Good news this morning as my extra Revolut debit banking card arrived this morning a few days earlier than expected. Revolut mentioned the card would be delivered on either the 24th or 25th November next week so this was very welcome.
The other banking card being a metal one did not work on the ATM's back in South Africa so getting my hands on cash was a problem. That metal card does work with the ATM's here but those ATM's in South Africa are not new machines and must still be using older technology. We tested it out this morning and had no problems what so ever. For some reason I tend to do many of my private business deals in cash and those who I am dealing with prefer cash for obvious reasons.
The plan next year is to start other projects on the house and these projects are all going to be cash payments. This way there are no questions with regard to source of funds and this leaves no paper trails. Any other funds I do not need to declare will also be funneled into the various house projects. I know many other people do this with their cash and it is the smart way to get things done.
Revolut is coming to South Africa next year and is not currently available in the country and mine is a UK registered bank account. I was talking to a friend who works for a local bank in SA and they are worried about Revolut as they offer far more incentives to bank with them. The APR is a flat 4.15% for any amount and there are no minimum fixed amounts which is what most banks have in SA.
I do think the various apps like the RevolutX which is the built in crypto exchange on the Revolut App will be very popular. I have been looking at it and now that the funds are in the Revolut account I will be making some purchases each month. I will stay under the 12K GBP number as to not highlight any tax obligations. If whatever I purchase does well and the profits breach the 12K GBP mark I will just send those to a cold wallet or convert to COTI which is on the RevolutX App and send it to the COTI Treasury.
Bricks and mortar banks need to get with the crypto program or they will soon find themselves in the dark. Banks are trying to prevent people from using cash and the fewer services they offer they are slowly becoming redundant. We do not need FOREX any more as the Revolut banking App allows you to select which currency you require and there are no banking fees besides your monthly costs depending on what level you select.
Just from the purchases I made in SA using the metal card I noticed the fee less transactions which compared to my old HSBC account were not free and were as much as 2.50 GBP per transaction cost. Nothing is free with banking in SA and Revolut is going to make some waves and will definitely disrupt the banking sector.