Revolut outage on 20 October: how a technical failure differs from a bank collapse, and how money in a French account is protected

What happened

On Tuesday 20 October, at around 8:15 a.m., Revolut acknowledged a major outage. Customers in several European countries, France among them, were affected: card payments, transfers and cash withdrawals failed, and logging in to the app or the website did not work. The company apologised and said its technical team was restoring service and that customers' money and data were safe. At that point it had given neither a cause nor a timeline. Revolut publishes the live state of its services on its status page.

Below is what this means for anyone who keeps money with an online bank.

An outage is not a bank failure

When an app goes down, the money does not disappear: it is still on the account, you just cannot reach it for a while. The State deposit guarantee is designed for a different situation, a défaillance, when a bank cannot pay its customers back. In that case a guarantee fund repays the deposits. In France this is the Fonds de Garantie des Dépôts et de Résolution (FGDR).

What the rules provide

According to the FGDR:

• The ceiling is €100,000 per customer per bank. All of a customer's accounts at that bank (current account, savings accounts, PEL, CEL, Livret Jeune) are added together.
• Livret A, LDDS and LEP are guaranteed by the State, separately from the general ceiling: also up to €100,000 per customer per bank.
• A joint account is split equally between its holders by default, unless the account agreement says otherwise.
• Repayment comes within 7 working days at most.
• Online banks are protected in the same way as traditional ones. But if one bank operates under several brands, the €100,000 ceiling applies once for the whole bank.

Three points newcomers often miss

1. Not every "app with an account" is a bank. The FGDR FAQ lists funds that its guarantee does not cover, including money held with payment institutions and electronic money issuers. Knowing which category your service falls into matters before you keep a large sum there.

2. A bank from another EEA country is protected by its own country's fund. The FGDR states that customers of French branches of banks headquartered in another country of the European Economic Area are guaranteed by the fund of the country where the head office is. The ceiling is the same under the common European rules, but the claim would be handled by a foreign fund.

3. How to check your account. Banks that belong to the FGDR have a "code établissement", the first 5 digits of the RIB. The FGDR website lets you check whether a bank is a member. In addition, a bank must give its customer a deposit-guarantee information sheet (fiche d'information) before opening an account, and then send it once a year. It names the fund that protects the money. It is not advertising but a mandatory document, and it is worth reading.

Sensible steps to take in advance

• Have a second means of payment, such as a card from another bank or a little cash. One bank's outage should not leave you unable to pay for groceries or a ticket.
• Do not keep more than the guarantee ceiling in one place if the sums are large.
• During an outage, use only the official app or website. Do not respond to calls or messages "from customer support" asking for your codes. We covered how these schemes work in our post about fraudsters posing as a "bank courier".
• If the account has a foreign IBAN, remember form 3916 in your tax return (we have a separate explainer).

The Revolut outage is a good reason to check where your money is, who guarantees it, and whether you have a backup way to pay.