RevPoints review: is Revolut’s new rewards programme worth it?

You can get air miles and discounts with the scheme

Revolut’s introduced a rewards programme, allowing all customers to earn “RevPoints” for everyday purchases which can be exchanged for air miles or discounts. Here’s our take on the programme. 

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What are RevPoints?

RevPoints is Revolut’s new loyalty scheme that lets you earn points using your Revolut account by spending and completing challenges. It was initially launched in some European countries but has now landed in the UK.

RevPoints is free, but the earnings are boosted for those with paid-for Revolut accounts.

How do you earn RevPoints?

You can earn RevPoints in several ways:

Spending with your Revolut card

You can earn up to one point for each £1 spent. This top figure is for Ultra customers. A free or Plus Revolut member earns a point when they spend £10.

Revolut Plan	Cost of plan	Points earned
Standard	£0	1 point for £10 spent
Plus	£3.99/ month	1 point for £10 spent
Premium	£7.99/ month	1 point for £4 spent
Metal	£14.99/ month	1 point for £2 spent
Ultra	£45/ month	1 point for £1 spent

Cash withdrawals, money transfers and transactions related to financial services aren’t eligible to earn points on. 

You can get up to twice the points when you book a stay through Revolut – this seems to vary, but the amount you’ll earn in points is laid out in the app. 

In addition, you can earn extra points with some retailers. For example, in my app, I’ve got offers for five times the points when I shop at AliExpress, ten times the points at The NorthFace and five times the points with Aesop.

Bonus points for challenges 

Within the points section of the Lifestyle tab, you’ll find an option called “Challenges” which lays out some ways to earn bonus points.

You can essentially get these points for actions like setting budgets, meeting spending goals and making use of Revolut’s other budgeting features. Here are some of the challenges and the points you can earn in my app at the moment:

• Welcome bonus – more on this below
• Pay from pocket – 10 points
• Stay within budget – 10 points
• Refer a friend – 500 points 
• Donate to charity – 5 points
• Keep donating to charity – 5 points per donation
• Pocket transfers – 5 points
• International transfer – 20 points
• Create a pocket for bills – 5 points
• Customise categories – 5 points
• Pay with mobile (5 times in a month) – 10 points
• Add external account – 5 points

Welcome points

You can get 3,000 welcome points, which amounts to 3,000 air miles or £60 in “Stays” discounts if you join and make 150 eligible card transactions in 3 months. 

Or, existing Revolut members can get 10,000 points for upgrading their account and meeting spending thresholds — the threshold seems to vary, so you’ll find details in your app about this. 

I’ve had a Revolut account for about four years and have never used it (except accidentally on the tube once), and I’m being offered the first offer, so it may depend on how often you use your Revolut account.

Round up to points 

If you currently round up your transactions into a pocket (more on this in our Revolut review), you can have them converted into points instead. It works out as 50 points for £1 saved this way. 

For free members, activating the “SpareChange” feature is a requirement to use RevPoints. If you later deactivate this function you’ll be limited in ways to earn or redeem your points.

How to sign up for RevPoints

As mentioned above, Standard customers need to activate the round-up feature and have their change converted into points. 

Other customers have to activate RevPoints in the “Lifestyle” tab. A pop-up appeared as soon as I opened the app, so you can just follow the steps when you are prompted.

Do RevPoints expire?

RevPoints are valid for three years after you get them. Any points you don’t use will go to waste and can’t be converted back to cash.

What can you use RevPoints for?

(Rev)Points mean prizes — you can use your points for different rewards, including air miles, discounts on hotels and shopping discounts. Like with Amex points, there’s no easy way to understand the value of your points as they’re worth a different amount depending on how you redeem them. Here’s some of what we know.

Flying

You can trade 1 point for 1 air mile. These can be converted to points schemes with 30 different airlines, including British Airways Avios points. 

Using your points in this way would make 1 point worth around 1p.

Stays

When booking a Stay with the Revolut app, you can convert your points into a discount. 

In my app I can only see a small handful of hotels available to book with points. You seem to get between £90 and £125 off when you have 6,000 points and £40 off when you have 2,000 points, which means exchanging your points in this way makes each point worth about 2p.

Revolut experiences

You can also book experiences in the Revolut app, including things like boat trips, stadium tours and other trips. I struggled to find any experiences that could be booked with points, however Revolut lists this as one of the benefits of RevPoints.

Revolut Pay discounts

In addition, you can convert your points into discounts when you use Revolut Pay to complete the transaction. 800 points works out at £8, which gives you an effective value of 1p per point. So if you’re earning 1 point per every £10, that’s the equivalent of 0.1% cashback. However, you might find you’re limited how many brands you can pay this way.

How much could you earn with RevPoints?

Revolut reckons that if you spend £2,000 per month (£24,000 per year) and have the Ultra Plan then you’d earn about 24,000 points in a year, which is worth 24,000 air miles, up to £480 off Revolut Stays or £192 off Revolut Experiences.

This is assuming that you pay £45 per month for its highest tier, or £540 a year.

 If you’re a free customer then you’d earn just 2,400 points over a year (based on a £24,000 annual spend), which would be 2,400 air miles, or £48 off Revolut Stays.

What makes RevPoints different from similar products?

When comparing RevPoints with similar loyalty programs like Amex and Barclaycard, the main factor you might prefer is that it’s not a credit card. You can earn points on your debit card spending without worrying about credit checks or getting into debt.

However, you will lose out on the added Section 75 protection you get with these cards and you won’t earn as many points. 

Depending on your choice of card, you get a point for every pound with American Express without a monthly fee, while some pay more. Plus there are some decent bonus points available for new members.

You could also consider a cashback debit card, which doesn’t get you points but does get you actual cash. For example, Chase pays 1% on your purchases with up to £15 each month available to earn. If you spend £1,500 per month, you’d earn the full £15, so spending £2,000 per month would effectively get you 0.75% back.

	Revolut (free)	Revolut (Premium)	Amex Rewards	Chase
Points value (estimated)	1p = 1 point or 2p = 1 point for stays	1p = 1 point or 2p = 1 point for stays	0.5p = 1 point	n/a
Earning points	1 point when you spend £10	1 point when you spend £4	1 point when you spend £1	1% cashback on purchases
Effective earnings rate	0.1%Or 0.2% with Stays	0.25%Or 0.5% with Stays	0.5%	1%

Is RevPoints worth it?