Wise vs Revolut for Spanish Autónomos: Which Is Better in 2026?

Most foreign autónomos in Spain invoice clients in USD, GBP or EUR — sometimes all three. Spanish banks are slow, expensive and bureaucratic. Wise and Revolut both fix this, but they're optimized for different use cases. Here's how they actually compare for self-employed work in 2026.

TL;DR

• Wise Business — best for receiving foreign currencies. Real exchange rate, dedicated USD/GBP/EUR/HUF/etc. account details so US clients pay you as if you were a US business.
• Revolut Business — best for daily spending, expense cards for team or self, virtual cards for SaaS, instant card freezing. Conversion is good below the monthly plan limit.
• Recommendation: open both. Wise to receive, Revolut to spend. Most successful autónomos do this.

What an autónomo actually needs from a bank

1. A real IBAN that works for Hacienda direct debit (Modelo 303 cuota, Seguridad Social cuota).
2. Receive USD/GBP from foreign clients without losing 3–5% on conversion.
3. Multi-currency holding — don't be forced to convert immediately.
4. Clean transaction export (CSV/Excel) so your bookkeeping app can categorize.
5. Card for business spending with proper facturas downloadable.
6. Stable, no random account freezes — both have had complaints; we'll cover it.

Wise Business: deep dive

Account details

Wise Business gives you separate account details in:

• USD (ACH and Wire routing) — your US clients pay you to a US-style account
• GBP (UK sort code + account number)
• EUR (Belgian or Spanish IBAN — you can request Spanish)
• AUD, CAD, NZD, SGD, HUF, RON, TRY, and more

When a US client pays your USD account, the money lands as USD. You hold it as USD until you choose to convert.

Fees in 2026

• One-time setup: €55 (refunded after $/£/€10,000 of receiving in some promos)
• Receiving USD via ACH: free
• Receiving USD via wire: $4.14
• Receiving GBP local: free
• Receiving EUR SEPA: free
• Conversion: mid-market rate + 0.33–0.65% depending on currency and amount
• Sending SEPA: ~€0.39
• Sending SWIFT: €2–10 + small %

For most autónomos converting $5,000/month USD→EUR, Wise costs about €25–30 in fees. A traditional Spanish bank would charge €100–150 for the same.

Spanish IBAN — important

Wise offers a Belgian IBAN by default (starts with BE…). Under EU regulation, no Spanish entity can legally refuse it. In practice some employers and Hacienda direct debits historically had issues, though this is largely fixed.

In 2026, Wise also offers Spanish IBAN (starts with ES…) for EUR accounts — you may need to request it. With ES IBAN, every Spanish direct debit works without friction.

CSV export

Excellent. Statement → CSV with transaction date, currency, counterparty, reference, amount, fees, conversion rate. This is exactly what bookkeeping tools (and Taxo) need.

What Wise is bad at

• No virtual card for SaaS subscriptions (yes it does now, but limited)
• Account opening sometimes takes 1–2 weeks with verification
• Customer support is async and slow
• No cash deposits

Revolut Business: deep dive

Plans (2026)

• Free — €0/month, 5 free SEPA transfers, ¥1,000 / £1,000 / $1,000 FX free per month
• Basic — €10/month, more transfers, more FX
• Grow — €30/month, unlimited internal, expense cards
• Scale — €100/month, for small teams
• Enterprise — custom

Fees

• SEPA out: 5 free on Free plan, then €0.20–€1 each
• Exchange: mid-market rate within plan allowance, then 0.4% weekday / 1% weekend
• Card payments: free in EUR, ~1% if currency differs from card

Account details

• EUR IBAN — Lithuanian (LT…) on most plans. Same EU rules apply: no Spanish entity can refuse. ES IBAN available on higher plans.
• GBP — local UK details (sort code + account)
• USD — virtual USD wire details, but ACH local routing is limited compared to Wise

What Revolut is great at

• Instant transfers between Revolut accounts (great if your clients also use it)
• Virtual cards — generate disposable cards per SaaS subscription, kill them with one click
• Expense management — multi-card, receipts in-app, categories
• Mobile UX — best in class
• Crypto and stocks integrated — niche, but useful for diversification

What Revolut is bad at

• Receiving USD from US clients via ACH — works, but less smoothly than Wise
• Account freezes — historically the most-complained-about issue. They've improved, but the risk of a 7–14 day verification freeze if you receive an unusually large payment is real. Don't keep all your funds there.
• Exchange beyond plan limit gets expensive on Free plan
• No factura issuance, just receipts

Side-by-side comparison

Feature	Wise Business	Revolut Business
Setup fee	€55 one-time	€0 (Free plan)
Monthly fee	€0	€0 / €10 / €30 / €100
Local USD account	Yes (ACH + wire)	Yes (wire only)
Local GBP account	Yes	Yes
EUR IBAN	BE… or ES…	LT… or ES…
Conversion rate	Mid-market + 0.33–0.65%	Mid-market within limit, 0.4–1% beyond
Virtual cards	Limited	Excellent, unlimited on paid
Receipts/facturas	Receipts only	Receipts only
CSV export	Excellent	Good
Direct debit Hacienda	Works with ES IBAN, BE IBAN usually OK	Works with ES IBAN, LT IBAN usually OK
Support	Async, slow	In-app chat, faster on paid plans
Account freeze risk	Low	Medium
Best for	Receiving foreign currency	Daily spending, team cards

Practical setup for an autónomo

Here's the combo most foreign autónomos in Spain use:

1. Wise Business — clients in the US, UK, Switzerland pay to your local USD/GBP details. You hold the currency, convert only when EUR is strong or you need cash flow. Convert in batches of $3–5K to minimize fees as a percentage.
2. Revolut Business Free or Grow — for SaaS subscriptions (virtual card per service), daily business spending, splitting expenses, quick transfers to other autónomos.
3. A real Spanish bank (BBVA, Santander, ING) — keep this for Hacienda direct debits, RETA, payroll if you ever hire, and as a backup. Even with Wise/Revolut working, regulators sometimes prefer a Spanish bank for certain procedures.

Bookkeeping integration

Both Wise and Revolut export CSV with all needed fields:

• Date
• Description / counterparty
• Reference (invoice number if your client put it)
• Amount in original currency
• Conversion to EUR
• Fees

Spanish bookkeeping tools (and Taxo) ingest these CSVs and:

• Categorize each transaction (revenue, expense category, transfer)
• Match against your issued invoices automatically
• Flag transactions missing a factura
• Compute IVA per row based on category and counterparty
• Prepare data for Modelo 303 and Modelo 130

If you mix Wise + Revolut + a Spanish bank, you can either consolidate CSVs manually, or import all three into Taxo and it merges them.

Bottom line

• If you can only open one: Wise if most income is USD/GBP, Revolut if income is EUR and you spend a lot on SaaS.
• If you can open both: do it. Wise to receive, Revolut to spend.
• Don't keep all your money in either fintech — use a Spanish bank for the bulk and for Hacienda links.

---

Taxo imports CSV from Wise, Revolut and any Spanish bank. Auto-categorizes every transaction, matches them to your invoices, and prepares your Modelo 303 — all in English and Russian. Join the waitlist at gettaxo.com.