I recently opened a REVOLUT bank account after having been on the waiting list for a long time.
So far, the experience has been terrible.
2/10.. would NOT recommend.
Here's why:
1) Inability to withdraw cash from most ATMs in Japan. This was my bad.. I didn't read the small print, and I just assumed I would be able to withdraw cash from most ATMs (conbinis, etc). Nope. According to the info here:
https://www.revolut.com/en-JP/help/maki ... hdraw-cash
"In Japan, you can withdraw cash from select AEON Bank ATMs that are compatible with “international cards”."
So yeah.. terrible ATM support within Japan.
2) Slooooooooooooooow bank transfers from within Japan
I received a payment from another account in Japan (yes, they entered all my account details correctly) and although the payment has appeared on my REVOLUT app, it has been marked as "pending" for over 5 days...
3) The bank account name is NOT your name, it's "REVOLUT"
When receiving payments, the person sending you money MUST mark the beneficiary as REVOLUT or the payment will not be accepted. I have found that when invoicing some schools (I do some work in the ed-tech sector) they will NOT accept bank details where the beneficiary name on the bank account is different to the name on the invoice..
4) Transfers to other accounts in Japan are disabled
Currently, when you try to transfer money to another bank account in Japan, you get this lovely message:
So why 2/10 and not 0/10?
It's kinda fun watching your bank balance on the app whizz down when you make an online payment.. But I'd rather see it whizz up, of course.
But overall... STAY AWAY!