Hey everyone, posting this as a warning to fellow merchants and to gather advice from anyone who's been through similar.
I run a luxury travel agency based in Spain. We've been using Revolut Business for over a year without issues, processing payments from international high-net-worth clients for tailored trips — hotels, transfers, private guides, the full package. Average transaction size is higher than retail because of the segment we serve. Fully legitimate, fully documented operation.
A few weeks ago, two transactions got flagged for review: one for $10,543.80 and one for $40,932.40. Revolut asked for documentation: booking confirmations with itinerary line data, plus proof of explicit cardholder authorization. Reasonable enough — we have all that. We submitted booking confirmations showing the cardholder as the guest/passenger, full email threads with the client explicitly authorizing the charge, complete itineraries.
What followed is a cycle that I'm going to try to describe accurately because I want others to understand what they're walking into:
We submit documentation. They lift the account restrictions (but don't release the money). Then they come back asking for more documentation. Restrictions go back on. We submit more information. They lift them again (still no access to the funds). They ask for more papers. Restrictions back on. We send everything they ask for. They tell us it's "all in order" (the money still doesn't move). A new documentation request appears. Account blocked again. We send the next thing. They lift the restrictions (still no access to a single euro). New request. New block. We're now at the point where they're demanding a signed letter from the cardholder confirming receipt of services, that the transactions were fully authorized, and that no disputes exist.
A signed letter. From an HNW client. Who never disputed anything. For services they consumed without complaint.
The critical detail: the cardholder is NOT the one disputing the charge. There's no chargeback. This is Revolut's internal risk review, not a cardholder claim. Yet we have over $50K of legitimate revenue frozen on transactions where we already have a full evidence chain — booking confirmations, itineraries, email authorizations, evidence of services rendered and consumed — meeting Visa's published "compelling evidence" standard for travel merchants.
On top of that, the entire account is restricted (blanket hold), so other unrelated client payments are also frozen. We've formally requested partial release of unrelated funds. No response yet. We're preparing a formal complaint via Revolut's internal procedure and will escalate to the Bank of Lithuania (regulator of Revolut Bank UAB) if it isn't resolved.
A few questions for the community:
- Has anyone successfully closed a Revolut review with a comprehensive evidence package without a signed cardholder letter? Asking for one when full documentation already exists feels like overreach for travel transactions.
- For those who escalated to Bank of Lithuania or Banco de España — did it actually move the needle, or is it theatre?
- Anyone migrated from Revolut Business to another processor for travel merchants? Specific recommendations welcome (Stripe, Adyen, Trust Payments, Worldline, others).