Revolut Becomes First UK Financial Institution to Launch eSIM UPDATE
Customers of banking and money management app Revolut may be interested to learn that they’ve just become the “first financial institution in the UK” to launch an eSIM based mobile service, which is intended more for travellers (roaming) than those seeking an alternative mobile service in the home market.
The eSIM standard is an alternative to physical SIM cards, which works by essentially embedding an electronic SIM into your device (Smartphone) and that could – once fully implemented – make it easier and quicker to switch between operators (e.g. not having to wait for a SIM card to arrive), as well as to use additional networks alongside your main mobile operator (e.g. eSIMs for travel when abroad).
A lot of mobile roaming services for travel now use eSIM and Revolut appears to have decided that this would be a good complement to their financial services. The Revolut eSIM claims it will allow customers to “roam like a local, and stay connected without unexpected roaming charges and interruptions,” at least provided you have a compatible device (phone).
The new service is due to launch to UK customers “later this week“, which means that we don’t yet know precisely how much it will cost and thus can’t compare their offers with alternatives in the same space. But apparently those who take their Ultra plan (whatever that ends up costng) will be getting “exclusive access” to 3GB of data (mobile broadband), which they can use globally each month.
In addition, all UK customers on that same plan will benefit from an introductory offer of 100MB mobile data at no cost (redeemable by 1st May 2024, T&Cs apply), although these days that’s just about enough to load a handful of modern websites before it gets completely used up.
Elyas Sadou, Product Owner of eSIM at Revolut, said:
“At Revolut, we harness technology to simplify our customers’ lives, and that’s precisely what our eSIM accomplishes. It offers seamless access to mobile data, eliminating the inconvenience of high prices or the need to buy and organise a physical SIM card.
Whether you are in the US, Australia or Egypt, you can effortlessly secure a data plan with just a few taps on your phone, and then instantly share those breathtaking photos of your trip with friends and family. It’s a game-changer for people who love to travel.”
However, one feature of the new service that we really do like is the ability to use the Revolut app without using up your mobile data allowance, which is actually going to be very handy when abroad (not that it was ever much of a data hog in the first place). Now if we could just get some more product and pricing details.
UPDATE 14th Feb 2024 @ 7:02am
Some of Revolut’s customers (credits to Daniel and David) have kindly forwarded us information on the plans and prices from their app. The “Local” plans start with the “free” 100MB tier (valid for 7 days) and come in at 1GB for £4 (valid for 7 days), then 3GB for £8, 5GB for £12, 10GB for £18 and 20GB for £29. All except the free and 1GB tiers are 30-day plans.
The “Global” plans, which will work across 108 countries, follow a similar mould and will give you 1GB for £22, 3GB for £29, 5GB for £47 and 10GB for £85. You can also get country-specific prices. But it’s worth noting that there are other travel eSIM providers that, for specific countries, may be cheaper than this. Prices and experiences do vary, but it’s worth checking out Nomad, Airalo and Holafly etc.
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook and Linkedin.
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Having all kind of issues with them including being blocked for a week because they couldn’t verified something made it fine only as a second bank provider for travelling abroad. Then HSBC introduced Global Money and I stopped using Revolut. I don’t think I will use their mobile services either because I have roaming included in O2. I think they’ve missed a train.
@ioio.
People do love to moan about Revolt, I’ve been a customer since 2015, other than a few minor bugs with the app I’ve had no problems, very happy with them and certainly saved me significant amounts in currency conversion and international transfer fees.
From what’s been made available in the press, accounts being locked is almost entirely the fault of the customer, usually by not completing “know your customer” checks or providing requested additional information within a timely manner.
In 2023 I was contacted by them in regard the source of funding for a large overseas transfer, I was clearly notified via the app, email and push notification that the request for information had to be met within a specified time period or my account would be frozen, which I did and the review was completed in a few days. At no point was my service interrupted.
This is a basic anti money laundering requirement, which they’re required to be carry out by the financial regulator.
I too have a HSBC Global Money account simply as a virtue of holding an HSBC UK current acc, and it’s incomparable to Revolut, its offering is vastly reduced and more costly.
@Long-term Revolut customer:
Yeah, definitely it was my fault they couldn’t verify my ID and were dropping off during the chat. I don’t know what is more costly in HSBC Global Money for you but I am not paying extra for it as well as currency exchange rate are the pretty much the same +/- 5p I used to compare them many times.
@ioio
Never had a single issue with “dropped chats” in the almost 9 years of being a Revolut customer, had to contact them only last week, chatted to an agent within a couple minutes of asking to, had to have my query passed to technical support, was told it could take upto 24 hours for a response, but in fact took less than 10 minutes to resolve.
What a surprise that your account was frozen as you hadn’t verified your ID… It’s dreadful and they must be castigated for complying with financial regulations! I’m sure no other financial service providers do the very same thing, certainly not HSBC… oh wait… never mind.
If the cost difference between using HSBC GM and Revolut in your experience was mere pennies, I’m sure they won’t miss your custom, as you would almost certainly be a loss making customer.
Revolut has the highest level of referred customer complaints per million customers in the UK banking industry.
It also is not a participant in the voluntary scheme that refunds victims of fraud.
Reddit is full of people complaining about the poor customer service and issues with fraud.
Other than very specific use cases, for a casual traveller it is nether cheaper nor safer than using a fee free credit card esp if you settle bills on weekends.
@Ex Revolut Customer
No issues here, I’ve been with Revolut Premium for 2 years now. However I only use it to receive my non-GBP salary (in AED) every month which I then convert into GBP and send it to my regular UK bank account. For me, Revolut works out far far cheaper than the likes of Wise, HSBC Global Money account et al, I pay Revolut £72 pa and then get unlimited exchanges between currencies.
Wow! A whole 100MB…
As I am using the Ultra plan, I have installed the eSIM tonight, and it seems to be working with 1Global. I tested it on a few providers and it provided decent speeds of 20-70 Mbps.
Revolut locks funds without saying why
If you complete their KYC checks successfully then you have have nothing to worry about (just like all other financial institutions)
they’re not a member of FSCS however, so any money you store with them is not protected to the £85k as it would be with other new banks like monzo or starling
Nothing to do with KYC, they took 700k from Tristan and their customer service was pretty incompetent looking at the screenshots. They still keep charging for premium
eSIM is a great technology but will take time , maybe few years more. still a tiny percentage of mobile phones support eSIM.
eSIM in theory supports around 15 different profiles which is a pre-requisite for many many new 5GSA private networks.
Not as easy to change networks. With a sim if you go to another country you just stick a sim from that country in and not worry about roaming charges. The same when changing network, I think the sim card works fine and don’t see the need to change the system. Esim is more down to mobile phone manufactures wanting to make the phones thinner, just like they did with non-removable batteries, and then people buy a case which makes the phone thicker.
Hopefully my Oppo will last for a few more years, then we will see what is available then, but if I can get a phone with a sim tray I will go for that.
To be honest I am not a fan of what is about now, even the one I got is too big, with a load of cameras that is not needed and some silly screen ratio.
It is a good phone, but I hate the style of it, I prefer my old Huawei p9 lite or the Nexus 4 I had before that.
“a tiny percentage” includes several models of iPhone (including the 2020/2022 SE) and many Android devices
Cheap and nasty ones might omit it, but it’s a rather larger percentage than you think.
I don’t think physical SIMs should go away, but I’ve used an eSIM for my main service for years and it has been fine. I have had no problem getting a replacement issued (or using Apple’s transfer service)
@Ivor, I doubt very much if I will ever buy an Iphone, while one would integrate with my Mac, I am not a fan of the UI, also Iphones are out of my price range.
What do you call cheap and nasty? My phone cost me £120 or something like that and it works very well indeed.
Do you mean sub £100 ones or even below that? The most I have spent for a mobile phone is £200 and that is not going to happen again.
They all do the same thing, just some are a bit faster
@Ad47uk if anything, it’s easier to change networks on an esim. No need to buy/wait for a physical sim, you can sign up to an esim provider right now and get your live service in minutes.
@Kushan; and what happens if your provider doesn’t support Esims? My provider don’t.
It’s available in my app and im not on any paid for plan with Revolut.
The charges are ridiculously expensive. Not even going to bother.
I don’t really care if it’s a global roaming SIM, there are cheaper options even for that.
Many cheaper options, as eSIM becomes more widespread across countries I don’t see how any of these companies will survive on current pricing models.
They have to provide a data plan with their eSIMs hence the 100MB free!! No plan = no eSIM.
There are eSIM adapters available now for phones that do not have it viz esim.me and 5ber (the former based in Germany accusing the later based in China of stealing/ copying their product).
I welcome Revolut’s eSIM product but as with everything… shop around.
I have a legacy Three sim only contract which gives me free roaming across 70+ countries but now use eSIMs for those countries not covered.
With travel data is key.