I know many of you use Revolut, as do I. I have been a happy account holder since 2016, but wonder if there is now a serious problem.
Funds that I transferred in to Revolut have been under review since I uploaded documentation for the source of funds on 22 July. It is 24 days later and no one from Revolut has reached out to me. Chat agents reply many hours after I initiate a chat and assure me not to worry, that everything is fine. But they reply so many hours after that I cannot be online at the same time to discuss this. Today I find that I cannot transfer any money out to my own bank account with Santander (as was still able to do on Monday) or make even a small payment of ÂŁ50 to a third party. So since Monday there has been a further limit on my account, but no one contacts me.
Unlike, Trading 212, Revolut staff do not make themselves easy to contact. Social media on Facebook reply, but can refer me to the in app chat. Has anyone been having similar experience with Revolut? I begin to wonder if they are about to fail, taking account holder money with them.
If you check their Reddit forum you’ll find that a tonne of people have been locked out of their account just like you. It’s a very common topic.
The only thing you can do is check if any of your funds came from bitcoin, crypto, or any other shady stuff. I wouldn’t be surprised if they categorize T212 proceeds as shady too. It won’t speed up the process, but you’ll at least have an idea why they’ve blocked you. Apparently they block anything to do with crypto.
If you haven’t done any shady stuff, then you’re just unlucky and their “AI” flagged you as a terrorist or something. They are not allowed to discuss, even with the account holder, the reasons for locking the account in case you actually are a criminal and try to figure out the system.
On my view, it’s a recurrent problem on most businesses that depends on big scale of users (as T212 also does).
Growing from hundred thousands users to millions, has huge implications on user experience, infrastructure, staff, costs, internal conflicts etc.
Then the automation starts with usually unsatisfied responses and things starts to get even worse.
But c’mon… it’s “FREE”
Thanks for the suggestion to check Reddit. My, there are some anxious posts there. My transfer was a large sum, but from a bona fide Merrill Lynch investment account in my name, nothing shady. Strange that they can just block one’s money without making any contact to explain why, apologise, or to ask for further documentation to expedite the unblocking.
Well I had good experience with SoF check, took 48h in total since I delivered documents. Since then I always keep 3 paycheck slips and bank statements up to date in case Revolut SoF.
Mind you I was metal user back then(now Premium).
I did a bit of shouting on twitter account tho, maybe that helped(??), no clue.
Have no idea about lenght of process if free user.
But this was all pre Covid19, so might have changed even for premium/metal.
If I was in your shoes, I would either shout on twitter or pay 1month premium.
Only reason I keep premium Revolut, as it is main source to fund t212, so I want to avoid situations like yours. Hopefully
I am already a Premium account holder and yet still had this problem. But good news just now. A chat agent finally answered (after 5 hours) and luckily I was looking at the phone and did not miss him. He asked for one more page from my Merrill Lynch statement and after I uploaded that he unblocked my account.
I like the Premium account for the unlimited currency exchange. Interactive Investor charges 1.5% for fx. So I do Interactive Investor USD dividends -> Revolut -> GBP.
Each transfer is $35. For me the optimal strategy is a transfer from Interactive Investor to Revolut 4 times a year. This comes out of the “economic order quantity formula”, which optimises, taking account of the competing costs of lost interest while money sits with Interactive Investor and the $35 transfer fees.
A chat agent finally answered (after 5 hours) and luckily I was looking at the phone and did not miss him. He asked for one more page from my Merrill Lynch statement and after I uploaded that he unblocked my account.
