Revolut Australia Review: Still A Good Travel Card?

Revolut is a digital bank well known in Australia for offering low-fee international money transfers, currency exchange, and in-app budgeting tools. Revolut Australia also offers rewards credit card and debit card products that earn RevPoints on daily spending. You can also trade stocks and cryptocurrencies within the Revolut app.

Revolut entered the Australian market in 2020, and has since grown to 1.2 million local customers. Globally, it serves more than 75 million customers across 40+ countries. But until recently, they have been largely known as "that travel card your mate won't shut up about."

Now Revolut is something bigger — it's officially a licensed bank in Australia with government-backed deposit protection. In this guide, we explain the products offered by Revolut Australia, the fees you'll need to consider, and whether a Revolut card is worthwhile.

What Exactly Is Revolut?

Revolut is a bank in Australia that aims to offer one simple place for Aussies to handle all things money. From spending and saving, to credit cards, personal loans, international transfers, joint accounts, kids accounts, investing, cryptocurrency — Revolut offers it all. When you think about it, the only major banking product missing from Revolut's lineup are home loans.

Of course, one of the main benefits of Revolut is its use as a travel debit card, which is free for the Standard plan, and offers some of the best exchange rates on the market.

As a digital bank, the Revolut app is modern and packed with useful features. One to note is that in addition to physical cards, Revolut offers virtual cards for added online security. These virtual cards can be generated and used for online shopping or subscription services, and then easily removed to disable future charges. Revolut even has a feature for one-time virtual cards, which are particularly useful for free trial periods or when purchasing from untrusted websites.

Just don't expect to find a Revolut branch in Australia, as everything happens in-app. Though at the rate Australia's big four are closing branches themselves, that's less of a Revolut problem and more of a banking in 2026 problem.

Is Revolut Australia Safe?

If you haven't heard of Revolut before, it's natural to question its safety. Especially with something as important as your money.

The short answer is yes Revolut is safe, and it's a stronger yes than it used to be. Now that Revolut holds a full banking licence, eligible deposits held in AUD are protected by the Australian Financial Claims Scheme up to $250,000. This is the same government-backed guarantee that covers your money at CommBank, ANZ, or any other Australian bank.

One caveat: crypto and precious metals held Revolut are still unregulated in Australia and sit outside this protection. If you're holding crypto, that balance isn't covered the way your cash balance is.

Revolut Fees & Plans Compared

Revolut Australia is free to use. When signing up, you can select the free Standard plan or pay for one of the premium plans with additional features.

In Australia, there are five Revolut plans:

• Standard: no monthly fee
• Plus: $5.99/month or $59/year
• Premium: $11.99/month or $119/year
• Metal: $28.99/month or $279/year
• Ultra: $99.99/month or $999/year

Paying members can choose to pay monthly or opt for an annual plan at a discounted price. It’s also worth noting that users can subscribe and unsubscribe from premium plans at any time.

Below is a complete comparison of each Revolut plan.

As you can see, the key differences lie in the amount of fee-free ATM withdrawals and international money transfers you can do make using your Revolut card, as well as points earn rates.

On the topic of RevPoints earning, the Standard plan earns 1 per $16, which is equivalent to a dismal 0.0625 points per dollar. That's quite possibly Australia's worst earn rate on any rewards credit card.

Is It Worth Paying For A Revolut Plan?

For the paid plans, it all comes down to how you use your Revolut card. Frequent travellers can benefit from discounted fees, but of course you'd have to work out if those fee savings are more than the premium plan cost. Revolut can also be useful to those who for whatever reason don't use rewards credit cards.

But before you talk yourself into Metal or Ultra, it's worth asking whether you need a paid plan at all. By way of comparison, Aussie-grown digital bank Ubank charges zero monthly fees on its debit cards, zero fees for overseas ATM withdrawals with no limits like Revolut, and uses the Visa exchange rate with no markup. For savings, the current Ubank interest rate is 5.10%. That's a genuinely free alternative doing a lot of what Revolut's paid tiers charge you for.

Where Revolut's paid plans earn their fee is the stuff Ubank doesn't touch: multi-currency accounts, RevPoints, lounge access, travel insurance, and crypto/stock trading in one app.

Revolut Kids & Teens Account

Revolut is one of the very few fintech apps in Australia that has a dedicated option for younger members. Revolut Kids & Teens is designed for those aged 6 to 17, and lets parents or legal guardians issue linked cards and accounts to their children.

Under-18 account holders get their own Revolut card and account to manage and spend their own money. The parent or guardian keeps full oversight from their Revolut app, from spending limits to in-app card freezing.

Revolut Standard gets 1 Kids & Teens Account, Revolut Plus and Premium get 2, and those with Revolut Metal or Ultra get 5.

Loading Money To Your Revolut Account

Adding money to your Revolut account is very easy, and there are multiple methods. Bank transfers are pretty much instant and free, but you can also use your debit or credit card to top up your balance. For credit cards, there is a 1% fee.

Is Revolut A Good Card For Travel?

Based on our testing, Revolut offers one of the best foreign exchange rates for Australians heading overseas. The exchange rates are usually similar to Wise, and slightly cheaper than the Visa or Mastercard rate.

Revolut doesn’t charge foreign exchange fees on card purchases, up to a $2,000 limit for the free Standard plan. Spending outside market hours (Saturday 7:00 am to Monday 8:00 am AEST) also adds an extra fee. Most big Australian banks charge you between 3-8% or even more.

Revolut does show its weakness if you rely on a lot of overseas ATM cash withdrawals, where there are better free options, such as Ubank and Up.

If you’re one of those who likes to lock in foreign currency rates in advance, you can do so with your Revolut account. Most major currencies are supported, and the whole process is as easy as possible.

Commbank Travel Money vs Revolut

People often ask us about Commbank Travel Money and if it’s any good compared to Revolut. The short answer is no, CommBank Travel Money is a terrible card to use overseas. It's the financial equivalent of bringing a fax machine to a gunfight.

For starters, the Commbank Travel Card charges $3.50 per ATM withdrawal. But the worst part is that they advertise the card as offering zero foreign exchange fees, and then use their own inflated "CommBank Retail Foreign Exchange Rate".

You can compare just how bad the rates are using the Commbank calculator and Revolut calculator. At the time of writing, spending 100 USD on the CommBank card would cost $148.85 AUD. Using a Revolut card would cost $142.31, a saving of $6.54 that would add up quickly throughout a trip.

Revolut Referral Code?

We’ve partnered with Revolut to offer Flight Hacks readers an exclusive account top-up of $15 when you sign up via our link and make at least 1 transaction. This is one of the more generous Revolut referals available, and even applies to the free Standard Revolut plan!

There’s no need to enter a specific Revolut promo code, just simply click here to join, and the $15 account credit will be applied once you make your first purchase using your new Revolut card.

Summing Up: Revolut Australia

I’ve used Revolut for a few trips since their launch in Australia back in 2020, and their product is quite competitive. While I wouldn't say Revolut is the ultimate travel debit card, I would agree they're far superior to Australia's Big Four banks in almost every way. That's why it is exciting to see Revolut become a licensed bank in Australia with deposit protection, a savings account, and a credit card option.

For use as a travel card, the main drawbacks of Revolut are the restrictive fee-free limits on ATM withdrawals and international currency conversion. For comparison, digital banks Ubank and Up don't impose fee-free limits, but they use Visa/Mastercard FX rates, which Revolut typically beats by a very small margin.

All in all, Revolut offers a very innovative product to Australians who are looking for a debit card that does more than your average bank account. Click here to join Revolut free & Receive a $15 account credit