April 10, 2024
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Many start-ups are vying for new financial technology (fintech) customers. Challenger banks and money transfer companies seek to supplant legacy banks and corporations that have been around for decades. They attempt this by offering efficient, low-fee, and transparent mobile-first applications. Fintechs typically market to individuals and business customers who travel frequently, live abroad, sell products globally, or freelance.
Two innovative fintechs and banking apps that regularly make headlines are Curve and Revolut. Let’s review and compare their products, services, and plans for UK customers.
How to Choose a Mobile Banking App/Company
Choosing the best mobile banking app depends on your needs, financial goals, and budget. Understanding those aspects will make selecting the right partner and company easier.
Assess your needs first. Before evaluating financial apps, consider your requirements. For example, you may want flight insurance because you travel a lot. You may also request payments often and want to use a customizable link to make the process more efficient.
Understand your financial goals. For everyday financial transactions, mobile-first banks are excellent. However, suppose you want to start investing or seek a tax-exempt account. Most challenger banks don’t offer robust investing platforms. Moreover, tax-free accounts are rare. Thus, you might have to look around or stick with the status quo to achieve your goals.
Consider your budget. While free accounts/plans are standard with neobanks, users must pay to access more features and benefits. It’s the classic freemium model that thousands of tech companies use. They offer free plans to convert users to premium accounts. Secondly, monthly plan/subscription fees can add up to over a hundred euros, pounds, or dollars annually. However, paying monthly fees might not be financially prudent or practical for some people’s budget/saving objectives or debt obligations.
Standard Features
Fintechs and neobanks will continue to add products, services, and features to compete with their rivals and traditional banks. What one company doesn’t have today will likely offer in a few months to a year. Therefore, you needn’t worry about missing out on the long term. Challenger bank apps typically have these features:
- Virtual and physical bank cards
- Instant push notifications on all transactions
- Analytics and categorization of expenses
- Multiple accounts for saving and budgeting goals (not the same as an interest-bearing savings account)
- No foreign exchange fees when spending abroad
- Free money transfers to other users
- Make recurring payments
- Download and print account activity
- Connectivity to third-party apps, for example, Apple Pay and Google Pay
- Card lock/unlock at your discretion. For instance, if your card gets lost or stolen
Revolut Overview
Founded in 2015, Revolut is trying to provide one app for everything related to money. For individuals and businesses, Revolut is the only banking alternative designed for a worldwide lifestyle. It offers free and premium products and services at affordable monthly prices. Revolut operates as a bank in some European countries.
Revolut focuses on today’s hyper-connected world by being a progressive financial partner. It wants to adapt to your needs, give you control, and continuously push you into new and exciting spaces. It welcomes customers to a world of better money management.
Revolut is available in the Apple and Google Play app stores. It has a “Great” rating on Trustpilot.
Curve Overview
Founded in 2015, Curve aims to change how people spend, send, see, and save money. It simplifies your financial life by connecting your accounts to one smart card and an even more intelligent app. Using the Curve Mastercard, you can link your debit and credit cards to Curve’s app and spend it from any of your accounts.
Curve focuses on market trends, including fragmentation of financial services and convergence of customer experiences. It believes the endgame will be a connected world of money, tailored individually for each user.
Curve is available at the Apple and Google Play app stores. It has an “Average” rating on Trustpilot.
Revenue Models
Revolut makes money through plan subscriptions and insurance premiums. It shares revenues or collects fees through third-party product and service arrangements; for example, customers can earn cash rewards through purchases at select partners (Revolut Perks). It charges fees on withdrawals above its fair usage limits. Weekend transactions and currency conversion fees may apply. It collects custodial and commission fees from investment accounts. It makes money from replacement cards and delivery fees. Click here for Revolut’s fees.
Curve earns money through plan subscriptions, shares revenues, or collects fees through third-party product and service arrangements. For example, customers can earn cashback through purchases at select partners (Curve Cash). It charges fees on withdrawals above its fair usage limits, and standard and weekend exchange rate fees may apply. In addition, it earns money from replacement cards and Amex Wallet top-ups. Click here for Curve’s fees.
Products and Services
Revolut
Revolut’s products and services (depending on the card/plan and country) include:
- Budgeting and analytics
- Cryptocurrency account
- Currency exchange
- Current account
- Expense management
- Insurance
- International bank account details
- Interest-bearing account
- Investment account
- Money transfers
- Multi-currency account
- Online payment
- Open banking
- Perks, discounts, and cashback
- Personal loans
- Purchase protection
- Salary advance
- Teen account
- Business account
Unique features (depending on the card/plan and country):
- Earn interest on your money with Savings Vaults.
- Round up payments and save the difference automatically.
- Round up payments and donate the difference to charities.
- Withdraw up to £800 each month for free (a fee may apply to higher withdrawal amounts).
- Split and settle expenses with your family and friends with “Group Bills.”
- Trade stocks commission-free.
- Buy, sell, and hold cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, and Ripple.
- Buy and sell gold.
- Get 0.1 percent cashback within Europe and 1 percent outside Europe on all card payments.
- Get delayed baggage and flight insurance.
- Get pet insurance.
- Get coverage for damage or theft of a rental vehicle, with a limit of £/2000.
- Get exclusive partner perks.
- Gain access to 1,000+ airport lounges worldwide with LoungeKey.
- Get free airport lounge access with SmartDelay if your flight is delayed by over an hour.
- Use a concierge service to help manage your lifestyle.
Curve
Curve’s products and services include:
- Budgeting and analytics
- Card consolidation via single card use (Curve Mastercard)
- Money transfers
- Business account
Unique features (depending on the card/plan):
- Withdraw up to £600 monthly for free (a 2 percent charge applies afterward).
- “Go Back in Time” to switch payment sources retroactively.
- Get cashback from selected retailers with Curve Cash.
- Avoid embarrassment at the checkout by adding a backup card.
- Add loyalty cards.
- Gain access to 1,000+ airport lounges worldwide with LoungeKey.
- Split any payment you’ve made in the past year into installments.
Product Comparison
| Revolut | Curve | |
| GBP account | ✔ | |
| EUR account | ✔ | |
| Savings account | ✔ | |
| Borrowing | ✔ | |
| Overdraft | ||
| Money transfers | ✔ | ✔ |
| Insurance | ✔ | |
| Investing | ✔ | |
| Cryptos | ✔ | |
| Joint account | ✔ | |
| Teen account | ✔ |
Plans and Pricing
Revolut and Curve provide multiple subscription plans, and costs are reduced for annual payments made in advance.
| Plan A | Plan B | Plan C/D/E | |
| Revolut | Free | £3.99 | £7.99/£14.99/£45 |
| Curve | Free | £5.99 | £9.99/£17.99 |
Recommendation
Curve’s single-card solution is unique but slightly gimmicky. It seeks to replace multiple credit and debit cards with one card. Alternatively, if you like Revolut or another financial company, you would probably default to using its card and not others (or its card most of the time). Secondly, financially savvy individuals know that using up to two cards is the best and quickest way to accumulate rewards. So, using Curve would align with what they’re already doing. Lastly, one study showed that people with excellent credit scores had an average of three open/active cards. Thus, Curve’s one-card solution likely wouldn’t appeal to individuals with fantastic credit histories.
Almost everything that Curve can do, Revolut can do, but the opposite isn’t the case. Curve’s primary value proposition is single-card use. Aside from its retroactive payment source feature, it doesn’t offer much help with people’s financial activities. Its interbank exchange rates, rewards, push notifications, and so on are standard among challenger and mobile banking apps. By contrast, Revolut offers investing and insurance products, among many unique features.
Both companies, alongside TransferGo, offer cost-free money transfers. However, surpassing daily/monthly limits or sending on weekends will attract small fees. Curve uses “a wholesale fixed daily” exchange rate compared to Revolut’s superior offering of mid-market rates.
Revolut offers more than Curve by a wide margin and is comparable to many established banks. It has emerged as one of the top European/global challenger banks and fintechs alongside Wise and N26. Perhaps Curve will offer more in the future to increase its value proposition. However, Revolut has a better product portfolio, costs less, and is available in more countries/regions. Those reasons justify choosing Revolut over Curve.
