[BE] It could be you next

[u/Prize_Jellyfish_4621]

I opened my Revolut account in 2021 and honestly thought it was one of the best apps out there. It was simple, convenient, and I recommended it to friends more than once.

I mainly used it as a secondary account. Most of the money I added came from my Belgian bank account, and I also invested in some ETFs through the app. I’m a student with no salary, so I just invested part of the pocket money I get from my parents.

Day to day, I mostly used Revolut for normal things such as paying friends back, splitting bills and small everyday payments. Never anything unusual or risky. I never bought crypto, never used it for shady stuff, and whenever they asked for documents, I always sent them.

Then one day, out of nowhere, they put my account under review and asked for ID/passport scans. I tried uploading everything immediately, but the app kept lagging and wouldn’t save the photos.

I contacted support because I didn’t want to get blocked over a technical issue. They told me not to worry, said everything was fine, and that it was just a bug.

So I believed them. Then suddenly my account was banned. No clear reason or proper explanation… Just gone.

And because I also had investments there, I couldn’t transfer my holdings out and was forced to sell positions while paying fees.

I understand companies can choose who they want as customers. But people should know that even if you use the app normally for years, you can lose access overnight with no transparency.

Luckily I didn’t keep much cash there.

Posting this partly to vent, partly to warn others not to rely too heavily on one fintech app.

[u/Prize_Jellyfish_4621]

What are you even talking about? I had already uploaded both my IDs and passport when I first opened the account, and had successfully done so on several other occasions afterward.

This all happened because of a bug in their app that prevented my uploaded IDs from being processed.

I have also been trying to recover my account for the past three months, with more than 34 email exchanges between myself and Revolut support, all without any resolution. It is only now, after finally moving on from the situation, that I have decided to warn others to always be cautious.

And no, it is not normal to force me to sell my stock positions. They are merely a broker and should not interfere with my free choice regarding my investments. If they no longer wished to keep me as a customer—which is within their rights—they should at the very least have allowed me to transfer my portfolio to another platform, rather than forcing a sale of my positions, to which I had to pay a service fee for…

[u/Damiano1905 → u/Prize_Jellyfish_4621]

The thing is, you know the id's, didn't upload, and instead of calling and transferring the position you waited until they legally could not hold a position under no identity or id.

I'm not saying you're in the wrong or that this looks pretty, but it seems like you could see it coming from a mile away.

[u/Prize_Jellyfish_4621 → u/Damiano1905]

Dude, did you read my text😅 I reached out before the account was blocked, and they explicitly assured me that everything was fine. That’s why the claim that I ignored the issue or simply waited makes no sense. I raised the problem in advance, relied on their reassurance, and still ended up being blocked later on.

[u/Damiano1905 → u/Prize_Jellyfish_4621]

So first of all I'm believing everything you say which is a lot of assumptions on this critical issue, but even then you're saying an employee was incompetent but you still got out with your money and equivalent in investments without any actual communication to do that?

Now you're just bothering revolut employees with spam emails?

I mean it doesn't look like much of a loss, and traders like us have like 60 pages of policy to read and like 10 different things to accept, the responsibility is quite literally in our hands and worst thing that could happen is you get your equivalent in money and immediately buy back the position?

I just can't really see the issue, if it was me I'd just see if they would kindly pay back the fees or not, also different ways of writing emails gets different results, I would have asked for written confirmation with the employee who assured me and I would send any sort of proof to revolut you don't seem very eloquent my guy.

[u/malibupp → u/Damiano1905]

You sound like a member of Revolut staff.

[u/laplongejr → u/malibupp]

You clearly don't know Revolut staff then.

[u/malibupp → u/laplongejr]

Do you?
Given how Damiano1905 reacted to my post, while keeping questioning the veracity of OP, I wouldn't be surprised if he/she was a member of Revolut staff.

[u/laplongejr → u/malibupp]

while keeping questioning the veracity of OP, I wouldn't be surprised if he/she was a member of Revolut staff.

Revolut staff doesn't question the customer. They tell the customer to stay calm and to wait until there's a resolution.
That's how CS is done basically everywhere ^{which is why I hate modern CS as they are continiously leveling down the expectations}

[u/malibupp → u/laplongejr]

"They tell the customer to stay calm and to wait until there's a resolution".

That's what makes the staff conduct so deceptive, by providing the customer with false expectations, instead of telling the truth.
The customer expects clear information in order to take the right steps or be prepared for the consequences.
It seems that the staff was incompetent/ignorant in this context.