Revolut Reader review: convenient in Ireland, with low domestic rate

What is it? More than just a card reader

Revolut’s QR codes are already used by many Irish businesses, such as hairdressers, to get paid from customers in person.

But Revolut Reader takes this a step further – launched in 2022, this wireless card reader works in conjunction with the Revolut Business app. It accepts contactless and chip cards of the Visa, Mastercard and Maestro brands, as well as Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay.

All transactions clear in your online Revolut Business account within 24 hours, so you can use it for expenses with the accompanying Debit Mastercard soon after seeing the customer.

Despite having a European banking licence, Revolut Business is still an e-money account in Ireland, not a bank account. That said, it can be used as a current account with its own IBAN for international transfers. What’s more, you can create different currency accounts to keep EUR, USD, GBP and other currencies separate.

In fact, having the business account comes with many free and optional features like team expenses, bulk payments and integrations with other software. Whether you’re a freelancer or company, there’s a free or paid subscription to suit your size of business.

You can view all transactions and use account features in the Revolut Business app. This includes sending payment links, invoicing, generating QR codes and managing cards and team members.

Our opinion: convenient for Revolut users, potentially cheap

As long as your business serves mainly Republic of Ireland- and EEA-based (unfortunately not Northern Irish) customers with a consumer card, Revolut will probably be a good money-saving option for both irregular and regular payments.

When I first tested the card reader, it was newly launched and still with teething issues, but most of those problems won’t apply to new users. If you do run into problems, customer support may be slow to help. The card reader’s 30-day money-back guarantee and year’s warranty may ease your mind, though.

“I think it’s worth getting the card reader for merchants who regularly use the Revolut Business account and need to accept cards from Irish (not Northern Irish) customers. But someone looking for the best quality card reader can find it elsewhere.”

– Emily Sorensen, Senior Editor, MobileTransaction

Given the lack of substantial features like tipping and sales analytics, the Business app is only suitable for simple transactions. Better point of sales features are available in the new Revolut POS app, but this is for iPad only and mostly for simple food-and-drink operations, not retailers or anything complex.

Revolut Business account holders benefit from having a card reader integrated with the account, with next-day settlement and a Mastercard included. The business banking features, online payments and multi-currency accounts are real benefits for borderless freelancers and companies alike.

Pricing

The Revolut card reader costs €49 + VAT upfront, plus a €5 shipping fee (free delivery is not an option).

The card terminal comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee, giving you the option to change your mind for a full refund. A 1-year warranty also covers the cost if it has an internal fault.

You can only order the card reader after the Merchant Account has been verified. That’s because you can’t accept card payments without it, whether online or in person. The order is placed within the account online or in-app.

There are different business account subscriptions depending on the amount of features required, but a free plan is perfectly fine for using Revolut Reader. A Company account costs €0-€100 monthly and a Freelancer account €0-€19 monthly.

Transaction fees are low at 0.8% + €0.02 for Mastercard and Visa consumer cards issued in the Republic of Ireland or EEA, but high for premium, corporate, commercial and non-EEA cards at 2.6% + €0.02.

All Northern Irish and UK-issued cards qualify for the higher non-EEA rate, which is not great if you get a lot of business from there. If most of your customers are from the Republic of Ireland or within the EEA, the domestic fee is a very competitive rate that’s worth getting the card reader for.

If you decide to refund a transaction, the transaction fees are retained by Revolut, though no other refund fee is applied. Chargebacks incur a fixed fee of €15, should a customer dispute a transaction.

Next-day payouts in your Revolut account are free. You receive funds in the Merchant Account within 24 hours of each transaction, even on weekends. To spend the money, funds have to be moved to the Business Account from the Merchant Account (takes an instant to move), which is either done manually or automatically at the end of each day.

Once in the Revolut Business account, you can spend it immediately on expenses with your free Mastercard Debit card sent to your postal address. You can use it to get cash from ATMs for a fee of 2% of the withdrawal amount. This is more expensive than using a bank card.

It is, however, free to spend funds with the Mastercard online and in stores. If you want to pay in other currencies, Revolut has affordable exchange rates for its multi-currency accounts.

App features

Like Square and SumUp, Revolut has a point of sale (POS) iPad app which is mainly for cafés and simple shops. Most users in Ireland tend to use the card reader with their phone, though, through the Revolut Business app (iPhone and Android). No other POS systems work with the card reader, deeming it unsuitable for retailers or merchants who need extensive features like inventory management and loyalty functions.

“The new Revolut POS app for iPad is worth checking out, but my tests found it’s mainly for small food and drink. For impromptu card reader payments, only the Revolut Business app would suffice.”

– Emily Sorensen, Senior Editor, MobileTransaction

In the Business app, you have to navigate to the ‘Merchant’ section and create a “Request” for money. In the Request menu, you can choose between creating a payment link, email invoice, QR code, payment page or card reader transaction. All but the card reader option are for payments processed online, whereas the card reader allows you accept a chip or NFC (contactless) transaction electronically. You cannot register cash payments through the app.

Unless you’ve just taken another card reader payment, the first thing that happens when creating a new request is connecting with the reader. This takes a few seconds if automatic, or slightly longer if you need to confirm the security code in the app and on the terminal screen. With leading alternatives like Square Reader, you don’t have to reconnect after a significant break.

The payment screen gives two ways to create a transaction. The default option is to add a single EUR amount and short description, which could be the product or transaction reference.

The other is to tap items in a product menu to add to the cart. This requires that you’ve added items already, along with a tax rate, product category, unit type and icon colour. It’s not a fully fledged inventory system that tracks stock levels and analyses what’s selling. It’s just a means of adding items to bills quickly and itemising receipts.

When the card reader has successfully processed the payment, you have the option to send a digital receipt via a messaging app, email or text message.

Transactions can be exported from the app to a CSV file for accounting, Excel or other spreadsheet software. Revolut doesn’t give you sales analytics like showing best-selling products or times of day you’re selling more, just an overview of transactions.

To refund a payment, you tap on the transaction and input the refund amount (partial refunds are accepted) and refund reason. The amount will then be processed back to the customer’s card.

But here’s what I noticed: you cannot immediately refund a transaction since it is marked as ‘pending’ for a short while after the card payment went through. Only when it is ‘completed’ in your business account can you initiate a refund, and only if you have enough funds settled in the Revolut account to cover the refund amount. This could lead to some awkward moments with customers if they regret a transaction or a mistake was made.

If you’ve team members, you can set up individual user profiles in your account with permissions that let them accept card payments.

There are no other features related to card reader payments.

Revolut service and reviews

Revolut users can access a 24/7 chat support in the app. There is no phone number or email support, so you have to contend with that.

Our own experience of Revolut support has been slow and inconsistent. We were repeatedly passed on to different people who did not have an answer. It may take days or weeks (like it did for us) to resolve technical issues, but then again, this is a new product that’s still improving on the software side. We were also asked to resubmit proof of our business repeatedly even though it had been approved before.

“I kept having to reverify my account with documentation after a few months’ inactivity, which was a pain as it meant I had to wait until approval to use the payment features again. With regular use, you might not have to do that.”

– Emily Sorensen, Senior Editor, MobileTransaction

I had several technical issues to begin with, but the only problem that persisted was that a different name than my business name appeared on a customer bank statement. This was never resolved.

Judging from Revolut reviews, we weren’t the only ones experiencing unhelpful responses to issues on the chat. Some have to wait for days or weeks for large transactions to be accessible in their account, while others have issues verifying their account. We’ve also seen issues making the card reader work.

Many reviews are positive about the features, though, particularly around ease of use and the convenience of the service. Revolut is a popular online bank in Ireland where more than 1 in 3 people use the service, which is a good indicator that it’s here to stay. Reviews specifically about Revolut Ireland (not Revolut in general) have tended to be more negative compared with other countries, though.