Revolut's Dogecoin Card – The "No Fees" Card That Cost Us 12%

Revolut's new light-up Dogecoin card promises "no exchange fees" — so we put £25 through it and tracked every penny. What we found was a £16.16 Amazon purchase actually cost £18.05, and a tax headache behind every tap. 

In this episode:

• What the Doge card actually is
• The  test: buying DOGE, spending it at Amazon, and where £2.54 went in 35 minutes
• The hidden markup: how a "fee-free" card carried a ~2.9% round-trip spread
• The tax trap: why every tap is a potential tax
• Follow the money: interchange, dormant crypto balances, and why this card makes perfect sense for Revolut
• Serious bank or meme machine? A glowing Shiba Inu, just months after the UK banking licence
• Who actually buys this — and our verdicts

Nothing in this episode is financial or tax advice. If you're considering spending crypto, speak to a professional about the capital gains implications.

Watch the blowtorch unboxing: https://youtube.com/shorts/mh916J-LnJQ

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https://link.bankingwithoutborders.co.uk/discord

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Connect with us (via LinkedIn)

Jan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jan-watermann/

Jonny: http://www.linkedin.com/in/jonny-pease

Got a question or topic you want us to cover? Drop us a message at jonny@technicallymoney.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Okay, welcome back to another episode of Banking Without Borders. So today Jan and I are talking about the Light Up Revolute Doge card, and we want to ask three questions. Why does this card even exist? What is Revolut's game plan here? And who on earth is actually buying it? Besides me, of course. Because while we were researching this card, a card that explicitly advertises itself as having no fees, we uncovered a fee structure that I can only describe as frightening. And later in the episode, I'll take you through exactly what it cost me to use it in Doge, step by step, and I think you'll be pretty shocked. Now, I've already had the honor of unboxing this twice, actually, because I cut up and blowtorched the first one. And if you want to see that video, I'll link it in the description box on YouTube and put it in the show notes. But the main selling point here is that the sunglasses that the dog or the Shiba Inu is wearing on the front of the card, they light up when you tap to pay. Whether or not the transaction is successful, it glows. It always, they always glow. Sometimes they flicker. Honestly, Yan, I think I actually prefer it to a metal card. And we've spent years on this show asking why metal cards even exist. And at least this one does something. But when they released this card in May, Revolute had a tweet that they put out, and I quote, much light, very tappy. And I just want to bring that up quickly because we are talking about a licensed bank tweeting that. Okay? But we'll talk about that shortly. And it's available in the UK and across most of the EEA, and supposedly the initial supply is limited, although I've now managed to get my hands on two of these, so make of that what you will. The card itself costs £20 plus a delivery fee. So you're looking about £24.99 unless you go with like express delivery, which is £17. Importantly though, this isn't fixed to Dogecoin. So you can link it to a whole range of tokens, or you can just use it to spend pounds as like a novelty debit card if you wanted. But Doge is clearly the marketing play here. And I think Revolute are trying to appeal to that meme fandom. But yeah, before we get into all of that, I just want your first impressions because I imagine you've got a few thoughts on this one.

SPEAKER_01 1:59

Whoa, Johnny, a funky looking Japanese stock on your cart whose sunglasses light up when you pay for it. I think it's ridiculous, to be honest. And people that are listening to this podcast more regularly, they might have already expected this would be my opinion. Um I think this sets a statement. You know, Dogecoin that's built around hype. A few years ago it was hyped like crazy. Um there were people like literally investing their life savings into it. Um I think it's there's no clear use case just for principle. I don't think this is right. Doesn't matter what it costs, doesn't matter what the fees are, you know, it could be the best card on the market. I would think, I would think it's it's it's yeah, rather ridiculous. Um but that's just me. Maybe I'm too rational for this. I don't know. Maybe I don't understand it. Maybe this is something that, you know, everyone listening, please enlighten me. Um what do you think about this card? Get in the comments. Um it's it's rather ridiculous, frankly speaking.

SPEAKER_00 2:49

Yeah, Revolute are advertising this as something that you can use to spend on small everyday items or big budget items. Their website says use your crypto balance to pay for anything from big budget items to everyday essentials instantly and with no exchange fees. Remember that term, no exchange fees. But the first thing I want to hold on, Yan is that they are encouraging you to use it for everyday essentials.

SPEAKER_01 3:10

Okay. Like groceries.

SPEAKER_00 3:12

Yeah, and that means a lot, a lot of transactions. But what are the tax implications of purchasing with a crypto asset? What would that look like at scale if you were using this to do all of your purchasing?

SPEAKER_01 3:24

Yeah, Johnny, that's a great question that came up actually, um, that I actually stumbled upon while doing the research for this episode. Um so apparently because these these crypto tokens are not considered currencies um but assets, every crypto card payment is essentially a disposal uh that you know could be a taxable event. Um and if you've made a profit on your transaction, let's say you bought Doge for, you know, for for I don't know, five cents or something, now um it's 10 cents, you you made capital gains, right? And you owe tax on these capital gains to uh whoever is the tax authority in your country. Obviously, like there's certain you know, certain restrictions to it. Tax doesn't work the same way depending on where you're based. Um, but this is something to be aware of because if you use this card for your everyday transactions, literally buy your groceries with it, this could lead to serious consequences. Maybe not now, but I assume as AI becomes more advanced, as AI becomes also available to tax authorities, I think this is something that could bite you in the butt later on.

SPEAKER_00 4:24

So we have to, I mean, we have to disclaim that as well. Neither Yan or I are like tax experts or consultants. If you know any of the tax that you hear or listen to in this video, you should probably ignore and seek actual tax advice if you are interested in using this card and curious about the capital gains implications.

SPEAKER_01 4:40

Yeah, you don't want to think about that, right? You rather want to think about the the nice-looking Japanese dog whose sunglasses light up every time you pay. You don't want to think about things like tax that could, you know, could lead to serious consequences later on. Um it's all about gamification, Johnny. Um, and the audience this is built for. Those are not the people that want to think about tax. Um that's my personal opinion on this. Obviously, uh it might sound a little bit harsh, and I don't want to offend anyone listening to this at all. Um I want to make that clear, but uh, to me, this is I don't know, I'm not even sure why this was made.

SPEAKER_00 5:12

It's a novelty card, I suppose. And I mean if you don't link it to crypto, then it's not so bad, particularly on the fees side.

SPEAKER_01 5:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:19

But Jan, there are multiple reasons. Right, why why Revolut have made this? And can you can you talk a bit more about the the revenue aspect of this side of uh Revolute's business?

SPEAKER_01 5:30

Absolutely, Johnny. And you don't have to be a mathematician to figure out why this is very lucrative for them. Revolute has 75 million retail customers across the world, and let's say even even 0.1% of them go ahead and start using this card. Wow, the scale is just tremendous, right? You'll have um hundreds of thousands of users um that use this card potentially on a daily basis to transact for groceries, these kinds of things. This is what it was made for initially. Um, and you'll see, like if they even make a small margin on every purchase, it it sums up very, very quickly. Crypto assets in the past, you know, Revolut, it's not a novelty that Revolut offers crypto assets. You were able to buy crypto assets on Revolut for a very long time. The thing is, in the past, these assets they were, you know, they were just just saved to your balance, right? You might um you you would have potentially sold them here and there, you know, bought some new ones, right? This is how transactions happen. But now with this card, you know, people are people are being enticed to to buy and sell crypto assets more often. Every time they do that, Revolut obviously makes a margin on it. Um and this is this is where this becomes very compelling from a financial aspect.

SPEAKER_00 6:40

Yeah, it's important to know that Coinbase Binance, there are a number of these cards that are available. Revolut aren't the first to do it, nor will they be the last. And we are here just to talk solely about Revolut and not draw a comparison against the other crypto exchanges. I think that's important to mention. I'd be curious to hear from people though, throughout this episode, if you are on actively on the other exchanges, how does this crypto card compare? Yeah, that's that's something I'd love to know. But one of the main fees that Jan is referring to is the interchange fee. So Revolut are able to generate income every time you transact with the card. That's not a fee that you have to pay, that's a fee that the merchant's bank or the merchant, sorry, pays. But Revolut, I think, for the year ending 2025, made a billion pounds roughly from interchange fees. So it's a huge part of their revenue stream. And adding this, like Jan has said, I really want to r emphasize this. Like this is important and this is clever. They're taking what is essentially a dormant asset, it just sits in your and your balance and your account, either appreciating or depreciating. Well, now they've been able to turn that asset into an interchange fee, essentially. But that's not the only cost. When I use this card to buy something on Amazon, I discovered something quite frightening in in terms of the cost of transacting with this card. And I'm I'm gonna take I'm gonna take you through this step by step, through the process. But I'm not an expert on cryptocurrency, so I'm gonna talk relatively slowly. For those that are watching this, I'll I'll also put some receipts on on the screen so you can see, and also I'll I'll put a table up to take you through the process, but I'll also try to explain it as clearly for audio listeners as possible. So I bought Dogecoin Yan. I spent £25, which is probably an awful trade because I ended up paying a £1.99 fee. I have the standard account, I wasn't using Revolut's crypto exchange where you get lower fees as well. So that was one of the worst ways you could buy crypto through Revolut. So it was a £1.99 fee. And in the end, from £25, I actually traded £23.01. For that, I received £421.65 doge at a value of £22.65. What's hidden here already, Jan? So I had the £1.99 fixed fee, which is very transparent, but then I lost £36p. And that was because there was a £1.6% markup on top of the fee. That's a hidden fee. So I compared the exchange rates against CoinGecko and the exchange rate Revolute gave me, and there was a 1.6% markup. This is at the crypto exchange level. We haven't started spending any money yet, which is apparently fee-free. Um, but then I headed to Amazon to make a purchase. I found a book, The Psychology of Money. I feel like that's really appropriate, and I spent 304.29 doja Amazon for something worth 16 pounds and 16 pence. That was the value of the sale. And if you go onto Revolute's website, I'm gonna say this again. It says there are no fees on the landing page. But if you scroll down, you'll see that there is a FAQ that says something like, what sort of exchange rate will you get? In fact, let's do this live. Let me just scroll down. I've got it open here. We use the real-time exchange rate to calculate how much crypto will be deducted from your balance at the time your card payment is completed. Notice the terminology here. We use the real-time exchange rate. It doesn't say the market rate. I calculated that I received a rate when I made that exchange back from Doge to Pounds. Because remember, I'm on Amazon, but I'm using my Doge card. So I uh they've got to convert that doge to GBP or whatever the merchant's currency is. So for me it was pounds. I got an exchange rate, Yan 1.3% below the rate they gave me when I exchanged from pounds to doge. It was an exchange rate or a margin spread of 2.9%. Wow. I paid £18.05 of real money for something that actually cost just £16.16. The cost of paying in Doge was £1.89. It's a fee-free card. The fee-free card, exactly. And as far as HMRC are concerned, if we're talking about like the tax liability, that's actually technically a disposal because I sold my doge and made a capital loss of £1.89. So at least there's no tax to pay. Which I guess is useful. Interestingly, a Yan, I could also offset that loss against future gains, but I'd have to actually claim it. And at a higher rate of capital gains tax, that's actually not worth £1.89. It's worth only about £45p. So I've essentially spent that much money. One well, £1.89 to say 45p. Um and of course to claim, I mean, think about the admin yan. If I wanted to actually claim it, I'd need the date I bought it, what it cost me, I'd need the sterling value at the exact second I tap the card.

SPEAKER_01 11:13

Johnny, the thing is, you have the choice to do that because you you made a loss. But if you make a gain, you're required to do that by law. Right? And that's the thing. Technically, you'd have to, you'd have to, you know, keep track of all of these things. How many Dogecoin users do you think are actually doing that? One. How many people that would use this card would keep track of these things?

SPEAKER_00 11:33

There will be someone, maybe there's someone watching this. Maybe you can jump in the comments and talk us through this. What does the tax what does the Doge tax liability look like for you on this one? I mean, honestly, I I mean that I've still got 117 Doge sitting in the app, Jan. Um and every single time I tap the card again, that's gonna be a disposal. I'm probably not gonna make a gain on it. I mean, I made a lot I made a loss of, what was it, like almost th three pounds as soon as I made the conversion. So I'm never gonna make my money back on that. Obviously, yeah, if Doge had gone up, I would have made a I would have made a gain. So like Jan keeps saying, I would have actually had to disclose that. That was admin that I would have actually had to have legally done. The biggest thing for me here, the biggest, most disturbing and kind of sad reality of this is that this is really advertised, in my opinion, as a fee-free card. That's my opinion, that's the way I'm looking at it. I'm gathering that from the pages. It looks free, Jan, and it's not. And I've done maths that a lot of people won't do. Uh, people aren't doing this. At least not at scale. For me, Yan, that changes the way I perceive Revolution.

SPEAKER_01 12:33

Johnny and I I I understand, I understand you totally on this. Um, it's just it's fascinating. How can a financial institution that just received their banking license in the UK after such a long battle? I think it took them five years to get it, two months later, launch a glowing dog card. A card with a Shiba Inu printed on it that lights up every time you pay with it. Honestly, this makes them seem as not a serious bank at all. This is rather the opposite. Think of it. Would would HSBC do that? Would they put a funky looking dog on their debit card that lights up every time you use it? They would not. Um, that's very unlikely. So it says, no, I don't know. This is makes me perceive them as you know, the same as out perceived Coinbase, Crypto.com Binance, and these other um crypto exchanges that already have crypto cards in place, right? This is nothing new. This is no no huge innovation. I mean, the fact that it lights up, that might be an innovation, I haven't seen it on other cards. But besides that, the concept is the same. This has been on the market for quite some time. If I was Revolute, I would not want to be compared to these um these crypto exchanges, you know. Um I would rather, you know, I would rather base my reputation on, you know, being a serious bank, you know, a bank you can trust with large amount of assets as well, you know, thinking about asset management, these kind of things. Um and this is those are avenues that Revolute wants to move towards, right? They've they've said that in the past. They want to launch asset management service, it's uh services, etc. Um, they they want they're really trying their best to attract large amounts of deposits. I think this move, you know, this is harmful personally. Um this will will definitely not put them closer towards their goal. But that's just my opinion.

SPEAKER_00 14:13

I guess you said this isn't like HSBC. They they share this in common. The HSBC and other legacy banks quite often use hidden fees. I think we can call them that. That's what they are in in the exchange rate spread. They don't have to legally disclose those, possibly in the European Union now when it comes to like any exchange rate that's based on like the the EUR. Um I think the European Union do make you disclose the rate uh in a percentage format. We obviously don't want this card, Jan. We obviously don't like this card. But there are plenty of people that won't watch this, they won't listen to this, and they'll still want this card. But can you just please clarify, who are they? Who really wants it?

SPEAKER_01 14:52

Honestly, that's a good question, Johnny. And I struggle to understand it. I know that Dosh has a big community, that there are many meme coin collectors that you know, um you you just have a look at Reddit. You'll you'll find plenty of conversations around these tokens um and cryptocurrencies. Those are no no novelty, they've they've existed for quite some time and they've become very, very popular. Maybe it's for these kind of people. I assume so. Um but for for me, you know, I would I would not do that. And even serious crypto investors, if you say um you believe in these coins, right? You invest in the for the long term because you believe that they, you know, they might become um they might replace the existing financial system in the future. Who knows? You know, there are people that believe that. And I think this is actually a valid thought, you know, that's a valid valid, um, valid thought. It could happen. I don't know. But if you're one of these people, why would you sell your position to buy a coffee? Um, I don't understand. You know, um for me, this is just I I have a hard time wrapping my head around it. Um for me, this card seems useless, personally. Um, but it's you know, also don't want to offend anyone. I just don't get it. I don't understand the kind of people this is this is made for.

SPEAKER_00 16:01

I guess novelty hunters, Revolute themselves have said that there's a limited supply that could get people to order one just for the sake of it, like people like sneakerheads, for example. Um, you know, that type of personality trait. It is difficult to ascertain who this is for. I mean, who this, you know, who's the who's the winner that comes out of this? I don't think it's per certainly not crypto enthusiasts that are getting arguably, you know, greater access to spending their crypto with ultimately Revolute come out of this the winner. I don't think it does any harm to them reputationally. Um, you and me will perceive them differently as a result, and and people that lit listen to us and watch us, depending on their opinion of this situation, might as well. Ultimately, Revolute come out the winner. They sell more cards, they make more money. I imagine the cards are made to order, so there's no stocking costs or overhead, it's just someone orders, we get a percentage. Simple as that of the order value. Really curious, Jan, about people's thoughts on this one. I think it's it's slightly controversial in my opinion, particularly the way the card is advertised as being fee-free. I really want to hear from people in the comments. Um, you know, join us on the Discord channel if you want to become a founding member as well. We'll put a link in the description box. I'll put a QR code on the screen right now. Come across and have a conversation about this as well. I think there's a lot, there's a lot more to be said about this one. I'd be really curious to get the opinion of like Doge enthusiasts, if any of you are watching this. How does this make you feel about Revolute? How does this make you feel about Revolute's stance in crypto as well, Jan? Like, where does this card compare to the likes of Binance? Uh uh Jan, I don't know this. Maybe someone else can answer this, but do Binance take a spread when you use their crypto cards to spend money? I don't even understand the mechanics of them. I apologize. I'm yeah, not a crypto enthusiast, but I'd I'd love to hear from some. Thanks everybody. As always, like, subscribe, and we will see you in the next episode.