I had a Revolut account for about a year but abandoned it when [like most of these so-called 'Challenger Banks'] they started making ridiculous privacy-raping demands for me to upload; selfie-video, driving license, scan of my passport, etc. to confirm my identity.

Their support forums are also full of horror stories of people being left stranded abroad without access to money when their accounts are suddenly and without warning unaccountably frozen, and of people having their accounts frozen and denied access to their cash for weeks or months [again, without warning or reason] so they are unable to pay rent, bills, etc.

I really don't know why these challenger banks get so much love from the media. I think that often the press [especially the tech press] gets so blinded by the fact that something is new and 'interwebby' and has an app with cutesy cartoon graphics that they fail to look beyond that and actually evaluate the service.

My boring high street bank's app might be a bit corporate and dull and not full of twee cartoons. But it does the business and "just works". My boring high street bank has never locked my account, never invaded my privacy by asking me to send them an identity thief's wet dream's worth of personal data and my boring high street bank is also regulated by my country's financial authorities, so my money is [as much as these things ever can be] "safe".