Inside the Revolut Metal Experience: 10 Key Takeaways

Written By Adrian Volenik

June 29, 2023

I’ve been using Revolut for more than three years, and I’ve had the Metal plan for the past two.

Here are 10 things, good and bad, I learned about this popular paid plan from Revolut.

1. Booking Hotels Will Give You up to 10% Cashback

Revolut launched its Booking.com and Expedia competitor Stays in 2021.

Since then, I’ve used Revolut to book our vacations on many occasions.

You can find hotels, homes, villas, resorts, condos, cottages, and even camping and cruises, coupled with photos, reviews, and discounts.

However, the thing I love most about this is that you get up to 10% cash back on the Metal plan.

You can clearly see how much cashback you’re getting under the booking price.

Everything’s there in black and white. Choose rooms, see amenities, description, and the fine print of the property.

Non-Metal users also get cashback, but a smaller percentage:

Standard and Plus up to 3%
Premium up to 5%

There’s also Metal-exclusive cashback.

To get cashback in a currency (including crypto) of your choice, all you need to do is spend money.

You’ll earn cashback for card spending at the rate of 0.1% in Europe and 1% outside of Europe. It’s not mindblowing, but at least it helps offset the cost of the Metal subscription.

The company is also constantly adding Rewards that range from online discounts to in-store cashback. These have a much higher cashback percentage of 5, 10, or even more percent.

But not everyone gets the same Rewards as recommendations.

They’ll recommend Rewards based on what you liked or bought before.

You can leave a thumbs up or thumbs down to let them know what you thought about the recommendation.

2. Getting Your Stuff Stolen Doesn’t Have to be a Bad Thing

When you’re visiting popular tourist destinations as much as I am, you’re bound to get something stolen sooner or later.

With all precautions I usually take when going to the beach, like not bringing any valuable items and watching over my property like a hawk, I managed to get my backpack stolen and a relatively new phone with it.

Luckily, I bought it new and with my Revolut card.

That meant it was covered by the Everyday Protection theft and accident coverage.

I filed a police report, not because I thought they would find my phone, but so I could make a claim with Revolut.

And sure enough, I made a claim and uploaded the phone invoice and the police report and got almost all the money back for my 4-month-old phone. If it were up to 3 months old, I would have gotten all the money back. But 95% is not too bad, as well.

I later learned that you don’t have to have the Metal account. Any paid Revolut account will do!

Additionally, there’s also returns protection, ticket protection, and unlimited disposable virtual cards for safer online shopping.

The Returns protection entitles you to refunds up to 90 days after purchase, and the ticket protection means you can get refunded up to €1,000 per year for event tickets that you were unable to attend because of a sudden and unexpected (covered) circumstance.

3. Metal Cards Can Wear Out

When you hear something made of stainless steel or metal, you probably think it will last a very long time without any major noticeable wear and tear.

Yeah, not so much with the Metal card you get for free from Revolut.

Granted, I have been using the first card for a year and a half, but still, the edges have lost their black color, and the rest was scratched.

Most of the damage to the card comes from taking the card out of the wallet.

I have one of these modern Ridge Wallets.

That means that your cards are scrapping each other every time you use the wallet.

You can wait for your first metal card to expire or pay €40 for an additional metal card. Going back to plastic is also an option, as you can order a second (plastic) card for free.

In hindsight, I should have used Google Pay more to pay for things. Oh, well.

4. It’s an Annual Plan

I didn’t know that all Revolut plans had 12-month terms (whether you pay annually or monthly doesn’t matter) when I was signing up.

Not that it ultimately mattered.

However, I read other people’s reviews on Trustpilot, and they’re pissed about the fact.

If you decide that the Metal plan isn’t for you, you can downgrade, but f you wish to go back to the free account or cancel Revolut altogether, you’ll be charged a two-month fee.

The membership renews automatically after 12 months; however, you can cancel anytime.

Additionally, you’ll have to pay a card delivery fee and €40 for the metal card itself if you withdraw from the subscription within 14 days of signing up and the metal card has already been sent to you.

5. Revolut Can Change Their Mind

Revolut is offering a product that is constantly evolving. They’re adding many new features, and some are going away.

This happens with all companies and can be jotted down to the product, feature, or service not being popular with users, being too popular and hurting the company’s bottom line, too expensive to maintain, etc.

Google has famously scrapped hundreds of products, apps, and services during its 20+ year of existence.

There are many examples of Revolut making important changes that affected the end user.

I’ll just mention the investment custody fee.

In Europe, it used to be only 0.01% annually. They simply upped it to 0.12% out of the blue and with little fanfare.

The thing is, in Australia and the US, for example, the custody fee is still 0.01%. And in Singapore, there’s no custody fee at all.

Even worse was the cutback on commission-free trades that used to be unlimited for Metal users. We now get only up to 10 commission-free trades per month.

Of course, you can always sell your stocks or move them to another broker, but that’s not something you’re looking forward to doing, especially if you have a sizeable portfolio and are already used to the simple Revolut trading platform.

6. Read The Fine Print

The dreaded fine print. It always sneaks up on you when you least expect or need it.

However, it’s important to know your rights but also your responsibilities when using a product or service.

Of course, I’m talking about insurance, protection, and coverage – however you want to call them.

As you recall, I did get money for my stolen phone, however, I’ve heard and read about many occurrences where the insurance company Revolut was working with was just too stubborn and greedy and looking for every loophole so as not to pay out the money.

Sometimes, people had to exchange dozens of emails with the insurer and submit document after document.

Without phone support, these cases can be very stressful and difficult to resolve.

7. You Can Open up to 5 Kids’ Accounts

The Metal account lets you open up to five (!) Junior accounts that you control by setting custom controls for their online and contactless payments, freezing and unfreezing, and having real-time spending notifications.

Now, I don’t have five kids (thank God!), but if I did, I’d happily open them Revolut Under 18 accounts, as they are free and let you have as much control over their spending as you wish.

8. Customer Support is Much Better

Being completely digital, Revolut doesn’t have any physical branches. That means that customer support has to be top-notch. Unfortunately, that’s not the case with the free Revolut plan I was on before.

You’d get a response the next day, and it was mostly a copy-and-paste answer that isn’t personalised. After a few more back-and-forth emails and a couple of days later, you might resolve your issue.

On the other side, all paid accounts have a 24/7 priority customer support that feels human and resolves your issues much much faster. I wish this were true across the board.

9. Notify Them in Advance

You probably heard of people getting their accounts suspended, blocked, or outright closed.

To prevent that from happening, the best thing to do is not to get associated with any shady stuff (in Revolut’s eyes).

Of course, I’m talking about gambling and crypto.

These two are the fastest ways of getting your account flagged when you try to send a larger transfer or someone’s sending you one.

If you’re expecting any large transfers, contact Revolut staff and notify them about it. You can also give them your income documentation after you open an account, and you should be in the clear.

Digital banks have toughened up their act in the last couple of years after government agencies gave them a stern warning.

Unfortunately, this means that thousands of innocent people get caught up too.

Tip: Wait For Black Friday

Revolut regularly offers discounted Metal plans on Black Friday. You can save €55 or £50 if you pay upfront for an annual plan. So, for instance, instead of the regular annual price of €135, you’d pay only €80, which translates to €6.66 per month.

Although you must shell out the €80 upfront, the long-term savings are tangible and make the membership much more affordable.