Revolut vs PayPal

Revolut collects broad categories of personal data including IDs, financial details, device data, location, contacts, biometrics, behavioral signals, and inferred profiles. This creates a detailed picture of your finances and app use.

Revolut may use automated systems, including AI, to open accounts, detect fraud, and lock, restrict, or close accounts. In practice, users may face sudden service interruptions pending review.

Revolut expressly says it will not sell your personal data. That is a meaningful privacy commitment compared with many consumer platforms.

Users can access, correct, delete, restrict, object, withdraw consent, and request transfer of certain data. Practical controls are available in-app or by email.

Personal data may be kept for long periods after the relationship ends, and some fraud-related records may be retained even longer. Deletion requests may therefore only be partially honored.

Revolut shares data within its group and with service providers, payment networks, credit agencies, partners, authorities, and payment counterparties. Some recipients of your payments will receive identifying details like your name and IBAN.

If you enter the wrong account details or pay the wrong person, Revolut generally is not responsible and only says it will try to help recover funds. Users bear much of the risk of payment mistakes.

If an automated decision significantly affects you, you can ask for manual review and challenge the result. This matters because account opening, fraud checks, restrictions, closures, and credit decisions may be automated.

If you cannot resolve a complaint with Revolut, you may escalate to the Financial Ombudsman Service. This gives users an external dispute option beyond dealing only with the company.

You can download your payment and account information from the app while your account is active. That supports record-keeping and practical portability.

The terms say English law applies and court claims must be brought in England and Wales. That may make court action less convenient for some users, though it does not waive the right to complain to the Ombudsman.

Customer money is held as safeguarded e-money in segregated accounts or low-risk assets, which offers insolvency protection mechanics. But it is not covered by the UK Financial Services Compensation Scheme.

Disputes generally must go through individual arbitration or small claims court, and class actions are barred. That limits users’ ability to sue together in court, though there is an opt-out window.

PayPal can revise the agreement and related policies, and continued use means you accept the changes. If you do not agree, your main remedy is to close the account.

PayPal can place holds, limits, or reserves on accounts when it sees risk, disputes, or regulatory issues. That can delay access to money for months in some cases.

PayPal collects extensive data including identifiers, payment details, device data, geolocation, cookies, and even biometric data with consent. This gives the company a very detailed picture of user activity.

Personal information may be disclosed to service providers, group companies, payment networks, fraud and credit agencies, debt collectors, other users, and business partners. That increases the number of entities seeing user data.

PayPal generally keeps account-related personal information for the relationship plus up to 10 years, and biometric data up to 3 years after account closure. That is a long storage period for sensitive financial data.

Linking a payment method authorizes PayPal to charge it for sends, purchases, disputes, and amounts owed. Unlinking does not fully stop charges for already-authorized transactions or dispute-related amounts.

PayPal uses cookies and tracking technologies for advertising, analytics, and fraud prevention, and says it does not respond to Do Not Track settings. Users who disable cookies may lose features.

Users have a right to receive account statements and can view them in the account. That helps with recordkeeping and spotting unauthorized activity.

The policy says users may request access, correction, deletion, objection, and consent withdrawal, subject to verification and legal exceptions. That gives users meaningful, though not unlimited, control over their data.