Recently I’ve been worrying a little about bank accounts. I’ve never really had any concerns over these everyday items, my concerns have only been about how little money seems to be in my account! I’ve started to see news articles about how Brexit will or has already begun to the UK banking system and individual bank’s abilities to continue to support people like me who live in Europe, I’ve read stories of some poor people who have had to arrange new bank accounts because the accounts that they’ve used all of their lives are now no longer available to them because they chose to live or retire in a different country.
So, I have been looking around and I’ve found that there are a number of banks that offer UK banking accounts (and Spanish for that matter) online. Originally this idea terrified me, the though of my money being held by a company that has no physical branches but then I realised that the likelihood of me ever going back to the UK to walk into the bank I use there are pretty slim (especially as they seem to be closing branches like they are going out of fashion!)
There seem to be a decent number of online banks to choose from nowadays, N26, TransferWise, Curve, Monzo to name a few and the one that I decided to put my centimo down on – Revolut.
I’m not going to review these accounts against each other and I’m not suggesting that the one I chose is any better or worse, you need to do your own research of course, but I can tell you that so far I am very happy with my choice. Revolut works predominantly using an app on your phone or tablet. They do have a website but its very limited in its functionality, so you need to be happy using your mobile device to manage if you chose them.
They operate a number of levels but the first is free, it allows you to have two accounts, a UK account with a UK sort code and account number and a Euro account with an IBAN and SWIFT number. You can easily move money between the two accounts using the app. For a small one off fee you can have a card delivered that you can us just like a normal debit card and the card can be fully controlled from within the app. If you’d like to see the cost of each level and the benefits you can see them at https://www.revolut.com/en-ES/our-pricing-plans – I’m still on the free plan and I’m very happy with it.
If you’d like to try Revolut then you can use the following referral code – https://revolut.com/referral/richarx1y – or alternatively find the app in your app store or play store.