REVOLUT SPARE CHANGE OPTION: From Innovation to Betrayal: How Revolut Lost My Trust. PUBLISHED IRISH INDEPENDENT / MONEY

 

From Innovation to Betrayal: How Revolut Lost My Trust

How Revolut’s Spare Change Scheme Left me Out of Pocket and Asking Questions

You think your money’s safe. Then one day you discover your bank has been quietly taking it. You discover hundreds of transactions, made without your knowledge.

For years, I was Revolut’s biggest cheerleader. As a travel writer, I relied on it for switching currencies with a swipe, avoiding the hidden fees traditional banks may charge. It felt like the future of banking: sleek, fast, user-friendly. I recommended it to friends, praising the way it seemed to democratise finance for anyone willing to try it. It seemed too good to be true, and it was. I discovered something deeply unsettling: my so-called “Spare Change” savings had been disappearing into a loyalty system I never knowingly agreed to, a points scheme called RevPoints.The money I thought I was saving was being spent. 

Revolut Spare Change Vault, where each transaction rounded up to the nearest pound, slowly accumulating into a tangible sum was one of Revolut’s original features. It was a simple practice: small, incremental contributions placed in a ‘vault’. But the feature name “Spare Change” was repurposed when Revolut introduced RevPoints. Under the new system, that same toggle is connected to RevPoints. But instead of saving your spare change, Revolut uses it to buy points on your behalf.

The catch? This toggle is buried inside the RevPoints settings. Many users have never even seen it, let alone adjusted it. Revolut’s own agents have given contradictory answers about how it is activated but all the customer support agents I spoke to admitted it is an ‘opt out’ toggle. The effect: your money is siphoned from your main balance, converted into RevPoints, and logged only as “spare change” with no total, no statement, and no obvious record of what’s being taken.

Between July 2024 and September 2025, my “Spare Change” activity diverted just over €250 into RevPoints.

On realising, I immediately contacted Revolut support to ask for a statement for my 18 months of spare change that had been siphoned off my account, but I was told RevPoint statements were not visible on their system. Any traditional bank would have been able to provide a clear statement. Revolut could not. The billion-dollar fintech that desperately wants to be seen as a modern bank, can’t even tell a customer how much of their own money it has converted into loyalty points.

This was not a matter of missing some fine print. Even my friend, a former backend engineer for Groupon and a consummate tech professional, discovered the same feature only when I mentioned it. For her, too, it was an opt-out setup, and she had unknowingly been contributing spare change to RevPoints for months. This isn’t about being technologically inept. This is about a hidden structure, designed so that even savvy users can be caught off guard.

So what are these RevPoints and what would I get for my €250?. 

RevPoints is Revolut’s in-app reward currency, promoted as a way to “earn while you spend.” Each 1 RevPoint claims to equals 1 air mile, redeemable through partners such as Avios, Waitrose, Nike, Temu, and Revolut’s own Stays and Experiences travel platforms. On paper it looks like a classic credit-card reward scheme but the crucial difference is that when “Spare Change” is enabled, customers are not earning points but buying them with their own money.

To test the value, I converted some points to Avios air miles. 6,000 Avios points got me a one-way Dublin–London flight, (plus airport taxes of €40 working out that those 6,000 Avios saved me about €50.

In simple terms: I paid €250 to buy €175–€200 worth of air miles. By anyone’s calculations that is a loss, disguised as a loyalty reward.

I was left wondering what legitimate financial institution designs a product where consent to spend money depends on an opt-out toggle?

When I questioned Revolut, three departments gave me three versions of the truth.
A senior support agent wrote: “The Spare Change feature is usually enabled during the RevPoints setup, but it can be manually disabled at any time.”
Later, Revolut’s press office told me: “Spare Change requires an active opt-in. The information shared by our support agent in this case was incorrect.”
And finally, in a formal complaint response, Revolut confirmed: “The spare-change feature was enabled automatically during account setup, we have identified a service lapse and decided to credit your account with €170.”

That €170 goodwill payment, recorded in my case file, was Revolut’s way of closing the matter, but the contradictions within the company remain.

A traditional bank provides monthly statements, direct-debit records, and human accountability. Revolut’s automated system, by contrast, can take money, hide it inside a gamified reward currency, and tell you it’s “not visible in our systems.”

A customer should always be able to see where their money has gone, every penny, every point.

While the FCA dont comment on specific companies, they say they expect firms to comply with the Payment Services Regulations (PSRs), which state that a payment transaction (which would include ‘spare change’ services) is not authorised unless a payer has given their consent. They added that for consent to be valid, it must be clear, specific, and informed.
To me, Revpoints does not feel like banking. It feels like algorithmic sleight of hand: a product that looks like a perk but behaves like a siphon.

Revolut must be made aware that consent that depends on a hidden secondary toggle is not informed consent. If users believe their spare change was being saved, not spent, the product fails the basic fairness test.

Most people simply don’t think to check whether their ‘Spare Change’ is being diverted into a reward scheme they never consciously joined. I certainly didn’t, and it cost me €250.

Revolut has worked hard to be recognised as a “real bank” in the UK and Ireland, and yet it's behaviour in practice raises questions. Features like ‘Spare Change’, opaque RevPoints conversions, and evasive customer support fall far short of what would be expected from a licensed bank. In Ireland, the company has faced far more scrutiny and critical press, highlighting these same issues and showing that this isn’t an isolated or hypothetical concern. In the UK, where the fin-tech landscape includes challenger banks like Atom, Monzo, and Starling, Revolut’s practices may have flown under the radar a little longer. That contrast of high visibility and criticism in Ireland to the relative quiet in the UK, makes the gap between marketing and operational reality all the more striking.

This is where the ethical dimension becomes undeniable. Financial institutions, particularly those claiming full banking status, are expected to uphold principles of transparency and trust. Customers should understand how their money is being used and have full autonomy to opt in or out. RevPoints, by contrast, converts real funds into digital points with opaque value, gamifying the experience to encourage engagement rather than offering real financial utility. Users are nudged into behaviour not for practical savings or investment, but for the dopamine hit of points or multipliers. Unlike casinos, where rules are explicit, the interface here masquerades as banking, lulling users into trust while extracting value in ways they may not even notice.

Revolut customer support only compounds the problem. When I sought clarification and requested a breakdown of how much money has been redirected into RevPoints, I encountered a scripted, vague, and unhelpful response. One can only imagine the customer service team constantly swatting away complaints, treating them as background noise. Yet in any traditional bank, transparency is mandatory: statements can be requested, breakdowns provided, and questions answered. Revolut’s inability to provide clarity undermines the credibility it works so hard to project.

Even the naming of the feature feels deliberately misleading. Calling it “Spare Change” implies the safety of a savings vault; a function still available on the app via Spare Change Vault. In reality, it masks a points-based system whose value is neither transparent nor guaranteed. Small contributions are quietly redirected into a system benefiting the company rather than the customer. The intention may not be malicious, but it certainly feels opaque.

Revolut, founded in 2015 by Nikolay Storonsky and Vlad Yatsenko began as a solution to the exorbitant fees travellers faced when exchanging currencies. From its humble beginnings in Canary Wharf,  by 2025, it had amassed over 60 million users and reached a valuation of $45 billion. RevPoints arrived quietly in 2023 as part of Revolut’s push to rival traditional banks’ credit-card rewards and air-mile tie-ins. The app describes it as a way to “earn points on everyday spending”  but what many users don’t realise is that “earning” is only half the story.

We’ve all read about the broader concerns over how Revolut handles financial risk. Irish customers have reported being victims of scams, only to face stonewalling and inadequate support when seeking resolution. One victim from Galway,  Paul Anthony Walsh, lost over €9000 to a Revolut scam, and using his background in tech, he bought Revolut’s old domain www.revolutbusiness.com  and set up a site to inform and support other fraud victims.

While Revolut's approach to fraud cases often leaves customers feeling unsupported and vulnerable, traditional banks typically offer more robust fraud protection and customer service, providing clearer communication and quicker resolutions.

This underscores a critical point: Revolut, whether it likes it or not, operates as a higher-risk bank. Its practices, particularly in handling fraud cases, fall short of the standards expected from a fully licensed financial institution. 

Perhaps Revolut’s growth has outpaced regulation. Though it holds a restricted banking licence in the UK and is pursuing full approval, much of its operations still reside in a regulatory grey zone. Its hybrid status of part fintech, part bank allows innovative products but shields the company from the scrutiny traditional banks face. The result breeds confusion, frustration, and ultimately, disillusionment.

For me, the impact of this has been profound. I went from being a staunch advocate of Revolut’s innovation to a cautious critic. It was such a violation of trust that it felt like the company I had recommended, and used professionally had stolen my money. The sense of betrayal is hard to put into words.  So the takeaway is clear: Revolut can be useful, but vigilance is essential. Review settings, understand features like “Spare Change” and RevPoints, and do not assume convenience equals transparency.

Revolut may still offer speed, flexibility, and convenience traditional banks struggle to match, but until it demonstrates consistent transparency and accountability, it cannot fully earn our trust. 

For me, the lesson is clear: it will take far more than promises and sleek design to restore my faith and trust.

How to check if you are signed up to Spare Change RevPoints

Open your Revolut app. Check your Spare Change settings. If “Convert to RevPoints” is on, that’s your money being turned into points. Switch it off if you don’t want it.