Revolut to cover period costs for Metal users under new partnership

The cost of sanitary products continues to rise year on year, but now Revolut is helping some of its subscribers to cover the cost of their periods.

In January 2021, the tampon tax, the 5 per cent VAT added to sanitary products, was removed but the cost of periods still remains high.

People who menstruate have an average of 456 periods throughout their lives and spend roughly £1,915 on tampons and £2,326 on sanitary pads in their lifetime. 

Now, Revolut is giving its Metal customers £5 cashback for 12 months when they buy period products from sanitary product subscription service Yoppie.

Yoppie offers customers a subscription service for typical period products like tampons, pads and liners but also offers a range of supplements and face masks.

Revolut customers have until the end of February 2022 to upgrade to a Metal plan to reap the rewards of the new partnership

“Products like tampons or pads are essential items and we don’t think that people who get their period should have to pay for them. Instead, they could use this money to save up, invest and potentially increase their capital,” Tara Massoudi, product operations lead at Revolut said.

“Yoppie enables conversations that change the way people look at their period and menstrual wellness care, exactly like we have changed the way people approach all things money over the years.”

Unfortunately, Revolut’s stance of customers being able to reinvest this money as a result of the new partnership is slightly misleading as customers will still have to spend money (a Yoppie subscription starts at around £8) to use the £5 cashback.

Also, a Revolut Metal subscription costs £12.99 per month meaning that the £5 cashback doesn’t even cover half the cost of a monthly subscription charge.

The pair also released a joint infographic detailing the “true cost of a period,” reducing women and people who menstruate down to their need for “other essentials” such as junk food, chocolate and wine playing up to outdated female stereotypes, rather than tackling more important issues such as a lack of education around reproductive health.

Revolut’s new partnership comes just over a month after the fintech’s abysmal gender pay gap was revealed.

The fintech pays its female staff nearly a third less (31.2 per cent) than their male counterparts, a chasm Revolut puts down to simply having fewer female staff.

Currently, there are just two women on Revolut’ssenior leadership team and 12 men—perhaps if there was more diversity in Revolut’s leadership team, someone might have pointed out how the new partnership could be misconstrued.

AltFi approached Revolut for comment but it is yet to respond.