Revolut: how the referral works

What is Revolut?

Revolut is a fintech-turned-bank that started as a multi-currency travel card and has, over the past decade, expanded into a full retail banking, savings, investing, and crypto product line. In the EEA, the regulated entity is Revolut Bank UAB, licensed by the Bank of Lithuania, which means accounts opened from Spain, Switzerland’s EU residents, France, Germany, Portugal, and the rest of the EEA fall under the same licence and the same Lithuanian deposit insurance scheme. The retail experience is mobile-first: there is no branch network, no paper statements by default, and the app is the primary control surface for everything from card freezes to FX trades.

For someone signing up today, the appeal is the combination of a free baseline account, multi-currency holdings without forced conversion, and a card that can be used abroad without the hidden FX markup typical of legacy banks. The trade-off, which the rest of this page covers honestly, is that the support model is digital-only and several travel-grade features sit behind paid tiers.

How the referral works

The link on this page sends you into Revolut’s standard referral flow. Once you sign up, complete identity verification with a valid EEA ID, and order the free Standard card, the in-app promo screen will show whatever welcome offer is active in your country at the time. Historically, that has been one of two formats: a small cash perk credited after a single qualifying card transaction within 30 days, or a tiered cashback offer on early spending. The exact amount and the qualification window vary by country and by month, so the offer headline above is intentionally generic — what you see in the app at sign-up is the binding offer.

There is no code to type in. The referral attribution happens via the link, so you should sign up in the same browser or device session in which you click through, and you should not switch to a different referral source mid-flow. If the in-app screen does not show a welcome offer when you reach the home screen, the most common cause is that the link was not followed (for example because of an aggressive tracker blocker), in which case re-installing the app from the same link generally fixes attribution.

Who Revolut is for

Revolut suits people who travel within the EEA, hold or spend more than one currency, or want a clean mobile interface for day-to-day banking without committing to a full account migration from their primary bank. It also fits readers who already use a Spanish, German, or French bank for salary deposits and want a secondary card for online purchases, FX, and travel.

It is less of a fit for users who need a branch, paper-based document handling, or specialised products such as fixed mortgages — Revolut’s mortgage and credit footprint in the EEA is still narrow and uneven by country.

Regulatory posture

Revolut Bank UAB is authorised and supervised by the Bank of Lithuania. Because Lithuania is in the EEA, the licence passports across the rest of the EEA under the standard Single Market arrangements, which is the legal basis for offering current accounts to residents of, for example, Spain or Germany without a separate local licence. Deposits are protected by the Lithuanian deposit insurance fund up to €100,000 per depositor, the level harmonised across the EU under the Deposit Guarantee Schemes Directive.

For users outside the EEA — notably Switzerland — the relationship is different and is conducted under a different operator entity; the welcome flow and protection scheme will not match the description above. If you are signing up from Switzerland, read the in-app legal disclosures carefully before depositing.

Things to watch for

• Weekend FX surcharges. The “interbank rate” headline applies on weekdays; weekend conversions carry a markup that the app discloses in the trade screen.
• Tiered support. Free-tier customers do not get phone support; resolution times in chat vary by issue type and time of day.
• Crypto and stocks live alongside the bank account. They are convenient but the underlying protection is different — crypto is not deposit-insured, and stock holdings are custodied separately under MiFID rules. Read the in-app product disclosures, not just the marketing copy.

Conclusion

Revolut earns the recommendation here because the operator of this site has used it as a secondary card for years and finds the FX, virtual-card, and EU transfer features genuinely useful for a Spain-based traveller. The welcome flow is straightforward, the licence position is clear, and the product is honest about what is and is not deposit-insured. Click through, complete the in-app KYC, and you will see the active promo on the home screen.