Revolut Business: Saving money for Irish SMEs?

With costs on the rise, more Irish small and medium companies are looking at where they can cut their costs and save time.  Is a Revolut Business account the answer?

The pandemic changed the way business approach their online offering and Revolut has become a default payment type for many Irish businesses.  Statistics show that Revolut is now used as a method of payment by 71.8% of 20-25-year-old online shoppers.

 

What is Revolut business?

Revolut is a financial technology company that offers customers a prepaid debit card for chip, contactless and online payments as well as ATM withdrawals at home or abroad.

 

Online payments for services as well as goods rose sharply during lockdowns and show no sign of abating anytime soon.

 

Like all other types of payment preferences, it has many advantages and some disadvantages for business owners but it is still a newish concept for many Irish businesses.

 

In terms of Irish businesses, more and more are seeing employees request to have their salaries paid into a Revolut account as all Revolut accounts, private and business, come with BIC and IBANs.

 

However, because the company has no physical presence such as bank branches, you obviously can’t make cash deposits or log cheques at your local branch which a high number of Irish businesses still need to do daily.

 

While Revolut looks like a digital bank from the outside that is not quite the case just yet. Revolut was granted a full banking licence by the European Central Bank (ECB) in December 2021. Current Irish Revolut customers are customers of Revolut Payments UAB and the intention is to cover these customers with the option to switch to Revolut Bank UAB in the first quarter of 2022. Until the banking licence is fully rolled out within Ireland customers’ money is still ring-fenced with large global banks in the EEA.

 

Revolut’s app has an appeal to businesses because most traditional banks’ digital offerings are either limited or not fit for purpose for smaller businesses.

 

Another appealing point for businesses is Revolut’s foreign exchange features. You can exchange money in 30+ foreign currencies as well as Bitcoin and Ethereum and typically at more favourable rates than traditional financial institutions.

 

How much does it cost?

Revolut offers four types of business plans – Free, Grow, Scale and Enterprise. As Enterprise is a customisable plan, we have analysed the main features of the other three plans below.

 

Plan	Free	Grow (Most Popular)	Scale
Cost	€0/month	€25/month	€100/month
European Consumer Cards	1% +€0.20	1% +€0.20	1% +€0.20
All other Cards	2.8% + €0.20	2.8% + €0.20	2.8% + €0.20
Revolut Pay	1% + €0.20	1% + €0.20	1% + €0.20
Free metal cards £49/extra card	0	1	2
Free Classic Cards	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
Free international payments €3/extra payment	0	10	50
Free local payments €0.02/ extra payment	5	100	1,000
FX at the interbank rate 0.4% markup/extra transaction	€0	€10K	€50K
Priority 24/7 support	No	Yes	Yes
Accept payments on your website	Yes	Yes	Yes
Request payments	Yes	Yes	Yes

 

So what are the disadvantages of a business Revolut account?

• It doesn’t accept cash or cheques deposits
• Daily withdrawal limit of €3k
• Monthly withdrawal limit of €100k
• There are transfer limits associated with British Pounds
• You don’t earn interest on money deposited – though given the current low, and even negative deposit interest rates with traditional banks, this is not a key issue
• Customer accounts can be frozen temporarily due to security reasons

 

What are the advantages of a business Revolut account?

• You can top-up in and hold several currencies
• Integration with accounting systems like Xero allows your bookkeeper to reconcile Revolut transactions from a bank feed
• An array of expanding extra features (e.g. crypto trading, disposable virtual cards)
• The option to create Team cards for specific employees gives them the ability to spend company funds in a controlled manner through spending limits
• Premium subscription options with handy perks (e.g. travel insurance, rewards)
• Fast and free transfers to over 33 countries
• Their fees are transparent. It will cost more to transfer at the weekends than during the week
• Instant processing of all transfers
• You can set up recurring payments and direct debit payments
• The application process is simple
• There is a convenient mobile app
• If your card is stolen or lost it can be frozen from the app

 

As a digital accounting and consulting firm, we understand the importance of going digital with your business.

 

To discuss digital solutions for your business give us a call today.