Revolut Metal review: is it worth it?

For the past six years or so, I’ve done everything I can to get away from traditional banking.

I’ve been using an online bank since 2010, and throughout the years I also set up some other accounts, including a business account years ago, with traditional ‘brick and mortar’ banks. But that’s gone, all I’m left with is the online bank I mentioned.

If I could, I’d get rid of the online bank, too. But I think it’s too early to do that. So for now I’m still keeping it, but trying out different options as well, including Revolut.

For those unfamiliar, Revolut is like a finance-lifestyle ‘superapp’ that blends banking, trading, crypto, travel budgeting, restaurants, shopping and so on.

You can shop through it, book hotels, receive your salary, buy and sell crypto and stocks and so on.

I started with the base plan years ago, then upgraded to Plus, then Premium, and now I’m using Revolut Metal.

It costs €15.99 and for that, you get a free subscription to the Financial Times, ClassPass, NordVPN, Freeletics, Headspace, Sleep Cycle, Picsart, WeWork and Tinder.

You get commission-free transactions (any kind) all week (not at weekends), reduced fees (0.25% on stocks, 0.99% on crypto, 1.49% on commodities) and a bunch of things on the side.

Rather than simply listing the pros and cons, which are readily available on the website, I thought I’d share a completely personal and likely biased opinion on why I think it’s worth, and why it’s not.

Why it’s worth it

Let’s start from the beginning, Base and Pro plans are basically the same. There’s no tangible difference. Not to me at least. But there’s a difference between Plus and Premium or Metal.

The fees are much lower, and I use Revolut a lot for trading because it’s liquid. I’ve bought and sold stocks and crypto in a way that’s simply not possible with most competitors.

Obviously the bulk of my holdings aren’t in Revolut, but Revolut is useful for when I have to buy said crypto today at $1 and maybe sell it tomorrow at $2.

And for that, you save a lot using Premium or Metal if you trade relatively frequently.

Both Premium and Metal allow you to buy lounge access at most airports for a fixed fee of €24, which never changes.

This means you’re paying €24 (through Revolut) whether the price is €30 or €130.

Also, you get a cool customised card. I know it’s tacky and childish, but it’s really something. It feels heavy and premium and solid.

I got a black card, which is made of metal, customised with the eyes emoji (‘👀’) pointed at the ‘Revolut’ name, and a caption, in my native tongue, which reads: “don’t use me [as in the card] too much”.

Last but definitely not, cashback.

You get 0.1% cashback on domestic transactions and 1% on internal transactions, and then up to 10% cashback on certain purchases. If you’re in the EU, ‘domestic’ means any country in the UE.

This is a huge deal to me, because I spend most of my time, and therefore my money, outside of the EU, so that means I get 1% cashback on any and every purchase, no questions asked.

Why it’s not worth it

Cashback is definitely nice, that’s an objective advantage, but everything else is a subjective.

For example, I’m going through a phase of my life where nothing is more important to me than health and so, as a consequence, I welcome any opportunity to save time and stress. If I can afford to do something that saves time and saves stress and adds comfort, I’ll do it.

That’s why I use airport lounges every time I travel, at least for now.

Cool. But is that somebody everyone needs? Clearly not. The same applies to trading fees. Saving on trading fees is actually only useful if you’re using Revolut to buy and sell crypto (or stocks and commodities) frequently.

And the customisable card is 100 percent only vanity. It adds nothing to the value of the card. It just looks cool.

In conclusion

I have currently have three plans, one with Wirex, one with Revolut and one with Curve.

I’m gonna keep the metal card, for now, but that might change in the future.

But if I decided to get rid of one of these three, Revolut Metal would be the first one go, and I would simply downgrade to Premium or Plus or Standard.

bitcoinea