Revolut Switzerland Review (2024)

Revolut Switzerland review – About Revolut

Revolut Ltd is a neobank based in the United Kingdom founded in 2015. It was granted a European bank licence in 2018.

Revolut claims more than 4 million customers worldwide, including 250,000 in Switzerland. This neobank offers an alternative to Swiss consumers with cheaper and more flexible banking services.

Account opening with Revolut Switzerland – 10/10

Revolut allows you to open a mobile bank account in a few minutes from your smartphone.

What are the bank account requirements

How to open a bank account with Revolut

Opening a bank account with Revolut Switzerland takes less than 10 minutes:

1. Enter your mobile phone number on the Revolut website, selecting +41 for Switzerland
2. Download the Revolut app and follow the steps
3. Make a small deposit of  10 CHF
4. It’s done! You account is opened

Note that in order to receive your Revolut card, you must verify your identity.

Unlike large Swiss banks, Revolut will not ask you to provide paper documents. You do everything from the mobile app.

This video explain how to proceed:

The Revolut account allows you to make all the standard transactions (bank transfer, direct debit, etc.) like with any Swiss bank account.

After verifying your identity, you can order your card from the app. The Revolut card is free and is delivered within 5 to 10 days.

Our opinion on the account opening with Revolut Switzerland

Usability of the Revolut app – 9/10

Revolut being a neobank, a lot has be done to ensure a great user experience:

• The app is fast and intuitive
• Menus are clear and well organised
• Essential features are always visible

The Revolut app is rated 4.9 on the Apple Store (31 000 reviews) and 4.5 on Google Play (740 000+ reviews)

Revolut app features – 7/10

As a neobank, Revolut offer all their services through a mobile application. That means it’s possible to do almost everything from your smartphone:

• Access your payment history
• Make new payments
• Exchange currencies
• Buy crypto-currencies!
• Block or freeze your card
• Change the daily and monthly limit of the card
• Change your personal details
• Contact the customer service by Chat
• Change your subscription
• …

The list of features is very complete but some specific to Switzerland are missing:

• eBill not available
• TWINT not available
• Scan of invoices not available

In Switzerland, several neo-banks offer eBill and TWINT. Yuh has the advantage of having an integrated TWINT application: Yuh TWINT

And some others can be improved:

Card settings not on par with N26

We would like more settings for the Revolut card.

N26 offers settings such as “enable/disable online payment” or “enable/disable cash withdrawals”:

The Revolut Junior is too basic

With Revolut Standard you can already have 1 child on Revolut Junior. If you need more you have to upgrade to either Revolut Premium or Revolut Metal. This feature allows you to create a sub-account for a child aged 7 to 17 and receive card for each of them.

There are currently too few features within Revolut Junior. It’s more like a Space but not like a child account: you can’t set limits on the use of the card. That means that your child can spend the full balance available of the Junior account.

The only interesting feature is the “Weekly allowance” that allows you to transfer a fixed amount on a weekly basis

Revolut Switzerland Credit Card – 6/10

Depending on the country, Revolut offers either a Visa, a MasterCard or a Maestro. But you can’t choose.

For Switzerland, you’ll usually get a Visa or a Maestro.

When visiting their website you can mainly see Mastercards with different designs for each plan  (Revolut does not offer a Swiss version yet):

Revolut card fees

Revolut offers a free debit card with all plans. The Premium plan includes two cards.

The Revolut card is free when used as payment method, that means for online shopping and mobile payments. There is no fee for payment in foreign currencies and Revolut applies the Interbank exchange rates without adding any extra fee or commission.¨

Cash withdrawals are capped, then you’ll have a 2% surcharge:

• 200 CHF per month with Revolut Standard
• 400 CHF per month with Revolut Premium
• 800 CHF per month with Revolut Metal

Bank transfers in Switzerland in CHF

No fee if the main currency of your Revolut account is CHF and if you pay in CHF another account based in Switzerland.

SEPA transfer fees in EUR

Like most neobanks, Revolut offers free SEPA transfers in EUR within the SEPA zone. You can create a SEPA payment within seconds from the app.

International SWIFT payments

With Revolut Standard you pay 3 CHF per transfer is the payment is in USD, otherwise it’s 5 CHF for any other currency.

The first transfer is free if you have Revolut Premium or Revolut Metal.

Exchange fees on multi-currency transfer

With Revolut Standard, you can transfer  up 1,000 CHF each month without any fee. Then you’ll pay a surcharge of 0.5 %.

The exchange rate is based on the instant interbank rate.

Revolut Premium and Revolut Metal allow you to transfer for free an unlimited amount of money to any country supported by Revolut.

But there is a 0.5% surchage for multi-currency transfers initiated on week-ends and UK bank holidays. Revolut says that they need to cover the risk while markets are closed.

Instant transfers

Similar to Beam with N26, you can transfer money instantly from a Revolut account to another Revolut account. That type of transfer is really instant and free. whatever the currency and the country.

See the Revolut pricing on their website.

Our opinion about the Revolut fees in Switzerland

If Revolut seems free, the Standard plan may become quickly expensive. Limits are very and you might need to upgrade to  Revolut Premium if you use Revolut on a frequent basis.

We believe that Revolut Metal is a decoy that makes Revolut Premium more attractive. The value of Revolut Metal is not good enough, also because the limits of the cashback offer are too low.

In the end, the Revolut pricing is quite complex and not so attractive. We drop 2 points for Revolut Standard fees and 2 points for Revolut Premium.

Transactions’ speed – 8/10

Revolut is a neobank based in London, which means that international payments are initiated in London with your GB IBAN.

Your money doesn’t really cross the channel by ferry, it’s only electronic of course

On their website, Revolut confirm that an international transfer can take up to 5 working days:

What about Revolut and domestic transfers in Switzerland

A wire transfer from a Swiss bank to another Swiss bank is instant, it usually takes a few seconds before showing up on the other account.

In Switzerland, Revolut use Credit Suisse to provide a Swiss IBAN, but the account is under the name of Revolut. That’s not ideal but that works.

In practice, a Revolut transfer in CHF to another Swiss account can take – at best – a few minutes – up to a few hours when it’s the first transfer to a specific beneficiary.

Domestic transfers with Revolut are not as quick as other Swiss neobanks like neon, Zak or Yapeal.

[/wpsm_cons][/wpsm_column]Revolut gets an 8/10 for transactions’ speed

Revolut customer service – 6/10

When Revolut launched their app, it was easy to reach them by Chat and get quick resolution.

But Revolut has grown a lot since and the service has gone down:

• The Chat support is rarely available for Standard plan customers
• A Bot and an “online community” have been released, with objective to turn customer service into a self-service support platform, similar to what Google does for example.
• Customer support agent seems to have trained randomly and tend to copy-paste answers without understanding your actual question.

We are not really happy with the customer support provided on Revolut Standard. On this point N26 does a lot better

Still, Revolut keeps a high score on TrustPilot : 4.5 with 66 188 reviews, but more and customers complain about support:

This is a 6/10 for customer service

Which Revolut account is best for Switzerland?

If you are a casual user and want to use Revolut as a back-up option or to transfer CHF in Switzerland occasionally, Revolut Standard is the best choice.

But if you are a more frequent user and need to frequently transfer or exchange currencies, Revolut Premium will cost you a lot less

Revolut Metal is only interesting if you travel frequently and spend more than CHF 600 outside Europe to benefit from the 1% cashback offer.

Revolut vs Swiss Neobanks

Still have doubts? Check out our face-to-face Neo Bank comparison: we review important options for Switzerland (IBAN CH, transfers in CHF, TWINT) and abroad (withdrawals with the card, SEPA transfer fees, foreign currency transfers).

Yuh vs Revolut – Which is the best multi-currency account

Here’s our quick decision table for choosing between Yuh and Revolut:

To find out how each criterion is judged, read our article Yuh vs Revolut – Comparison of April 2024

Neon vs Revolut – Which is the best account for travel

Here’s our quick decision table for choosing between Neon and Revolut:

To find out how each criterion is judged, read our article Neon vs Revolut – Comparison of April 2024

Revolut Fequently Asked Questions

✅  Is Revolut a bank?

Yes, Revolut is a neobank that has been granted an EU bank licence since 2018.

That means that Revolut can offer financial services in Europe like any other banks: loan offers, overdraft, savings,…

But it’s worth mentioning that while Revolut is based in London, the neobank still didn’t receive a UK banking licence, an application is apparently on-ongoing

✅  Is Revolut free?

Yes and No: opening an account is free, mais using Revolut services comes at a cost:

• Paying with the Revolut card is free
• Withdrawing cash is free within limits
• Transferin money is also free within limits on the Standard plan

With the Standard plan, limits are low as you may expect. For frequent use, it’s better to upgrade to Premium or Metal.

✅  What Revolut card do I get?

In Switzerland, the Revolut card is either a Maestro or a Visa debit. Depending on the country, Revolut offer a Visa or a Mastercard and you can’t choose.

The card can be used at any shop or ATM that accept Visa. Using the card for payments is free, but you need to pay 5.99 CHF to receive it with Revolut Standard.

As a Visa, this card is perfect for online shopping and travelling abroad.

✅  Can I use Revolut in Switzerland?

Yes, you can use Revolut in Switzerland, but with some limitations: