Revolut exchange rate: a complete guide

Revolut is one of the UK’s most popular digital banks, and its customer base is growing worldwide. Through its mobile app, Revolut makes it easy to send, spend and manage your money.

It’s also pretty good for travel. Revolut lets you spend worldwide, convert currency and access perks such as travel insurance, cashback on accommodation bookings and discounted airport lounge access. Although of course, it depends on your paid plan.

But how good are Revolut’s exchange rates? This can make a big difference to the overall cost of holiday spending, so it’s important to scrutinise the currency conversion rates you’re offered.

Read on to find out everything you need to know about Revolut exchange rates. We’ll also see how the fintech firm compares to international money specialists such as Wise, which offers mid-market exchange rates on all transactions.

But for now, let’s focus on Revolut and its exchange rates.

Why do I need to know about Revolut exchange rates?

Revolut offers a number of services which can involve converting currency. This includes:

• International transfers from your Revolut account
• Spending and cash withdrawals abroad with your Revolut card
• Exchange between 29 currencies within your Revolut account.¹

For all of these services, Revolut will set the fee and choose the exchange rate. The better the rate, the further your money will go.

What exchange rates does Revolut use?

The great news for anyone looking to convert or spend in a foreign currency is that Revolut uses the mid-market exchange rate.²

Also known as the interbank rate, this is the rate that banks use when selling currency to each other. It can also be explained as the mid-point between the price banks are willing to sell currency, and the price they’re willing to pay for it. It’s known as one of the fairest exchange rates you can get.

However, Revolut doesn’t use the mid-market exchange rate all the time. It offers currency exchange with this rate and no fees from Monday to Friday², but everything changes at the weekend.

Revolut exchange rates at the weekend

On Saturdays, Sundays or any other days when the currency market is closed, Revolut charges an additional fee for currency conversion.² You’ll see this in the Revolut app before making a transfer. It effectively adds a margin to the exchange rate, so the transaction ends up costing you more.

So this means if you spend abroad on your Revolut card, convert currency in your account or send money internationally at the weekend, you’re likely to pay more.

Other things to know about Revolut exchange rates

There are a couple of other conditions and caveats to know about Revolut exchange rates and conversion fees.

The first is the fair usage limit. Every plan has a maximum limit for the amount of foreign currency you can exchange each month. For the Standard (free) plan, it’s £1,000 a month. If you go beyond this, an exchange fair usage fee of 1% will apply (0.5% for Plus plans).²

You can avoid this by upgrading to a Premium or Metal plan, although this does mean paying a higher monthly subscription fee.

Secondly, there may be a fee added to the exchange rate when you exchange an uncommon currency.² Revolut doesn’t say what these currencies are, but you’ll spot them by the higher fee displayed in the app when you try to convert one.

How to check Revolut exchange rates

Planning to make an international transfer with Revolut, or just about to spend on your card overseas? It’s pretty easy to check what exchange rate you’ll be offered, before you go ahead.

There are a few different ways to do it:

• Visit the International Money Transfer page on the Revolut website
• Use the Revolut Currency Converter tool
• Sign into the Revolut mobile app to see live exchange rates.

All you’ll need to do is enter your chosen currency pairing (i.e. convert GBP to EUR, or USD to AUD) and the amount you’d like to send or convert.

Revolut will let you know the current exchange rate, along with any fees applicable to the transaction. You’ll also see how much your recipient will receive after the currency has been converted.

Get the mid-market rate all week long with Wise

You don’t want to be worrying about avoiding fees and getting the best rates while you’re travelling. This is why many travellers, holidaymakers, international students and expats use the Wise multi-currency account.

Wise offers mid-market exchange rates with no markups or hidden fees, every day of the week.

There are no extra costs if you spend, send or convert currency at the weekend. This makes it ideal for overseas mini breaks, where you can spend on dining, shopping, drinks and accommodation whenever you like - and know that you’re always getting great exchange rates.

With the Wise debit card, you can spend in 174 countries for low fees and those same fair exchange rates. The card automatically converts your money to the local currency whenever you spend, for a small conversion fee. Or if you already have the currency in your Wise account, it’s free.

Spending limits with Wise are super generous, going all the way up to a maximum of €30,000 a month.³ And you can withdraw up to €200 a month from overseas ATMs fee-free (although be aware that ATM providers may apply their own fee).

Join Wise today

Please see the Terms of Use for your region or visit Wise fees & pricing for the most up-to-date information on pricing and fees.

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And that’s pretty much it - everything you need to know about Revolut exchange rates. We’ve looked at how Revolut works out its exchange rates, and how currency exchange works in general on the digital money platform.

After reading this, you should have a better idea how to check Revolut rates before sending or spending internationally. And crucially, you’ll know when to avoid foreign currency exchanges (namely, the weekends) to swerve those extra fees.

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Sources used:

1. Revolut - Currency Converter
2. Revolut - Standard fees
3. Wise - What are my spending limits?

Sources last checked on date: 18-Apr-2023