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Comment by ddon | Hacker News Reader

Revolut is really scary organization... used them for a year or so, and then one day locked my account... harassed me for 6 months, asking for all sorts of documents, which I provided them. then one day, they closed my account, and sent back 2K balance to random people who sent me money in the past. When contacted them via twitter, the blocked my the same day :)

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Yeah I knew they were a little farfetched when I saw their head of engineering job spec

https://web.archive.org/web/20200406205828/https://jobs.leve...

> School/university Olympic medal in competitions in physics, maths or programming

• 10+ years as an engineer • Minimum GPA 3.5/4 (US), 60% (UK), 8/10 in any other country

"So we know you've been out of school for 10 years, but can you send us a copy of your report cards?"

Well I had "we know you've been out of school over 20 years, but we really need to know which exam boards you did your age-16 English literature exam with before we'll interview you for this science degree requiring position ... that we previously employed you for".

Thankfully I quite enjoy hunting down lost information but I was not impressed with the HR personnel in that one.

The more disconnected the hiring process gets from the people who will actually be working with the hire, the more farcical it becomes.

HR Creating work for themselves to Justify their existence.

So far what has worked for me in Germany when I got these forms from HR is to put "(by request)" into such fields. Which is, erhm, kind of cheating because, well, they are requesting it right there in the form. But so far, funnily enough, nobody actually bothered. All they cared about was that the form was "completed".

AKA I'll happily bother with that if you're paying me, otherwise no.

> 60% (UK)

60% of what? I have a Cambridge degree with no percentage on it (II/1), and some A-level results with letters.

2:1 is 60-70%

A lot of universitites translate the overall exam percentage achieved to a 1:1, 2:1, 2:2, etc. For instance, achieving an average of 70% or more is considered a 1:1 in a lot of universities. I think it depends on the course too. I don't know if it's standardised.

It was 75% on the course I did for a First - they used to go years without giving any (this was the 1980s).

We had no idea what we got in the end of year exams - just a nice chat with someone who told you "Well done, on course for a 1st" etc.

That job spec is hilarious: > Worked at a large tech company worth more than US$15B

And asking about your GPA? With 10+ years experience? For a head of engineering?

GPA is so irrelevant after like 2 years. I know high GPA individuals that didn’t do much, I know low GPA individuals that are in very high level positions, it’s a terrible indicator. People change, and work is different than academia.

Gallant spent his time in college studying and regurgitating what his professors told him. Graduated with a high GPA.

Goofus spent college practicing his social engineering skills to acquire access to free beer and attentions of young ladies.

After 10 years Gallant is a Sr developer with no reports and Gooffus is the VP of engineering.

Important to note that having a medal was just one of several options. Other options included working at a large tech company, or having a STEM degree from one of 15 universities in the US/top 5 in the UK. It is an "or", not an "and", the requirements seem strange but not unrealistic.

the requirements seem strange "and" like they were written by a psychopath.

• Don’t panic about cooking: get free dinners with Deliveroo • Start the day properly with fresh fruit and cereals

So basically we expect you to be on site before breakfast and stay until after dinner

Or rather "we give you the option to work flexibly and be present either mornings or evenings and still get benefits". My employer provides breakfast and dinner in the office, and I don't think I actually know anyone who is present for both (but there is a 60-40 split on breakfast/dinner). I'm sure it happens, but interpreting it as a requirement is just bad faith.

I don't think it's in bad faith. If an employer offers on-site cafeterias, catered food, nap pods, free massages, game rooms or other stereotypical tech company perks, they may simply be trying to improve employee happiness because it helps with recruiting and retention. Or it may be to get employees to subconsciously accept a lower salary because it's such a "cool" place to work. Or it may be symptomatic of a work culture that blurs the distinction between work time and personal time by bringing your recreational activities into the workplace.

Anecdotally, I've personally had employers try to use these perks to extract unpaid overtime from me, and I know lots of people in the tech industry who regard them as a red flag. Not something to immediately write off a company for, but something to carefully examine before accepting a job offer.

When I used to work in an office on a typical 5 day week pattern I wouldn't be in the office for breakfast or for dinner

If there's a culture of people being on site working longer hours than 9-5 then thats something that will affect your job.

Comparatively, my costs have gone up now that I'm WFH instead of going into the office, because I have to feed myself.

I used to arrive at the office for 7am, have a delicious breakfast, a delicious lunch, and take a doggy bag to go for dinner when I left at 4pm.

While that can sound terrible on the one hand, on the other hand, the cognitive load of having to make sure I have food for breakfast and/or dinner was wearing me down. Stocking a kitchen and cooking for one is no fun.

Work took all of that away, and all it cost me was spending an extra hour a day in the office. That saves me having to go to supermarkets to buy food, saves me having to cook, saves me having to clean, and means I can sit at a table and dine comfortably instead of doing takeaway and eating/drinking on the go.

You might argue I've been brainwashed. All I know is that it's been months since I last got fed at work, and as great as the choices on Deliveroo are, after 3 months of this garbage, I miss having real freshly cooked food prepared for me.

Use this WFH time to learn to cook easy meals.

Check out Anna Jones videos on youtube, like this one

One-Pan Genovese-Style Pasta Recipe | Food Honestly | The Pool

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GjEXxkph-c

This is actually hilarious to read. Part of me thinks that this is all part of a sick joke/experiment to see how willing are people to apply.

If my perspective employer showed me a requirement list like that, I would honestly just show them the finger and make fun of them.

In all fairness to Revolut they did take it down to update.

It was picked apart by a recruiter on Twitter.

https://twitter.com/StevieBuckley/status/1262718368949374976

> STEM (technical) degree from top 15 unis in the US

Don’t bother applying if you went to Cornell, Rice, UCLA, Berkeley, Georgetown, CMU, Georgia Tech, UWA, etc.

What measure are you using for top universities? Looking at US News' top engineering schools, Cornell, UCLA, Berkeley, CMU and Georgia Tech are all in the top 15.

I was going by top national universities. You think they’re smart enough to go by top engineering schools?

Revolut founders are from CIS countries (Russia and Ukraine). It quite common for high-school graduates from post-Soviet countries to participate in STEM Olympics as the medal can open the doors to best tech schools without entrance exam.

It not so hard as it sounds. I get the two medals on Physics when I was in school, so did plenty of my classmates.

I guess by that time they were targeting mainly CIS developers as they have and R&D in Moscow.

>I guess by that time they were targeting mainly CIS developers as they have and R&D in Moscow.

That job was posted last month...

Haven't notice that. Thanks

It's in a set of a couple of other requirements, which they only want one of, and one of the others is "STEM degree from a top 15 school."

The irony is this is exactly how the hiring criteria at some big tech companies looks. They either take people from top schools or people with otherwise impressive accomplishments. Though the rest aren't nearly as transparent about it.

That kind of a specific requirement is generally a sign that the candidate has already been chosen.

My story with revolut is one day, without warning before, when I opened the app, I'd seen info to update it before I do anything with my money. And in Google Store there was no newer release for my version of Android. The only way to complain is to do this in-app so I was not able to do even this. Basically, I was cut off my money, completely.

After two days I found on their site a form to cancel my account. Which was still not easy, before this they tried to keep me as a customer (suggesting for example to buy newer phone :) )

This is pretty standard banking behaviour if they suspected you of money laundering, and closed your account on that basis.

To be clear, I have no idea if you were money laundering, and have no idea if your account usage had indications of money laundering (valid or otherwise). I can just tell you from personal experience that’s what a banks response to suspected money laundering is.

Maybe this would be the case if they froze the account instead of blocking the user and sending money to random people.

You wouldn't send money back to criminals. This isn't normal behaviour.

If a bank thinks money laundering has occurred, and the police don't request to seize the funds, then normal behaviour is to return the money to source, or even to the customer they suspect of money laundering.

Banks don't have any actual power to seize funds, only the police do that, and it occurs extremely rarely. (I've seen thousands of reports sent to police every month for years, and I've only seen police seize funds a handful of times)

I couldn’t even register for a business bank account so left a review on Trustpilot. They tried to have it removed as bring fake. Luckily Trustpilot accepted my evidence and reinstated it.

I also had bad experiences with Revolut including a completely unresponsive customer support.

More importantly, what alternatives are available? Ideally:

- has an API

- reasonably priced or free

- works in EU

Monzo is better in nearly all ways, except slightly worse exchange rates.

Had nothing but good experiences with Monzo, though admittedly I only use it as a day to day spending account.

All ways? They appear to have _literally_ no way to use any of their services except through a phone "app". No thank you. I don't want a toy bank.

The GP is asking for an alternative to Revolut, which is also an app-based bank. You might be in the wrong thread.

They also have an API, which is what the GP was asking for.

It's only available in the UK, not in the EU.

I've been using Transferwise for quite a while, never had any issues with them. The transfers are quick, fees are low, exchange rates are fair.

TransferWise is lovely, but it is not legally a bank.

Bunq.

If their service is anything like their recruitment process, I would stay away.

For day to day usage you need at least a Premium account which is 8 Euro a month. I loved the user experience for doing iDEAL payments but that's all I used it for so I stopped my subscription.

8 Euro a month is far from reasonable.

Depends on what you want to use it for. Transferwise's borderless account and multi currency debit card has served me well for years.

It's worth noting though that they are not a bank. They are a money transfer service and as such not covered by any deposit insurance scheme.

Also, some institutions like stock brokers do not accept payments from Transferwise.

Monzo has also been working well for me, but I only opened the account a couple of months ago. Unfortunately they don't have a web interface, which makes it a bit more fiddly to use than I would like. And they are UK only.

www.bunq.com

"Random people" sending you money over a period of time will trigger all kinds of AML/KYC alerts

I remember a news article that showed up on HN, when people were all over how Revolut was allegedly lax with their AML controls, according to some news, etc

And then they never think they behaviour is going to trigger the checks and that it's ok to have random people sending them money without any justification.

What happens when random people owe you money (split bills, taxis, etc.)? How is it better for AML/KYC if they have to repay in cash instead of by bank transfer?

Small, one-off payments usually shouldn't trigger those alerts

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