Revolut Customers Are Temporary

Friends in the SaaS world often joke about having bad SaaS karma for signing up for services with temporary or disposable cards for trials or testing knowing the card will fail future charges. I began wondering if customers from banks that offer disposable or temporary cards really live up to this reputation. After digging through data representing half a billion dollars in revenue and 55 million users across both B2C and B2B companies, the numbers tell an interesting story.

A Quick Data Crash Course

We examined two key metrics:

1. Trial-to-Paid Conversion: How many trial users become paying customers.

2. Churn: Of those who converted, how many eventually cancel.

Note: To ensure our comparisons were statistically robust, we applied a chi squared test. This allowed us to determine whether the differences in conversion and churn rates across banks were significant rather than just random noise. The chi squared analysis underpins the relative percentages and confidence in our findings.

We started by looking at Revolut, they have a global customer base and offer both temporary and non temporary cards. We couldn’t slice by temporary versus non-temporary as from a card network point of view they are the same (same issuer, same type etc.)

How Do Revolut Customers Fare?

Conversion: Low commitment = low conversion

When you compare traditional players like American Express, whose users are roughly 350% as likely to convert as the baseline, the contrast is striking. Across three Revolut entities, the average conversion performance is only about 52% as likely to convert compared to baseline users. In plain language, if you sign up with a Revolut card, you’re only about half as likely to upgrade from a trial to a paid subscription as someone using, say, a Chase card.

Churn: Like the cards, these customers are often temporary

Conversion isn’t the only hurdle. Even when Revolut users do convert, they’re more prone to cancel. Our churn data shows that Revolut customers are around 11% more likely to cancel than the baseline. In contrast, other traditional issuers like American Express hover around baseline levels for cancellations. In other words, even if a Revolut user becomes a paying customer, their long-term commitment is notably weaker.

How Do Other Digital Banks Compare?

Wise

• Conversion: Wise users are about 82% as likely to convert compared to the baseline.‍
• Churn: They are roughly 12% less likely to cancel.

Wise customers perform better than Revolut’s—they convert at a higher rate and tend to stick around a bit longer.‍

Monzo

• Conversion: Monzo users convert at about 96% as likely as the baseline—nearly on par.
• Churn: However, they are about 15% more likely to cancel.

Monzo is close to average for conversion, though its churn figures indicate a modest increase in cancellations.

Starling

• Conversion: Starling users convert at an impressive 181% as likely as baseline users.
• Churn: Their cancellation rate is almost exactly at baseline—around 3% above or below, effectively neutral.

Starling not only converts trial users very well but also manages to keep them at a rate comparable to the average customer.

N26

• Conversion: N26 users convert at roughly 183% as likely as the baseline.
• ‍Churn: However, they are about 62% more likely to cancel.

While N26 is very effective at turning trial users into paying customers, retaining them is a significant challenge.

What Does This Mean for SaaS Businesses?

The data tells a clear story: not all customers are created equal. The type of card a customer uses may subtly signal their long-term commitment. If someone signs up with a card known for its disposable nature—like those from Revolut—it might be a red flag that they’re treating your service as a one-off transaction rather than a long-term investment.

For SaaS businesses, the takeaway is: if you can nudge customers toward using payment methods that imply higher commitment—think cards that are not temporary or have more than a dollar on them—you’re more likely to see higher conversion rates and lower churn. In other words, the payment method isn’t just a way to process transactions; it’s a signal of how serious the customer is about sticking around.

Want to Know More?

Understanding these signals like these can help you convert more customers, lose less and have better marketing ROI. At Upollo, we help you predict who’s likely to convert or churn and why, so you get signals like these in a way you can take action on. Try Upollo for free and uncover the hidden signals in your product, payments, sales and support data.

Revolut customers might be temporary, but your approach to customer acquisition and retention doesn’t have to be.