Revolut

[malko]

I have been looking into diversifying banking tools since the talk on dr1 of credit cards.
Done some research, into credit cards for europeans and it turns out it is not really a thing in europe, outside of the UK. Basically we have access to americanexpress------- but all of them have annual fees------ or shady credit cards made for people who live off revolving credits and stuff ( and that is basic " what not to do " ).


I did finally decide to give ZERO a try, no annual fees, no fees for use abroad, all the insurances of a " gold card ", 6 to 7 weeks of free credit, etc......... will see how that turns out when i go back to europe ( yeah, obviously, nobody ships the cards to the dr ).

But, as I see it, the main problem of credit cards ( and debit cards for that matter ) is even though there is no visible fee for paying abroad, well they rob you blind on exchange rates ( minimum of 5% difference between the market place rate and their rate ).

So i continued shopping around, and started looking into neo-banks ( ie, online banking only as opposed to traditional banks ).
I am not looking to leave my current traditional banks, as i like the idea of ripping into a physical person when/if things go wrong.
There are different variants of these " banks", with or w/o banking license ( think pre-paid cards ), with or without aggregating ( possibility to dump all your different CC cards on 1 physical card ), with or w/o banking coordinates ( IBAN, swift, etc..... ), with or w/o the possibility to pay on non-connected terminals ( think 24h gas stations, bus ticket machines, tollways, etc......).......
All very confusing.

Well, revolut caught my eye for 1 main reason : market place exchange rates !!!!!
So I was thinking it would be great for use in the dominican republic, amongst others......
Only setback was you can only " store" money in the main currencies ( ie, you can keep say, 1k dollars, 1k euros, 1k pounds, etc........ and fund that when the exchange rate is in your favour ).
Sadly not available for the dominican peso...... but still useful for dollars in my case, when visiting the US.
Revolut also proposes virtual one time only usage card numbers....... nice for internet usage.
Also their regular card is free, although they do propose others with monthly fess with insurances, crypto, even trading accounts........


Anyway, anybody out there that has on-hand experience with revolut ? Or any other european neo-bank ? ( curve, n26, max, ..... )

 

[etolw]

But, as I see it, the main problem of credit cards ( and debit cards for that matter ) is even though there is no visible fee for paying abroad, well they rob you blind on exchange rates ( minimum of 5% difference between the market place rate and their rate ).

Yes, important stuff, a lot of money can be saved. E.g Transfering the equivalent of 30k usd from abroad every month , the percentage matters.

Can only comment on the exchange rate, my bank charges 2% when using debit/credit cards, which still is more expensive than direct bank transfer to local bank account (SWIFT). My foreign bank states this

The conversion rate used is the rate VISA achieves with its bankers plus a rate premium of 2.00% (effective interest rate) of the exchanged amount. The bank does not charge a separate fee for using the card abroad or when withdrawing currency, however, the user site / ATM abroad may charge a fee.

 

[NALs]

If anyone is interested, Dominican banks credit cards should really be used as charge cards (that is paying the balance in full). Anyways, the best Dominican credit cards are detailed here:

https://www.rexi.do/tarjetas-de-credito

You need to know at least how to read in Spanish. Click on the box that best describe how you plan to use the credit card and then it suggest a listing of the best cards. Believe it or not, there is a card that honors women and another with the skyline drawn of Madrid, Spain.

 

[tht]

TransferWise.

I have two business accounts and two personal accounts with TransferWise, with Mastercard on my personal accounts, waiting on TW to issue cards on US business accounts. I have used TW less than a year, but happy so far. TW has no banking licence, but connected to banks with ABA and SWIFT in the US (IBAN in Europe). Any transaction in / out I receive an email almost instantly with transaction details. I have better control on my transactions now than with Citi. All accounts are issued with account number, ABA and SWIFT. Transfer between TransferWise accounts is free, I keep enough cash on my personal accounts for day to day use, and transfer from my business accounts when I need it, that takes a second. If someone hack or steel my card I can freeze it, and / or simply empty the account and just send all back to an account with no card. Only issue there's no interest on the accounts, deposit cash you have to deposit it to another bank and do a transfer, or top up another card like Travelex and send it from there. Required docs to open accounts may vary depending on where you're located, TW approved my accounts on my ITIN and US registered LLC, and another legal business entity.

Good Luck!

 

[tht]

..steal.. not steel

If someone hack or steel my card I can freeze it,

I'm waiting on Monzo getting established in the US. Have been told by Monzo reps. they will be able to verify ITINs, not just SSNs. Monzo is established in Europe (UK).

 

[malko]

..steal.. not steel




I'm waiting on Monzo getting established in the US. Have been told by Monzo reps. they will be able to verify ITINs, not just SSNs. Monzo is established in Europe (UK).

Revolut has a beta version in the US and canada.

I also looked at transferwise, does it work fine in the dr ? A good exchange rate ?

 

[johne]

If anyone is interested, Dominican banks credit cards should really be used as charge cards (that is paying the balance in full). Anyways, the best Dominican credit cards are detailed here:

https://www.rexi.do/tarjetas-de-credito

You need to know at least how to read in Spanish. Click on the box that best describe how you plan to use the credit card and then it suggest a listing of the best cards. Believe it or not, there is a card that honors women and another with the skyline drawn of Madrid, Spain.

Nals
Am I reading the interest rate at 60% correctly?? And thats before and after I translated the page to english

 

[tht]

Revolut has a beta version in the US and canada.
I also looked at transferwise, does it work fine in the dr ? A good exchange rate ?

I have never had issues with any of the cards, works fine. 7,000 DOP out at Banco Leon TW gave me 52.86 DOP per USD not including the ATM fee. ATM fees vary from 115 DOP at BanReservas to 250 DOP at Banco Popular. There's a 250 USD/day default limit on the card you can raise to max 1,000 USD/day. Buying petrol at a Sunix station for 1,500 DOP I pay 28.64 USD 52.37 DOP per USD effective rate no additional fees. I've done wire transfers also to the DR no issues so far. Day to day use TW works fine for me.

I have looked at Revolut but I believe you need SSN they don't accept ITIN. Most US banks accept ITIN if you walk in at a brick and mortar branch, but not online.

 

[tht]

I'm now Monzo US beta customer #1153 on the wait list since August. 2,000 pesos out yesterday at BanResevas plus the usual 112 pesos fee debited my Monzo account 39.80 USD that's 53.07 DOP to USD all fees accounted for.

Almost forgot Monzo is FDIC insured.

 

[Riva_31]

If anyone is interested, Dominican banks credit cards should really be used as charge cards (that is paying the balance in full). Anyways, the best Dominican credit cards are detailed here:

https://www.rexi.do/tarjetas-de-credito

You need to know at least how to read in Spanish. Click on the box that best describe how you plan to use the credit card and then it suggest a listing of the best cards. Believe it or not, there is a card that honors women and another with the skyline drawn of Madrid, Spain.

Now here if you make a full payment do not get any charge.