PayPal vs Revolut
Most Australians reading this already have a PayPal account and are deciding whether Revolut is worth adding. That is the honest shape of this comparison — not which to abandon, but whether the second one earns its place.
They are not really substitutes, so add Revolut rather than switching. PayPal is an identity you use to buy from strangers and get paid, with buyer protection nothing here matches; its weakness is a 4.00% conversion margin that makes it an expensive way to touch another currency. Revolut is a spending account for travel and multi-currency life, cheap for exchange but with no published allowance figure on its free tier. Keep PayPal for checkouts and disputes; use Revolut for the card in your pocket overseas.
Side by side
Costs are computed from each provider's published schedule for a bank-funded, bank-delivered transfer. A row marked estimated sits outside what the provider publishes as a rate.
1 Standard has no published allowance figure, only fair-usage limits, so a fee beyond the surcharge cannot be ruled out at this amount.
Which one, and when
Paying an overseas seller who takes either
PayPal converts at a 4.00% margin, so A$500 costs about A$20 more than it needs to. Revolut is doing straightforward currency exchange rather than pricing a payment product. The buyer protection argument only applies when you actually need protecting; for a seller you already trust it is A$20 spent on nothing.
You are about to travel
Hold the local currency, spend on the card, and take out up to A$350 a month across five ATM withdrawals before the 2% over-threshold fee starts. PayPal has no equivalent proposition and was never meant to. This scenario is the whole reason people open a second account.
Getting paid by an overseas client
The one who pays picks the rails, and a great many of them only offer PayPal. Being reachable matters more than the margin when the alternative is not being paid. Where the client is flexible, ask for a bank transfer and route it through something cheaper.
You want the money to be protected if things go wrong
PayPal buyer protection covers a purchase dispute; it is not deposit protection. Revolut appears on the AUSTRAC remittance register where PayPal does not, and both hold an Australian financial services licence — PayPal 304962, Revolut 517589 — but neither balance is covered by the Financial Claims Scheme. Money parked in either is not protected the way money in a bank account is, whatever the register says.
Where each one loses
PayPal charges 4.00% to convert and hides it in the rate rather than stating it, which makes it the wrong tool for anything involving another currency. Its Australian fee page mixes jurisdictions, so its non-conversion fees could not be verified from it.
Revolut has no buyer protection, so it is no help when a purchase goes wrong. Its free tier publishes no allowance figure, only fair-usage limits, so a large exchange cannot be priced in advance, and a surcharge applies outside foreign-exchange market hours.
General information about payment methods available in Australia. Not financial advice. Fees, limits and features change — verify current terms with the provider before acting.