have to think ahead here. You can't just go ahead and use your card on a weekend and expect to get it uh to get a yeah, to do that free of charge. It's not possible. Um, you're earning ref points at the range of one point for every 10 pounds that you spend, so it's almost not worth mentioning, and you're getting a savings rate of 2.9% on British pounds. And to be honest, 2.9% Johnny, nowadays, ooh, that doesn't feel right. Um, we know that there are way better options out there. Having a quick look at deposit scout, we can see 4.75% is the best easy access rate right now. That's Cembo. Um, so 2.9% doesn't even compare. You're also getting a free trade every single month if you like to use Revolute for investing, and afterwards it's a 0.25% fee. Um, whether you want to use Revolute for investing or not, you know, make up your mind on that. Um, some people like it, some people don't like it. Um, I'm not a fan of their percentage-based fee model, but it's another story. So, this this thing is an okay bank account. Don't and don't get me wrong. It's an okay bank account, it's an all-round bank account, um, especially, but it doesn't do anything extraordinarily good. And I think that's that's quite sad because nowadays there's so many really, really good bank accounts available that are free to use that are way better than this. As an example, Monzo in their free tier is already way better, right? Because they don't have some of the restrictions that this Revolut standard account has. Um, and to me, this this feels actually like a funnel to get people to sign up and then use Revolut's paid subscription. Yeah, I just want to jump in, you know, to the defense of Revolut, you know, comparatively to Monzo, you know, Monzo paywall virtual cards, Jan. I I suppose Revolut are offering them included in this account. You know, you're absolutely right. For example, Monzo are offering like essentially Mastercard's exchange rates, which is like free travel, exch travel spending and free international spending, which Revolut are limiting, you know, to a thousand pounds or euros per month and it it's currency exchange as well, which is it's just convoluted, it's it's unnecessary. It really shouldn't be like this. But of course, as well, Revolute are giving you know standard account holders access to a fantastic app, you know, which has you know lots of budgeting analytics built in. It's going to give you a great overview of your net worth and your spending. And if you're someone that's possibly interested in budgeting a bit harder or just trying to get a better understanding of how much they're spending each month, Revolute's very good at unlocking that. And that will that will come with this standard free account, which is which

Plus Plan (£3.99/mo)

3:48

is really nice. The plus account, which is next up at £3.99 per month in here in the UK, it's a little bit unnecessary. I I don't really know why it exists besides funneling you up to the next account premium, which Jan will talk about shortly. Yeah, it's ridiculous. There are some benefits here though, mate. There are some benefits worth mentioning. Um, you get extra fee-free currency exchange of £3,000 per month. The ATM withdrawals are still the same at £200 per month. Um, the weekend FX charge, which like Jan said, you should absolutely avoid by exchanging in advance, but that's reduced to 0.5%. The RevPoints earning rate is the same, one point per £10 spent. The savings rate of 2.9% is the same as standard. You get an extra couple of uh stock trades per month, though. You get free trade free three free trades per month. And uh after that, once you exceed that number, you pay 0.25% per trade. You might be thinking, why does this account exist? Uh it's uh you know, it's it's kind of ridiculous, really. There is purchase protection, Yan, that comes with this account up to a thousand pounds per year, um, you know, which is essentially insurance on anything that you buy with your revolute card up to that price, up to that cost if anything goes wrong. Um, there's also event ticket cover. Um so say you get a you know, a couple of concert tickets, for example, and you're sick, you know, so it's got to be something out of your control and you can't attend that event, then you can get the money back on it through as long as you paid through your revolute card. So that is a little bit of a benefit. So you're talking a little extra foreign exchange. And how much is it? Uh plus. How much is plus? I mentioned it earlier, it's £3.99 per month. No, I did, mate, I did. The plus account, which is next up at £3.99 per month in here in the UK. So you're you're you're looking at a little bit of purchase protection and a little bit of currency exchange included. But really, this just feels like a pricing strategy account. It's here just to make because you're gonna look at this and think, well, it's four pounds per month. Why don't I just use premium? Yeah, it's

Premium Plan (£7.99/mo)

5:57

just three pounds more, but it reached like a totally different account. So £7.99 is not that much for what you're getting here. Um ATM cash withdrawals, the free allowance increases to £400, and for the first time you don't have to pay any FX fees if you want to use your card um during the weekend or during the week. Um, it's free of charge, there's no limit. Um, so that's a really, really good thing. Also, you're earning Rev points at an increased rate of one point for every four pounds or four euros that you spend, and um, there's also a slightly better savings rate of 3.25% in British pounds. Um, still yeah, still very underwhelming, but it's another story, and you're getting five free trades per month. That looks okay, but that's not the main reason to get this account. I think what really stands out are these subscriptions. And uh the subscriptions, let's let's start with Perplexity Pro, which is an you know an AI tool that probably most of you know already nowadays these days. It's about 20 pounds just to sign up with premium. It's included. To be fair though, worth mentioning that yet you have to set up a new account if you want to redeem this, and um, I believe it only lasts for 12 months. So after 12 months, if you want to extend your premiums here, perplexity pro wouldn't be no longer included. Um, worth to keep in mind. Node VPN standard is also included, Uber One, Headspace, Free Letics, Tinder Plus, Sleep Cycle Premium, and Pixar Pro. So that's pretty nice. Insurance-wise, also also a slight upgrade here. So you have a damage in theft insurance up to two and a half thousand pounds per year for eligible items, and then uh the same extended return 90-day policy that you have with with premium, that's pretty pretty good as well. Um, and also the same ticket protection. That might be worth mentioning for families. You can also set up to five five child accounts and then link them to your main revolute account. And um, if you're within the EU, this account is priced as at be yeah, somewhat between $8.99 and 1099, really depends on your country, and you would get super Dolingo, flow premium, lovable light, and laundry heap plus uh 10 euro credit there. And that's different from the UK, so slightly more value for EU users. Um, we don't know when they will change it, probably at some point, and um yeah, but for now these things are not included in the UK, and also you're getting a gigabyte of free data every single month. And it's pretty nice. I mean, it's a it's a good account, and to my in my opinion, it's probably the best value account if you're looking for for subscriptions, especially Perplexity Nort VPN. Um, really, really nice. And um, yeah, I'm intrigued of signing up myself. Yeah, I mean, Perplexity Pro has got a cost on average 16-17 pounds per month, maybe $20 per month. You know, this account is costing £8.7.99. It's fantastic value. That's good. Maybe worth mentioning as well. You get access to discounted lounges, uh, airport lounges. I don't know. That's not worth mentioning. No do I need discounting. Priority support worth mentioning. 24-7 dedicated in app priority support. Nah, mmm. Marketing. I mean, yeah, it's there, it's there. We should mention it. Yeah, it's there. You get access to phone support. The other accounts that we've talked about so far, plus and uh standard

Metal Plan (£14.99/mo)

8:57

don't. Metal, twice as expensive as premium, £14.99 per month. You get twice the ATM withdrawal limit of £800 up from £400. So that is, yeah, that's better. After that, you pay a 2% fee, but ultimately you should really be getting fee-free ATM withdrawals at that price point. I mean, make no mistake, that's a little bit ridiculous. I mean, if you look at Starling Bank, they're offering a free account in the UK and you know, you're capped uh to you can withdraw up to £300 per day for free. I know that might, you know, be beneficial in the European Union. I'm I'm speaking for for the UK here, and uh it's not good enough to be charging, you know, £15 for £800 of monthly ATM withdrawal limits, but that's what they're doing because ultimately this is there's more to this account than banking benefits. But again, yeah, you've got the same as premium. You've got you know fee-free currency exchange on the on the weekends, there's no weekend surcharge. Uh Rev points is slightly improved at one pound, uh sorry, one point per two pound or or two euros. Savings are slightly better at 3.4%, and you get up to 10 free trades per month, and after that it's a fee of 0.25%. So there are some improvements there, but the big, big difference is in the subscription benefits. So, of course, you're getting all the premium benefits that Jan's already mentioned, although Tinder is now the gold version, NordVPN is now the plus version, which includes malware defense, and you're also getting Perplexity Pro, but it's unlimited, so you're not going to be capped at like the first 12 months of the plan like a premium. Instead, the plan will end when you choose to close the Revolut plan, so it could be ongoing. The metal subscriptions that you get with this account hold a lot of value though. So you get the FT. Yeah, and you get standard FT digital. That's expensive. Yeah, it's £39, I think they charge for that. That's included with this plan at £14.99 a month. You also get one credit for a Wii work pass. Um, hard to say what that would be valued at if you were to like buy it off Wii Work, but that could be anywhere between sort of £25 and £50, depending on the location. You've also got class pass, 10 free credits per month. You've got masterclass, which is slightly limited because Jan's going to talk to you in a moment about the ultra version. But this is 45 classes available with this one. There's also chess.com premium and the athletic, which is uh, you know, athletic premium, which is just like ad-free sports journalism. Quite beneficial, quite nice if you're into football, particularly. There's also global travel insurance with this account. It's quite a robust policy, it's very heavyweight. Um, you've got winter sports cover, so great if you're a skier. You've got car hire uh excess protection up to £2,000 per year for any rental damage. You've got personal liability cover up to a million pounds per year, and emergency medical up to 10 million pounds a year. So, like I said, it's quite a quite robust heavyweight policy. Um, also includes the premium purchase protection that we've already mentioned as well. Some minor differences with the European Union. The price could be between 14.99 euros and 20 euros. Subscriptions, you know, the same as premium, like Jan already mentioned in the EU, lovable light, superduolingo, laundry heap, that's all included here. One difference is that the European Union gets three gigabytes of e-sim data with metal. We don't get that in the UK. Uh, that might come soon at some point. Not yet, but they're also focusing on mobile, mobile plans, right? Actual mobile contracts with Revolut, so they might not want to distract from that by throwing in e-sim data. But look, you're looking at a pretty heavy-duty subscription plan. If you can make use of them as well, it's going to be very worth your while. The account also includes a metal card that could look like this one. There are four colourways available. They have black, gold, which is this one, bronze, and silver. Just one thing to note it's an 18 gram card. It really is just a piece of plastic wrapped in steel. Don't pick this account just for the metal card alone. Because, you know, if you get the account, you get the metal card, you want to cancel the account, which you know, we'll talk about the cancellation policy shortly, and it's definitely worth sticking around for because it's very important. Um, but yeah, if you you know, if you get this account, you get the card and you want to cancel it, you will have to pay for that card. Although it is included, but if you cancel, you will have to pay for it. And it's made of terrible quality. It's made of terrible quality, but it's just a side note. That's my opinion here, of course. Um, only my opinion. But uh, if you take a look at my card, how this looks now, um, it's just it's just embarrassing. I don't

Ultra Plan (£55/mo)

13:32

want to take that out anymore. Uh done. Ultra. Ultra is an interesting account, it's also ultra expensive, 55 pounds every single month, um, which is yeah, quite a lot of quite a lot of change already. And for that, you get 2,000 pounds in free ATM cash withdrawals, um, and you earn one ref point for every pound or euro that you spend. So that's pretty nice. Um, you're also getting four pounds four percent AER in in savings rate, um, still not competitive, unfortunately, but way better than what Metal has to offer. And you're getting T 10 free trades every single month. So that's the same as Metal. The difference really is the subscriptions, again, um, Financial Times that's upgraded to premium digital, which is even more expensive than standard digital. Um, you get three rework credits instead of one, you get 20 class bus credits instead of 10. Um, and master class for master class, you get access to the full library, and I believe that's over 180 classes that you can you can take from there. You're also getting headway premium, which is quite nice. Um, headway premium, if you don't know that, it's like Blinkist. Um, I think I prefer Blinkist, but you know, if it's free in there, why not? Take advantage of it. Um they summarize audiobooks, pretty good. Turo, you're getting a 50-pound credit every single month. So if you like to hire cars here and there within the UK internationally, that's pretty, pretty good. It's included. Um, you're also getting yeah, Nord VBN complete, which is slightly different from plus, that adds one terabyte worth of cloud storage um for backups and you know these kind of things. Something nice, in my opinion, they cancel for any cost insurance, and that gives you up to 70% back if you cancel a trip for any reason at all. Quick example: if I have a trip to Mexico planned tomorrow, um, and I decide I like to rather spend my time with Johnny, I could cancel that and get 70% of the money back that I spend on it. And um, if I cancel for a genuine reason, you know, medical emergency or something, then that's 100% that I would get back. That's kept at £5,000 per year, but it's it's okay. And the trip must originate in the UK, so that's it's also worth mentioning. Doesn't worth work for international. You should never cancel a trip to Mexico to spend time with me, though. Yeah, better not. You also get free airport launch access, um, which can be quite nice. And if you're within the UK for the first time, you're getting eSIM data included. Only three gigabytes, but hey, at least ESIM data is included for you. In the European Union, the price varies. I think it's between 55 euros and 65 euros a month. They've recently wasted, and um, the main difference here is that you get 5 gigabytes of ESIM data included, which is yeah, more than what would be included with metal. Pretty nice. That can be can be quite attractive, Johnny. Um is the card of better quality than the metal card? That's my main question here. It's made out of palladium, or what was that? Of platinum. Brass. What is it made of? So it's made out of platinum, and when when I signed up for this, it arrived in this Perspecs case. Uh I don't know if that's supplies. Yeah, it's uh essentially like a one of those sort of metal IKEA photo cases that you may have seen previously, but this is the card. Made of platinum or at least plated in platinum. It's got this sort of indent, it's got these indentations that run around the edge which give it a bit of texture. You've got this ultra member insignia at the top. Obviously, the revolute and the back look a little bit like this. Yeah, it's you know, it's fine. You know, after all, it's just a physical card that the majority of us no longer use would appreciate. But just yeah, it's a pretty one. And I mean, just again, remember, you know, when it comes to cancelling, if you do decide to do it, you know, you don't want the account anymore and you've got that card, you will have to pay for it up front. And look, Revolut's cancellation terms, I think I've

Cancellation Policy

17:19

already leaned in on this a little bit, they're not that flexible. And if you pick a plan, especially annual, especially an annual plan, and you want to cancel it, it could become costly. So the sweet spot for when you cancel is within 14 days because you'll get a full refund, no questions asked, as long as you haven't used the account. So, for example, if you've redeemed Perplexity Pro, that could be problematic. Um, and as I mentioned, if you did get a card, you would have to pay for it. When it becomes tricky and expensive, is if you signed up monthly and it's after 14 days and before 10 months, this is the trap because you'll pay the current month plus a two-month breakup fee on top, and you don't get an extra service for that. Okay, you get nothing in return. And if you're an Ultra member, that could cost you £110 just to leave. Wow. So be be aware of that. Yeah, be aware of that. If you're paying monthly and you cancel after 10 months, it's okay, there's no break fee at all. You just pay the current month and you're out. Revolute are you know, somewhat honouring your loyalty, so to speak, there. After 14 days, if you sign up annually, there's no refunds, there's no break fee, there's nothing. You just pay for the account, and if you don't want it anymore, you've got no choice, you're in. Yeah, the sweet spot is if you're on monthly billing and it's after 10 months, anything else is pretty, pretty nasty. So make sure, you know, make sure when you sign up for this account, you set a calendar reminder for 14 days or 13 days to be safe. And at that point you ask yourself, have I utilized the benefits of this account? For example, Metal, have I been using the FT? Have I been reading the Athletic? Have I utilized the VPN subscription? Am I trying to find dates on Tinder? You know, it sounds silly, but you've got to ask yourself that question because otherwise these accounts could get extremely

Who Should Get Which Plan?

19:02

costly. Should we have a quick talk about who these accounts are for, Jan? I know we've touched on it briefly, but I think there are some really important nuances here with the type of person who might be listening to this, might be watching this that could benefit from certain accounts. Let's start with standard. I believe standard is good for everyone who wants a uh a basic, somewhat okay bank account with an extraordinary app. I think that summarizes it well. Um there's nothing that standard really does outstanding, but it's okay. It's a very good all-round account. Um, you can use that and it has a yeah, an extraordinary app. The app is really worth mentioning. You can do a lot of things in the app, it's super intuitive. But the account itself is is yeah, slightly underwhelming. We've discussed it before. And it's also for most people, it's not free. You know, if you travel quite a bit, especially, then can get expensive quite fast. Exactly, exactly. And uh it might be controversial to say this, but if you're considering the plus account, don't bother. Nah. Because what are you considering it for, Jan? Are you considering it for extra fee-free currency exchange? Well, in that case, you need to get a better travel card, you need to get a better solution. You know, there are plenty of options available that won't cost you £3.99 per month. To me, plus seems yeah, it seems like a trap. Premium, on the other hand, you know, I lent lent on this already, but you know, look at the benefits that are available there. They're phenomenal. You know, you're gonna get the underlying Fantastic Revolute app with all of the different features, and on top of that, you're gonna get access to all these subscriptions. If that can align with your lifestyle, incredible. Yeah, that's great. I think the same can be said for Metal. Again, it's about aligning with your lifestyle. You know, if you read the Financial Times daily, if you're using WeWork, ClassPass, you know, or or you like to save money by eliminating standard alone standalone car hire excess or ski insurance, for example, because you're gonna get winter sports cover included, that's gonna be great. And it's all gonna cost you just £180 per year in the UK. That's good, yeah. But on the flip side, it's gonna get extremely expensive if you're not really traveling, if you're not using WeWork, if you're not reading the FT, possibly you don't speak English. I'm not sure if the FT covers multiple languages. Then, in fact, to be fair, if you don't speak English, you wouldn't be listening to this in the first place. Um, but you know what I'm saying? Like, if you're not into the FT, that's where it's a lot of the value is here. Um, you know, it's yeah, it's like who's this account for? It's like for anyone who uses the subscription benefits. Yeah, and ultra agree with that. Johnny, ultra, ultra, well, ultra is it's difficult. It's difficult in my opinion. So you could you could argue that if you fly at least you know once a month, you can you can take advantage of that unlimited launch access, um, the three gigabytes of easy data. Yeah, um, but yeah, don't like the fact that they don't have a way to get supplementary cards. Exactly. With many credit cards, you can do that, and you can take your partner within within the launch uh into the launch, and that's not possible here. Uh you'd have to buy a separate launch pass, and that's yeah, it's quite sad, you know, considering you're paying literally 600 pounds per per year in in fees. You should be able to take your partner into the launch if you want to do that. That's not possible, but if you're a solo traveler, you know, maybe that's just right for you. Um, and then yeah, besides that, you know, slight subscription benefits, slight insurance benefits, um, it's okay. Um, the ref points rate, I think that's interesting. That's something we haven't really discussed today, Johnny. And um I think that deserves a bit more attention. Um, there's a lot to consider. These accounts are not worth it based on ref points alone. Um, you you'll barely break even, most likely. And if you're really thinking of getting these accounts just for the ref points sake, then don't um just get a credit card instead that accumulates Avios or you know any other airline mile. But ref points are a nice side benefit, you know. They can they can help you make use of this account or make this account profitable for you way earlier. Um, and we've discussed that in an episode. I'm gonna show that on the screen. So if you haven't already, listen to that and uh let us know what you think. And besides that, I think we've pretty much said everything, Johnny. We've we've discussed this in detail. And uh, I think yeah, no, I was gonna say I think we can stop talking now and we can let you know the audience, you know, if you're watching this, listening to this, chime in on the comments. Let us know. You know, are you thinking about getting a Revolut plan? Which plan are you thinking about getting? Really, honestly, especially this is the most important part of the community that we have here. If you are using one of these Revolute plans and you've got some experience that you want to share in the comment section for anyone who's signing up, please do go ahead and share it below. Let us know what you think of any of the plans. You know, if we made a mistake today, please feel free to correct us. It's pretty difficult to lock down every benefit and product and feature of Revolut because it's a behemoth. It's so vast, isn't it, Jan? And there's so many discrepancies between each applicated country's website. Yeah, so we really appreciate the community because so many people get into the comments. They often correct us, tell us when we're wrong, and we love that. Um so yeah, please, please do share your your own experiences and insight in in into Revolution it's always yeah, super useful. And look, if you found this video useful, please do give it a like. If you're listening to us on Apple, Spotify, please do consider rating the podcast. Five stars is even better. Please do consider that. And um we'll see you in the next episode. Thanks everyone. Goodbye.