Week Two: How I found out my credit score was garbage, and how to check yours (Revolut, Clearscore, Tandem)
This week, I used Revolut as my bank card, and also took my first look at FinTech credit cards, using Tandem’s journey builder card. As with other weeks, I started this review by transferring one weeks worth of budget onto my card last Tuesday, and spending solely with that card for the week.
From what I have read, Revolut has somewhat of a mixed reputation. On one hand, they hit 3 million users last November, more than double that of Monzo and six times that of Starling, so they must be doing something right. On the other hand, they are infamous for forcing long hours on employees, with over 40% of employees quitting after a year, their CFO recently stepped down the day after the Telegraph ran an article accusing them of disabling their sanctions software designed to prevent money laundering (ouch) and they have been embroiled in an advertising row, after they admitted faking statistics on their tube adverts. So yeah, a mixed reputation.
My week with Revolut
So I’m going to come out and say it. I really didn’t like using Revolut. Maybe it’s because I really enjoyed Monzo last week, maybe it’s because of the bad press it’s been getting, but feature wise it just felt inferior in nearly every way to Monzo. I know I’m early into my challenge, but I definitely have a favourite.
Signing up to Revolut was easy enough, as with Monzo, N26 and Monese they accepted me almost instantly and the card arrived in the post only a few days later. Revolut definitely has some strengths, but I also found some glaring weaknesses which made it super painful to use.
What I liked — Currency transfers and daily budgets.
Probably the biggest reason why Revolut has become so popular is the ability to convert currency, for free, within the app. You can transfer in GBP, and convert them straight to Euro, all for free. Like Starling and Monzo, you can use your card for free abroad, but the ability to actually convert your cash within the app is definitely a plus, and I believe is probably the ‘killer feature’ that has led to them surpassing 3 million users. Whilst this does sound great, it’s not particularly useful for me.
Revolut also most of the same spending features as Monzo, like live notifications, daily summaries, and nice graphs showing you just how long it is until payday. Revolut also allows you to set a daily budget, which I found really useful in evening out my spending over the week. Revolut’s answer to Monzo’s pots is ‘Vaults’ which had almost identical functionality (Thanks for the heads up Braden Marshall), so in terms of the UI and the spending categorisation, there was little different, for better or for worse, than Monzo.
What I hated — Sending, receiving and no.apple.pay.
Activating the card turned out to be a whole lot of faff. Playing it safe, on the first day, I used the card on the way to the tube to buy breakfast, putting it into the machine at coop and using the pin I had set in the app. Getting onto the tube worked too, however when leaving the barriers my card was denied. Every Londoner know the sheer panic that occurs that, when in a long line of grumpy, sleep deprived commuters, your card fails to work at the barriers. Scornful stares, audible tutting, and many a look of disapproval followed. Do you step to the side? Do you try a second card? Do you keep trying your current card? A million options, all of which are sure to piss off Keith from Stevenage, who is breathing down your neck, keen to rush to his desk where he will sit for the next nine hours.
I was forced to take out another card and use that. Complete humiliation. It also meant I got charged twice for the journey, and that seemed to send my Revolut card into a wild panic, disabling the card for contactless payments for the rest of the day. It was only after a lengthy convo with their support chat that I got this rectified, but yeah, not exactly off to a good start.
Sending and receiving money with friends also wasn’t fun. I sent some money to a friend of mine who reads the blog, using a magic link similar to that of Monzo, and he actually texted me to complain about how bad the experience was. And to add insult to injury, after entering his email and ploughing through about six different screens, it told him it would take two days to receive the cash. Madness compared to Monzo’s instant payments. Bank transfers in the app were much quicker but they were just, ya know, bank transfers. Nothing new.
And lastly, and perhaps most frustrating, was that they don’t have any Apple Pay support! I actually couldn’t believe this at first, nearly every bank (and even my bloody Tesco Clubcard) has an Apple Pay system, but a challenger bank with over 3 million users didn’t? I’ve grown so accustom to using my phone to pay for most small purchases that not having access to this was actually a big inconvenience.
I guess in answer to my original reason for starting this blog, ‘will this help me reduce my spending’, the answer is yes. It had most of the notification functionality that Monzo did, but the small little annoyances really added up. Unless you convert money into different currencies frequently, I can’t see a reason why you would pick Revolut over Monzo.
Why you should care about your credit score
So I tried to book a holiday late last year, and being a broke yuppie I thought I would chuck it on a credit card. As with my attitude to most things, my attitude to my credit score used to be “eh, I’m 23”. I’m not looking to buy a car, or get a mortgage, so why should I care about my credit score yet? Obviously this came back to bite me, when I tried to apply for a credit card I got rejected by nearly every bank. Exasperated, I found a tool online to check my credit called Clearscore, and it gave me a rating of 279, or to put it into cutting words, very poor. Not just poor, very poor. Brutal.
This was in September, and since then I have been on a personal quest to improve my credit score. I think I’m going to write another post about what I did to improve my score, but I really recommend downloading the Clearscore app and checking out yours. It’s completely free, only takes about 5 minutes, and gives you great tips on how to get better. I know it sounds boring, but your credit score is effectively how banks and lenders judge your trustworthiness. Because my credit rating sucked, it was super hard for me to get access to credit, and therefore go on holidays that future me will pay for later.
FinTech to the rescue?
Getting access to credit is probably still the area where FinTech is yet to make its mark, but this is slowly starting to change. Monzo and Starling are offering loans to customers with a long history with them, Revolut is doing something similar, and a number of other smaller firms are starting to offer credit cards too.
My previous experience of trying to get access to credit was just that, trying. It involved multiple trips to the bank, with copies of my passport, and three months of PAPER bank statements (who has paper bank statements) to prove that I have at least some money. I then had to wait two weeks for them to approve me, and for the card to arrive.
FinTech is finally changing this. Some cool new credit cards are coming out, like JAJA and Tandem. JAJA is still operating a waitlist, so I haven’t had a chance to get my hands onto the card, but it promises instant issuing, real time control, no fees, and more excitingly the ability to share your credit limit with others, which sounds awesome.
The offering from Tandem is live, and my experience with it so far has been incredible.Their journey builder card is designed for people with sucky credit, and I was able to apply for the card whilst lying in bed one Saturday morning, and get approved within 10 minutes. The card arrived only a few days later, and like most FinTech brands, I can manage all my spending and repayments through an app, without ever having to visit a bank once.
With this, and a few other tips, I’ve managed to increase my credit score by nearly 30% to a respectable 380. Still technically as ‘poor’, but very poor no longer.
Next week: Starling, Moneybox and Klarna
For next week’s blog, I am going to be using Starling, who recently won Best British Bank and Best Current Account 2018 at the UK Bank Awards. I am also going to be talking about my favourite savings app Moneybox, and the awesome but incredibly dangerous “Buy Now, Pay Later” service Klarna.
Thanks for reading!
Edit 5/3/19: My loyal reader Braden showed me that Revolut does in fact having a savings offering called Vaults, so I have updated the section which claimed they didn’t. Thanks Braden, you the real MVP.
