Wise vs Revolut - This is what I've found out

[Millian]

Quote

I can't say about Revolut, but I have a Wise card and I use it in Thailand daily and I have never gotten charged any surcharge at all by any vendor for using an overseas card. 

OK that's great, some actual first hand experience.  I'd imagine it would be the same with Revolut card then.

 

Quote

 

Perhaps where you're getting confused is that some vendors in Thailand, particularly if they are a small business, will charge a 3% fee for you to use a debit card or a credit card to make payment for your purchase. This policy has nothing to do with the card being from overseas or not. It is merely the vendor tacking on a 3% surcharge to your purchase cover their fees that they will be charged either from MasterCard or Visa from accepting a payment made using a debit or credit card.

Yes, in some other other forums where I've asked the same question, I think people are getting confused with the surcharge for simply using card, irrelevant on where it is issued from.  I asked them to clarify this point, but people still seem to get confused.

Based on your first hand experience with Wise card, there is likey no additional fee for simply using a foreign Revolut card.  So I

ll probably order one. Thanks

 

[Liverpool Lou]

15 hours ago, Negita43 said:

REvolut recently had a lot of publicity about people with their accounts being scammed.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cj6epzxdd77o

In the specific case reported in that link he was scammed by voluntarily responding to a dubious phone call, nothing to do with Revolut.

[bradiston]

1 hour ago, RSD1 said:

 

First, I transfer a foreign currency (dollars, euros, pounds) into my Wise account. I then convert it to Thai Baht when the exchange rate is most favorable. After that, I maintain a Thai Baht balance in my Wise account to spend from. This ensures that all my transactions are made from my Thai Baht balance, avoiding conversion fees on each individual card transaction. Wise typically charges around 0.54% to exchange most major currencies into Thai Baht.

 

Revolut, on the other hand, allows you to exchange most major currencies into Thai Baht at the interbank rate with no exchange fee, but only up to $1,000 per month on the free plan. After that, they charge a 1% fee on exchanges.

 

In essence, if you were to spend the equivalent of $2,000 in a month using their cards, the fees would end up being roughly the same (around 1%) with both Wise and Revolut.

 

Not sure you can hold THB in Wise. They might show the equivalent of your various accounts in THB but they don't have a THB account per se. I have a PHP Wise account as I live in Philippines.

[Liverpool Lou]

5 hours ago, mikebell said:

How do I get a Wise card?  I am a member from UK but live full time in Thailand? 

You don't, they're not issued in Thailand.

[Zack61]

11 hours ago, RSD1 said:

I don't understand what you mean. I make lots of card payments from my Wise account using both physical and digital Wise cards and it never costs me anything to use those cards. No fees of any kind. So how could Revolut be cheaper for this purpose?

There have been a couple of occasions where a retailer (in Thailand) imposed a fee on my Wise card. The worst was 5% at a Honda dealership for a car service. I ended up paying with a direct bank transfer to avoid it. 
I have found quite a few businesses that won’t accept it but I think this may be because they were set up for scan payments. The biggest issue I have is the limited ATM withdrawal amount and the associated withdrawal fee imposed by the host bank. I’ve tried at most and they all impose the same high fee. I thought I read somewhere on a Wise advertisement that their card was fee free but I may be mistaken. 

[Flyguy330]

14 hours ago, Delta Shift said:

 

The article is about a business account apparently held by the dumbest human being on planet earth.

Who cares ?

Do you think someone is gonna try and scam you if you open a personal Revolut account so that they can have access to the 300$ that you're keeping on there to pay by card when necessary.
Get the f3ck out of here 😄 😄 😄
 

 

That's a pretty ignorant comment, and I sincerely hope it comes back to haunt you one day.

 

I began the process of opening a Revolut account many months ago. I already use WISE and never had a problem with them, but I thought I'd try Revolut too.

Just after setting up the account - and before I put any money in it - I started seeing newspaper stories from home about scams on Revolut customers. The details did not indicate the victims had to be fools or financially naiive, but  subjects of sophisticated scams that almost anyone in their particular circumstances could have fallen for.

But what was really shocking was how Revolut handled the complaints. They simply dismissed the victims with stock letters.

Some of the stories were taken up by the 'Your Money' section of a national newspaper. The journos made direct contact with Revolut HQ (virtually impossible for individual victims) and they attempted to convince Revolut that they had some responsibility to their customers. The response was the same stone walling the victims had received.

Normally companies 'back down' in the face of direct approaches from major newspapers - the bad publicity isn't worth it, and even though they don't often 'accept full responsibility' you'll often see them wriggle out with a smarmy 'but out of goodwill we are going to rectify this customers loss' or whatever. But no, not Revolut. They basically told the newspaper 'very sorry for their loss, but tough titty, now PFO'.

 

As a result of reading several of these stories over a two/three week period I changed my mind about Revolut and never put any money in.

 

Then I started getting emails from them. 'We are going to 'freeze' your account in 48hrs if you don't put in money'. I ignored it.

A week later another email - 'We are going to 'freeze' your account in 48hrs if you don't put in money'. Huh?? I thought it was frozen already? I ignored.

Another week passed, then the same email. Now I was just junking them.

They stopped for a while. Then I got another one - 'If you don't fund your account within 48hrs we will CLOSE it!'. Ignored.

Then the same again a few days later.

This time I wrote to them and told them - YES PLEASE CLOSE IT!

They wrote back (another stock letter) saying "Unfortunately we cannot close your account (lol!) until you fill up the attached Account Closing form' - a form which required inputting of lots personal details which I had no time for or interest in. I ignored it.

I still get the odd threat that they 'are closing' my account. What a joke of a company. Stay well away folks.

[RSD1]

7 minutes ago, bradiston said:

Not sure you can hold THB in Wise. They might show the equivalent of your various accounts in THB but they don't have a THB account per se. I have a PHP Wise account as I live in Philippines.

Sorry, but not true. Once you add the Thai Baht currency to your Wise account then you can hold THB in a Wise spending account and you can also create THB jars. At the moment, I have THB in my Wise spending account and I also have multiple jars with THB in them as well. So it definitely works and it's definitely possible.

[RSD1]

14 minutes ago, Millian said:

OK that's great, some actual first hand experience.  I'd imagine it would be the same with Revolut card then.

 

Yes, in some other other forums where I've asked the same question, I think people are getting confused with the surcharge for simply using card, irrelevant on where it is issued from.  I asked them to clarify this point, but people still seem to get confused.

Based on your first hand experience with Wise card, there is likey no additional fee for simply using a foreign Revolut card.  So I

ll probably order one. Thanks

 

Your welcome. Best wishes with it. 

[Upnotover]

11 minutes ago, bradiston said:

Not sure you can hold THB in Wise. They might show the equivalent of your various accounts in THB but they don't have a THB account per se. I have a PHP Wise account as I live in Philippines.

You are correct that you cannot get THB account details (a/c number, etc.) within Wise.  But you can certainly hold any amount in THB, converting to THB from your main balance when the rate suits you.  Thereafter any THB purchases on your card use the THB balance.

[RSD1]

17 minutes ago, Zack61 said:

There have been a couple of occasions where a retailer (in Thailand) imposed a fee on my Wise card. The worst was 5% at a Honda dealership for a car service. I ended up paying with a direct bank transfer to avoid it. 
I have found quite a few businesses that won’t accept it but I think this may be because they were set up for scan payments. The biggest issue I have is the limited ATM withdrawal amount and the associated withdrawal fee imposed by the host bank. I’ve tried at most and they all impose the same high fee. I thought I read somewhere on a Wise advertisement that their card was fee free but I may be mistaken. 

As I already wrote as a response on a previous post, perhaps the source of confusion is that some vendors in Thailand, particularly small businesses or those operating with very narrow profit margins, may charge a 3% fee for payments made with a debit or credit card.

 

This policy is not related to whether the card is from an overseas provider (like Wise or Revolut) or a local bank. The same fee applies regardless of the card’s origin.

 

Essentially, this surcharge is the vendor’s way of covering the fees they incur from Mastercard or Visa for processing card payments, rather than absorbing those costs themselves.

[Moonlover]

1 hour ago, RSD1 said:

Yes, they both offer the midmarket rate. But Interactive Brokers has no limit on exchanging at the mid market rate without fees whereas Revolut does have a limit and then starts charging fees. See below:

 

When converting US dollars (USD) to Thai baht (THB) in your Revolut account, the fees depend on your subscription plan, the amount exchanged, and the timing of the transaction.

 

Here’s a breakdown:

 

• Standard Plan:

• Exchanges up to $1,000 per month are free on weekdays.

• A 1% fee applies to amounts exceeding this limit.

 

• Plus Plan:

• Exchanges up to $3,000 per month are free on weekdays.

• A 0.5% fee applies to amounts exceeding this limit.

 

The plus plan carries a fee of £40 per year. So Revolut is free on currency exchange only up to a maximum of $1,000 per month on their free standard plan.
 

Revolut also charges a standard 1% fee on all weekend currency exchanges, regardless of plan or account type. 

And here's a nice simple plan. Open an account with Wise and start sending money to your Thai bank account. How simple is that?

 

Confucius said: 'Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated'. He sure was right there.

[RSD1]

1 minute ago, Upnotover said:

You are correct that you cannot get THB account details (a/c number, etc.) within Wise.  But you can certainly hold any amount in THB, converting to THB from your main balance when the rate suits you.  Thereafter any THB purchases on your card use the THB balance.

Correct, Wise doesn't show account details for transferring Thai baht into Wise because you are not allowed to transfer Thai baht into a Wise account. This is a central Bank of Thailand anti-money laundering policy I believe. But you can exchange any other currency already held within your Wise account into Thai Baht and then further transfer that Thai Baht from your Wise account into a Thai bank account in Thailand for a fee of approximately ฿47 per transfer.

[Flyguy330]

One more thing while I'm on it.

Finance companies like Revolut (and Banks in general) which ignore customers losses through their platform, make millions, or even billions in profits through those platforms. Imagine having a service where you collect a percentage on every single small purchase using your card. Millions of transactions every day. Then there's the interest on overdue accounts - the maximum APR on some cards gors as high as 27%!! The amounts are staggering!

And yet, those shysters can wash their hands of all responsibility when a customer is scammed! They make little enough effort to prevent fraud (as is evidenced by the frequency with which it happens), and they are even LESS likely to take responsibility for losses and reimburse victims. What about a 'fraud insurance system' for their customers? Nah - just rake in the profits and 5hit on the victims.

 

Thankfully some countries are starting to wake up to this and are now beginning to legislate that these providors bolster their security systems and recompense victims losses. Shame on the legislators for leaving it so long.

[RSD1]

2 minutes ago, Moonlover said:

And here's a nice simple plan. Open an account with Wise and start sending money to your Thai bank account. How simple is that?

 

Confucius said: 'Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated'. He sure was right there.

Yes, perfect. But this topic is specifically a discussion about fees on currency exchange and a comparison between fees from both Wise and Revolut on that specific topic.

[aussiebrian]

I have been transferring for just over a year with wise now. Rates are better than at money changers or normally same as XE. 

This is AUD (Commonwealth bank) to THB (Kasikorn)

My experiences it is normally transferred instantaneously. I am currently still using wise and I am very happy. Almost as soon as I press the button to transfer, Kasikorn bank sends me a message to say it's in there within a few seconds. 

There was one time it took a 5 days to transfer. I was ringing wise every day (free to call them from the app) to see what was happening and they told me there was a problem with their partner bank in Thailand. Screenshot of transaction below. With timeline of 5 day wait as I haven't heard of a transfer taking that long. I have also put a friend onto wise, all his have been immediately transfered.

 

[Liverpool Lou]

39 minutes ago, RSD1 said:

In those cases where the vendor tells me that there is going to be a 3% surcharge for using my card, then I normally just pay in cash or via bank transfer by scanning a QR code. With bank transfer, they won't charge you the extra 3% surcharge because they don't incur any fee for receiving the money electronically using this method.

The vendor doesn't incur that 3% fee for debit card purchases, either, only credit cards.

[Njoku]

1 hour ago, Millian said:

When using a Revolut card to mark card payments, either using physical card or online, is there a surcharge levied by the merchant for using a foreign card?  (not talking about atm fees, or currency exchange fees, just a fee for using a foreign card)

I've seen some people say yes, others say no, other say sometimes, so wonder if any one with actual experience?

There is this lack of knowledge in this country by people behind the till, wise or revolut mainly I prefer tap and go from my apple wallet for both, the digital card has visa stamped on it, think the physical too, big box stores no issues some of the smaller ones as soon as they see visa they say no even after I say its a debit card they want the 3%, one time wanted to pay for a motorbike from one of the big bike stores all over this town with the wise card, would have been same deal with revolut they wanted to stick the 3% on top, so I transferred to my Thai bank and scanned.

 

Free to transfer monies into your wise or revolut account, they charge a fee to convert to an overseas currency, wise charge a fee to transfer to your local bank or to another person, spending by card no fees, I assume revlout is the same, I only carry home currency then convert to Thai B in revolut spend through wallet or physical card only.

[Delta Shift]

1 hour ago, RSD1 said:

 

First, I transfer a foreign currency (dollars, euros, pounds) into my Wise account. I then convert it to Thai Baht when the exchange rate is most favorable. After that, I maintain a Thai Baht balance in my Wise account to spend from. This ensures that all my transactions are made from my Thai Baht balance, avoiding conversion fees on each individual card transaction. Wise typically charges around 0.54% to exchange most major currencies into Thai Baht.

 

Revolut, on the other hand, allows you to exchange most major currencies into Thai Baht at the interbank rate with no exchange fee, but only up to $1,000 per month on the free plan. After that, they charge a 1% fee on exchanges.

 

In essence, if you were to spend the equivalent of $2,000 in a month using their cards, the fees would end up being roughly the same (around 1%) with both Wise and Revolut.

 

 

Doesn't matter when you convert your base currency in thb, you will pay a conversion fee with Wise and not with Revolut. It's a small difference but a digference nonetheless. As for buying thb when it's supposedly cheap, that's speculation. You might buy at a favorable rate or you might get f3ckd. Trying Forex is a risky business imo. Overall what I first stated is correct. Revolut for cc payments, Wise (or maybe IBKR) for transfers and none of the above for atm withdrawals.

[Delta Shift]

1 hour ago, Millian said:

When using a Revolut card to mark card payments, either using physical card or online, is there a surcharge levied by the merchant for using a foreign card?  (not talking about atm fees, or currency exchange fees, just a fee for using a foreign card)

I've seen some people say yes, others say no, other say sometimes, so wonder if any one with actual experience?

 

It happened to me only once with Grab. That horrid company charges a 5% fee on foreign cards. So if you're using Grab pay with a True Wallet instead. Food Panda doesn't do that btw, nor does Bolt...

 

I only use cards online. Irl I use True Wallet or cash so I couldn't say.

[Delta Shift]

1 hour ago, RSD1 said:

Yes, they both offer the midmarket rate. But Interactive Brokers has no limit on exchanging at the mid market rate without fees whereas Revolut does have a limit and then starts charging fees. See below:

 

When converting US dollars (USD) to Thai baht (THB) in your Revolut account, the fees depend on your subscription plan, the amount exchanged, and the timing of the transaction.

 

Here’s a breakdown:

 

• Standard Plan:

• Exchanges up to $1,000 per month are free on weekdays.

• A 1% fee applies to amounts exceeding this limit.

 

• Plus Plan:

• Exchanges up to $3,000 per month are free on weekdays.

• A 0.5% fee applies to amounts exceeding this limit.

 

The plus plan carries a fee of £40 per year. So Revolut is free on currency exchange only up to a maximum of $1,000 per month on their free standard plan.
 

Revolut also charges a standard 1% fee on all weekend currency exchanges, regardless of plan or account type. 

 Well it's pretty easy. Don't go above the limit. I don't know about you but card payments represent a very small percentage of my monthly payments. Most of them are in cash. No way I'm reaching the Revolut monthly limit. And if I do for some unexplainable reason, I'll switch to Wise.

[Delta Shift]

45 minutes ago, Flyguy330 said:

 

That's a pretty ignorant comment, and I sincerely hope it comes back to haunt you one day.

 

I began the process of opening a Revolut account many months ago. I already use WISE and never had a problem with them, but I thought I'd try Revolut too.

Just after setting up the account - and before I put any money in it - I started seeing newspaper stories from home about scams on Revolut customers. The details did not indicate the victims had to be fools or financially naiive, but  subjects of sophisticated scams that almost anyone in their particular circumstances could have fallen for.

But what was really shocking was how Revolut handled the complaints. They simply dismissed the victims with stock letters.

Some of the stories were taken up by the 'Your Money' section of a national newspaper. The journos made direct contact with Revolut HQ (virtually impossible for individual victims) and they attempted to convince Revolut that they had some responsibility to their customers. The response was the same stone walling the victims had received.

Normally companies 'back down' in the face of direct approaches from major newspapers - the bad publicity isn't worth it, and even though they don't often 'accept full responsibility' you'll often see them wriggle out with a smarmy 'but out of goodwill we are going to rectify this customers loss' or whatever. But no, not Revolut. They basically told the newspaper 'very sorry for their loss, but tough titty, now PFO'.

 

As a result of reading several of these stories over a two/three week period I changed my mind about Revolut and never put any money in.

 

Then I started getting emails from them. 'We are going to 'freeze' your account in 48hrs if you don't put in money'. I ignored it.

A week later another email - 'We are going to 'freeze' your account in 48hrs if you don't put in money'. Huh?? I thought it was frozen already? I ignored.

Another week passed, then the same email. Now I was just junking them.

They stopped for a while. Then I got another one - 'If you don't fund your account within 48hrs we will CLOSE it!'. Ignored.

Then the same again a few days later.

This time I wrote to them and told them - YES PLEASE CLOSE IT!

They wrote back (another stock letter) saying "Unfortunately we cannot close your account (lol!) until you fill up the attached Account Closing form' - a form which required inputting of lots personal details which I had no time for or interest in. I ignored it.

I still get the odd threat that they 'are closing' my account. What a joke of a company. Stay well away folks.

 

The problem ain't Revolut, it's you. Revolut - just like Wise - has tremendous reviews all over the internet.

 

"I couldn't close because I didn't fill in the required documents" lol

[8OA8]

2 hours ago, Millian said:

When using a Revolut card to mark card payments, either using physical card or online, is there a surcharge levied by the merchant for using a foreign card?  (not talking about atm fees, or currency exchange fees, just a fee for using a foreign card)

I've seen some people say yes, others say no, other say sometimes, so wonder if any one with actual experience?

My experience using physical Revolut card, it's exactly the same cost as using my local credit card in PTT, seven-11, hotels... but I have no experience using it at the vendors that charge surcharges for card payments.  

[RSD1]

28 minutes ago, Liverpool Lou said:

The vendor doesn't incur that 3% fee for debit card purchases, either, only credit cards.

I could be wrong, but I don't believe that's correct. All debit card purchases also go through either the MasterCard or Visa card system for processing. And I believe anytime a payment goes through one of those systems, whether it's from a debit card or a credit card, their fees still apply and are levied upon the vendor receiving the card payment. 

[terryofcrete]

2 hours ago, Tom100 said:

Smart advice. Thank you!!

Congratulations! You're a Smartie !

[RSD1]

19 minutes ago, Delta Shift said:

 Well it's pretty easy. Don't go above the limit. I don't know about you but card payments represent a very small percentage of my monthly payments. Most of them are in cash. No way I'm reaching the Revolut monthly limit. And if I do for some unexplainable reason, I'll switch to Wise.

 

That’s fine, but for many people, Revolut’s $1,000 monthly limit for fee-free currency exchange is quite low. On the other hand, exchanging $1,000 to Baht on Wise only incurs a fee of about $5.40, hardly worth worrying about. Additionally, once you exceed the $1,000 limit with Revolut, fees start to apply there as well at a rate of 1%, so the difference becomes negligible.

[bradiston]

57 minutes ago, Upnotover said:

You are correct that you cannot get THB account details (a/c number, etc.) within Wise.  But you can certainly hold any amount in THB, converting to THB from your main balance when the rate suits you.  Thereafter any THB purchases on your card use the THB balance.

I have a bank card. I don't need a Wise card. The best things about Wise are:

1. My pensions get paid in to my Wise sterling account.

2. I can send and hold PHP in my Philippines Wise account.

3. I can transfer in and out whenever I want, hassle free.

4. I have £, $, PHP and € accounts.

 

Revolut won't allow signing up from a Thai address.

 

I lost the sale of my house to US citizens because US banks were so squeamish about transferring $ to Wise. My Wise $ account is held in New York. The buyer's bank was in Florida. No can do. And serious limitations on any other $ transfers. $4,500 per month. Maybe there are other ways to do this, like transfer $40,000 into a Wise $ account from the US, but we couldn't figure out a way.

[Delta Shift]

2 hours ago, RSD1 said:

As far as I know, IBKR does not offer conversions into THB from other currencies. 

 Thx 👍

[RSD1]

44 minutes ago, Delta Shift said:

 

Doesn't matter when you convert your base currency in thb, you will pay a conversion fee with Wise and not with Revolut. It's a small difference but a digference nonetheless. As for buying thb when it's supposedly cheap, that's speculation. You might buy at a favorable rate or you might get f3ckd. Trying Forex is a risky business imo. Overall what I first stated is correct. Revolut for cc payments, Wise (or maybe IBKR) for transfers and none of the above for atm withdrawals.

As I explained in another response to another one of your posts, Revolut has a $1,000 monthly limit for fee-free currency exchange. On the other hand, exchanging $1,000 to Baht on Wise only incurs a fee of about $5.40, hardly worth worrying about. Additionally, once you exceed the $1,000 monthly limit with Revolut, fees of 1% start to apply, so the difference becomes negligible.

 

In my case, I keep multiple currencies in my Wise account, allowing me to exchange into Baht when the rates are most favorable for me. While timing an exchange perfectly to get the best rate can be challenging, and you risk getting whipsawed if you’re essentially trying to trade currencies, I’m not under any time constraints. I simply exchange when the rate is good and in my favor, doing so in increments over time. This approach helps me achieve a favorable cost average when converting to Baht over time. And at times when the Baht is too strong, I simply either don't exchange at all or I exchange minimal amounts. 

 

[Delta Shift]

20 minutes ago, RSD1 said:

 

That’s fine, but for many people, Revolut’s $1,000 monthly limit for fee-free currency exchange is quite low. On the other hand, exchanging $1,000 to Baht on Wise only incurs a fee of about $5.40, hardly worth worrying about. Additionally, once you exceed the $1,000 limit with Revolut, fees start to apply there as well at a rate of 1%, so the difference becomes negligible.

 

Revolut is the cheapest only for card payments. I don't know many people out there spending $1000 a month on CC alone in Thailand. They probably exist but most of them do so using thai banking services as expats. The long-term tourist / digital nomad type uses mainly cash and shouldn't use Wise or Revolut to withdraw anyways.

 

Imo the best configuration without thai accounts and cards is to use the best service you can find for each type of transaction knowing that Thailand remains very much a cash society.

[Hardcastle P]

17 hours ago, Delta Shift said:

Just wanted to share my experience with Wise and Revolut.

Some of you might be trying to figure out which one is best so...

 

• Revolut is the cheapest for card payments (physical cards and virtual cards)
• Wise is the cheapest for money transfers.
• Both are not great for ATM withdrawals as they both have very low free withdrawal limits and then charge you quiet a bit.
  [my main bank offers the official Visa rate (central bank rate+1%) with no markup and no limits]

 

Conclusion: Imo, you should open a free account with both Wise and Revolut.

Wise have recently increased their charges for Thai bht.so the saving is minimal compared to standard bank transfers. I send pounds sterling to my Thai bank  who then give me a competitive exchange rate.