My story. I run a small business in the EEA. Due to recent geopolitical events and citizenship-related sanctions, I made the decision to close the company. The final step was withdrawing the remaining funds from my Revolut Business account.
1. Contacting Support
The particular complication in my case was that I no longer had any active European bank accounts, except for my personal Revolut account.
Revolut stated they were willing to transfer the funds to a non-European account, but required the receiving bank to support IBAN “for security reasons.” SWIFT transfers to an account number without IBAN were considered “unsafe” by them — something I learned only through this process.
My resident country’s bank does not support IBAN.
I spent one and a half months trying to resolve this with support. Both options — transferring to my personal Revolut account or sending a SWIFT transfer without IBAN — were rejected. The response was consistently “terribly sorry,” but no workable alternative was offered.
Support operates strictly by scripts, which is only part of the problem. The bigger issue is competence. My case was repeatedly “escalated to a special team that handles such matters,” only for another member of that “special team” to escalate it again to yet another “special team.” This cycle continued without progress.
I assumed they could not simply retain my funds indefinitely and would eventually find a solution.
I was wrong.
2. Contacting Revolut Compliance
I filed a formal complaint with Revolut’s Compliance department and attached the full support conversation.
The response restated the timeline of my communication and concluded — once again — with “terribly sorry,” and a suggestion that I was free to pursue legal action if I wished.
At this point, I expected Compliance — unlike frontline support — to take a reputational or regulatory perspective on the issue.
Again, I was mistaken.
3. Complaint to the Lithuanian Financial Ombudsman
I submitted a formal complaint to the Lithuanian financial ombudsman (which can be done remotely online). I included my correspondence with support, my compliance complaint, and their response.
Only after this external escalation did Revolut begin actively working on a solution.
Interestingly, it turned out that there are employees who are capable of resolving non-standard issues — and not just saying “terribly sorry.”
An alternative solution was eventually offered. It was not ideal, but I accepted it in order to finally conclude my relationship with Revolut.
I do not plan to resume it ever.
Summary
The withdrawal process took two and a half months.
Revolut’s service is convenient — as long as everything works within standard scenarios.
However, when facing a non-standard issue, support appears unable to act beyond scripted responses. Some representatives lack a basic understanding of how their own product functions.
It is possible to resolve complex issues — but be prepared for prolonged delays and potential escalation outside the organization. External escalation does work, but it costs time.
I hope the company improves its internal escalation procedures to avoid similar situations in the future.
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