
A Haven for Fraud and Stolen Cards or How My Wife Was Forced to Quit Revolut - charlieirish
https://thehftguy.com/2020/08/12/a-haven-for-fraud-and-stolen-cards-or-how-my-wife-was-forced-to-quit-revolut/
======
Jestar342
Assuming this blog is accurate - Yeah this is bad. I am actually amazed it's
that bad. Surely it's not meant to be this bad?

How on earth do they have a UK banking license?

I wasn't aware of this before, but just searching for "revolut FCA" turned up
this article from last year about a whistleblower investigation by the FCA in
2016 into seemingly intentional looking-the-other-way for some clients by the
CEO[1]

[1]:
[https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-47751945](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-47751945)

------
Normille
Strange. The KYC parts of this tale are the mirror opposite to what I've
experienced.

Over the past half dozen years or more I've opened probably 4 or more bank
accounts with UK 'high street' banks [a couple for personal use, a couple for
business or saving]. I've never had to visit a branch with ID. It's all been
done online in a few minutes. I've always assumed that this is because the
banks have access to things like the electoral register or local government
records to check that I am who I say I am and that I live where I say I do.

The story with the new 'challenger banks' has been very different. I couldn't
even open an account with the first few I tried [I think Monzo, Bunq and
Starling] because they basically wanted me to send them; ID documents,
passport, proof of address, selfie video, etc.

Yes! I'm really going to send an "Identity Theft Kit in a Box" to some
unregulated hipster company I don't know from Adam.

I eventually opened an account with Revolut because, at the time, they didn't
ask for all this crap up front. But the account was severely limited in
amounts I could deposit or withdraw, unless I uploaded a copy of ID/Passport
and linked it to my high street bank account.

I did eventually gave in and sent Revolut a copy of my passport although I
never kept more than a couple of hundred £££s in the account, as their support
forums are full of horror stories of people being left stranded on holiday
abroad, or facing eviction because Revolut suddenly and without warning froze
their accounts.

The final straw came when my passport expired and Revolut started emailing me
a couple of times a week to tell me I needed to upload a new passport in order
to continue to use the account --you know that old classic whereby you
magically stop being who you were on the Monday, because your government
issued ID expires on the Tuesday?

At that point I gave up on Revolut [I'd given up on the other challenger banks
at the "Identity Theft Kit in a Box" stage] and closed the account.

I'll stick to my boring 'high street' bank from now on. They may not talk to
me in emojis and twee cartoons but at least my money's safe, my account's
unlikely to suddenly be locked for no reason and I don't have to give them all
my personal data, for the privilege of then giving them my money too.

------
LatteLazy
It's quite concerning you can open a Revolute account without ID. When I
opened a Monzo account it required a pic of my driving license (despite having
already recommendation from existing clients and passing the E-Check process
with Address\Name\DoB etc).

~~~
Jestar342
Monzo needed me to send a video of me speaking a phrase of their choosing
along with a photo of my ID.

~~~
LatteLazy
I had to do that 6months later when I started using the card abroad. I thought
it was odd but it worked rapidly.

