Using Revolut account abroad

I’m really new to this, but Iv been told that I can use my Revolut card account abroad and what ever balance is in there it will convert to the correct currency per transaction. Have I understood that right?

or is it an option to exchange through the app in bulk and if I do this is the balance visible via the app separately to use than the main account?

Which is the better option to do, converting to Euros

Yes. I think.

My son recently used Revolut in Malta (and Paris, Rome and Amsterdam). I added money in the UK (as Sterling) and he bought stuff in Malta, in whatever their local currency is.

He used a physical Revolut card to do this.

Anything he didn’t spend remained in the account (in Sterling) for my other son to buy his school lunches with.

Note: Thump has only just turned 18 which is why we do this. It’s a useful backup.  In this case he was travelling and lost all his luggage.

Ahh ok so you didn’t bother converting it just left it in the account as GBP and it just converted over there automatically?

 it just converted over there automatically

Yes.

The app also shows transactions in £ and in euros.

Yes, it’s converted instantly and at the bulk rate. My business account works a little differently in that it moves money between the Stirling, dollar and euro account as needed and then the money flows from there to the merchant.

Yeah just keep it in Sterling in your Revolut account and it converts automatically when you make a transaction. If offered to pay in Sterling or Euro in a shop, always pick Eur. The Mastercard / Visa rate is usually expensive at the till va taking the Revolut exchange rate.

If you have the free Revolut account, note that once you spend £1000 overseas in a month it then charges you 1% per transaction extra. They want you to pay the £4.99 month upgraded account version to up that limit per month to £3k (from memory).

Also note that any currency conversion at weekend incurs a fee, best to keep a stack of Euros converted already just in case.

or is it an option to exchange through the app in bulk and if I do this is the balance visible via the app separately to use than the main account

Yes. Really easy to do, just click on the exchange icon and exchange money from your GBP account into whatever you need. To then view your balance in other currencies just click the ‘Accounts’ icon on the home page, that’ll bring up an overview, then from there you can just click on the currency you want to view your transactions for. As above, make sure you’ve transferred money for a weekend spending to avoid increased fees.

Not sure how revolut works, but w Caxton and wise it can make sense to convert a large amount of gbp to EU if you know you’re there for a while. Then you only pay the gbp-EU conversion once rather than multiple times for each transaction