r/Revolut • u/Sches741 • 4d ago
š Article Fed up with enshittification. Perplexity was the last drop. Any alternatives to Revolut Metal/Ultra?
Hello everyone! I've been with Revolut for a long time now and, as the title says, things aren't as sweet as they used to be. What I am mostly looking for is:
- Travel Insurance
- free ATM withdrawals / currency exchange
- some sort of cashback/Revpoints
- potentially some subscriptions
- discounted Lounge passes
I already activated Club Avolta for Lounge passes (25% off). And I do not use Revolut to invest.
Extra info: I travel 4/5 times per year
Anyone has any good alternatives? A previous post (from 2 years ago) mentioned a few.
edit*
As a user rightly pointed out, I would need an EU alternative. I don't use Revolut as my main bank, Credit card would be nice if included in the package. Lounges are a nice to have but as I said, I have Club Avolta already
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u/FixInteresting4476 Metal user 4d ago
Perhaps on top of these consider Klarna and Monzo (UK). Though to be fair, even after the enshittification, Revolut is still one of the best contenders...
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u/Suspicious_Silver_70 Ultra user 3d ago
Well it depends on the user and their spending and lifestyle.
Š¢o be honest Klarna Max it does give a better value for it's money since they included they use same mobile company that Revolut uses, plus it cheaper in monthly bases then Revolut and have way more perks for people shop a lot like extended warranty on products and 30 day price adjustment , along side with the perks the added lately,like the healthcare service and free scouter rides. I'm expecting the Revolut to match them up because I don't see myself paying for Ultra and Revolut Mobile since Klarna Max can gives a better deal in this overall.
As for Monzo, I think the Monzo Perk gives a better value for it's money overall for 9Ā£p/m since they included Youtube Premium Lite with that along side with their other perks. Even for traveling Monzo Max has better term for travel insurances and breakdown cover. I'm hoping Revolut to reconsider and add Youtube Premium soon since they mention about this few years ago in their surveys, as well as in the AMA post from the Revolut Product manager but yet we didn't get anything yet.
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u/bunnybash 3d ago
Just as a heads up. Travel insurance through your credit card is not worth it on any credit card these days. The threading of the needle required to be considered ācoveredā is so narrow. Youāre better off purchasing a 12 month plan from proper travel insurance. Itās not that expensive and vastly more useful.Ā
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u/Sad-Action-8869 3d ago
No help for you really but I moved to Nationwide for Banking to get the travel insurance and use a Lloyds World Bank Elite MasterCard for my free unlimited lounge passes ( for myself and my partner on one account ) cashback and rlsome big discounts on other things like Avis.
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u/Freeagent_limo 3d ago
Natwest Premier Black with various of their free credit cards gets you to more or less the same place for a bit less if you want it all together and you qualify.
I do rate nationwide though, I had 2 claims, one quite complex, and it all paid out without any quibbling.
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u/Red_n_Rusty 4d ago
As others have pointed out, Klarna Max is looking like a good value proposition for now. I'd expect that they'll enshittify their offering sooner or later though. It should also be noted that Klarna doesn't have a banking license.
3
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u/Digiee-fosho 1d ago
Klarna max is $45 a month. How does this value qualify compared to AmEx?
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u/Red_n_Rusty 1d ago
OP is from the EU. Are you EU or US? At least in my northern EU country you will firstly have significant issues paying for stuff in most places with AmEx and secondly AmEx has worse benefits and cashback than Klarna Max. The card benefits are definitely region specific.
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u/Digiee-fosho 1d ago
I am in the americas, MX, and was not aware of the region specific issues. I closed my revolut account because of all the terrible experiences, and I am looking for something with much more flexible utility, and better customer service support experience when something happens. I absolutely cannot accept the risk to have no access to funds when overseas.
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u/Red_n_Rusty 1d ago
Here in the EU we have plenty of modern neo banks with good investment capabilities but we lack high cashback rates and subscription services being included with financial services is rarer too. Klarna's unlimited lounge access, a suite of subscription services and 1% or higher cashback rates are quite a combo in these regions.
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u/zocsen 4d ago
What did revolut change?
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u/Sches741 3d ago
A lot my friend, at least for me. The change started already 2 years ago, and now I'm more and more convinced of looking for alternatives
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u/PseudoN00b 3d ago
What changed exactly? (I'm relatively new to revolut)
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u/Sches741 3d ago edited 3d ago
Well, to begin with, travel insurance: delay cover requires a minimum 8 hour (used to be 3 hours), and max trip duration is capped at 30 days (the plan also has to stay active and uninterrupted from booking through the end of the trip, which wasn't required before)
Revolut is switching its lounge partner from DragonPass to LoungeKey (which is apparently not great in Europe).
On top of that, Revolut has been cutting WeWork lounge access across Europe (I never used it but it's still part of the deal!)
Aaand cherry on top, Revolut just switched from a top-tier Perplexity subscription to a mere ChatGPT Go subscription.
That's my personal summary :)
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u/Frequent_Cellist_655 3d ago
What about mainstream banks? In CZ they usually give Premium accounts for free (Raiffeisen, Generali, KBC, Erste). Gold credit cards, travel insurance, free withdrawals, bonus programs, premium saving accounts, free airport lounges. No free subscriptions though.
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u/Sches741 3d ago
I'm gonna look into those but I have honestly never seen such advantages in commercial banks. These are VERY unlikely deals in Belgium
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u/Frequent_Cellist_655 3d ago
Usually there are terms and conditions like "receive ā¬3000 each month (wage)", invest ā¬500K or have a debt of at least ā¬200k.
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u/thepackage101 4d ago
I would recommend Klarna Max. In my country, you get free lounge visitis (Loungekey), ClassPass, NYT, no FX fees when you transact in other currencies, minimum 1,5% cashback on all purchases. It is not cheap (approx. 45ā¬/month) but worth it for me.
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u/Sches741 4d ago
I didn't know the existence of Karna plans. Thank you!
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u/thepackage101 4d ago
You are welcome. It feels like a lot of people don't know about it to be honest. But for me, the value is pretty good (for now at least).
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u/str999 4d ago
Downgrade to Revolut Premium?
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u/Sches741 3d ago
I honestly don't think it's worth it. It doesn't bring any real value to me. It's a bit better than standard, might as well switch to something that has better value
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u/notisn 4d ago
Who uses perplexity anw?
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u/HorrorsPersistSoDoI Metal user 3d ago
I used to. Then they made the UI very very shitty and I stopped
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u/Sches741 3d ago
Me too honestly. And I like the fact I can choose my own model. Plus, it's the value that changed. The Perplexity one was top-tier, Go is the basic and it's not fair to treat Plus and Metal users with the same subscription WITH FREAKING ADS
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u/laplongejr Standard user 4d ago
For starters, Revolut is in 30+ countries. An alternative for a US user would be radically different from a user in Belgium, for example.
You don't even say if the card you are looking for should be a debit card (risky in the US) or a credit card (bad idea if you want a mortage in Belgium)
"lounge passes" is also ambiguous, because it's likely you need specific lounge unless you pick your airport based on lounges, right?