Interesting news: Joe Gordon, the former Chief Executive of First Direct, is to be the new Chief Operating Officer of Starling.
He promised lots of innovations at First Direct, but the only thing I noticed was the change from Visa to Mastercard debit cards. It will be interesting to see if he changes anything at Starling.
https://www.fintechfutures.com/2025/01/uk-challenger-starling-bank-appoints-joe-gordon-as-new-coo/
I suspect he will stand a better chance of succeeding at Starling than he did at FD.
I would imagine achieving any meaningful change within HSBC would be akin to manoeuvring a cruise ship with wooden paddles. They are just too big and too legacy.
Good luck to him.
I think all those 40 codes youâve quoted should be 04 codes.
You are correct. I will edit the post.
I noticed on the finance set-up thread, a few people saying they had Starling, but werenât really using it, and thatâs the exact position Iâve ended up in. I like itâs simple and ad-freeâŚbut thereâs no cash back, no interest on current account, no packaged account. I will use it for the odd payment in another country, but itâs rare I need that, so it doesnât really fill a need. Very minor point but I think the debit card colour is horrible and clashes with other physical cards in the wallet and even on ApplePay!
Trying not to get too âfanboyâ with Starling, âno interest on current accountâ isnât strictly (at least for the next 14 days) true. Until next month their current account does have 3.25% interest on it and itâs had that for over a year or so. Next month (14th) theyâre removing it because theyâve âlaunchedâ (in a completely broken way) their own instant access savings account.
Based on what Monzo have down with their packaged accounts, I hope Starling never launch them personally.
The one feature thatâs kept me with Starling (other than the simplicity of the app - for better than the cluttered Monzo) are the free virtual cards that can then be linked to individual savings spaces. That helps me with budgeting - Iâve got 2 spaces and virtual cards setup, one for âbillsâ and one for Amazon. The âBillsâ one then has all the Direct Debits and also that card is what I use for any subscriptions (Netflix, Disney+ etc.) so I know exactly how much I need to keep back to pay for all that. The âAmazonâ pot is to add a bit of friction to impluse buying - the pot is kept empty, if I see something I want to buy online (not just Amazon, but it was a handy name) then I need to first go into Starling and manually transfer over into the pot the amount I need to pay for it. Thatâll give me 5 seconds to reconsider if I really need it or not.
I donât know any other bank at the moment that offers free virtual multiple cards and multiple pots/spaces like that. Monzo has it behind a paywall and Chase has itâs weird âonly one card but you can manually attach it to different accountsâ whichâll be ok for the âAmazonâ idea, but no good for paying for subscriptions regularly.
Revolut offer the free virtual cards but their pockets are implemented a little differently.
Soon to be a fully fledged bank of course.
You can pay direct debits from them, and once the recurring card payments have been taken once, they can then be moved to a pocket.
There is option to assign a card to a pocket out there, I donât have that option on iOS, but Iâm sure some Android folk had it. This was ages ago, so you spend directly from pocket which would be great.
Card > set spending limit might be a workaround but not wholly separate.
I also didnât mention that Iâve also still got the âConnected Cardâ that they launched during Covid but I think theyâve now stopped offering, but still works. So, thatâs my âpetrol moneyâ card for the month.
So, vaguely talking about âoverlooked innovationâ with Starling, does anyone have any specific services linked through the Marketplace with Starling?
Things like PensionBee, Wealthify, Habito?
When it launched, it sounded like an interesting/good idea - but I think even Starling are a bit embarrassed about it and have hidden it away now. Itâs main use now is looking at what youâve connected via open banking so you can check and disable it if you want.
Starling should update their merchant data (logos and business names) -also add number of total transactions for merchants/ categories (past a years worth)
Hello bobrobert 
Checked last week out of curiosity to see what shows for me (closed my account over a year ago now), and I got the business account options on the âopen a new accountâ page. Now though, Iâm getting the same as you. Not sure what triggered that to happen.
Itâs new, only happened this week.
Now they just need to let people change the image.
And have more than one.
Or even one 
And allow the scheduling of payments and withdrawals. Pointless otherwise.
No better than Zopa 
But itâs a savings account and starling donât do scheduled withdraws as far as Iâm aware.
Exactly my point
Itâs good that some providers are holding back on the reductions. A drop in base rate doesnât always mean the bank is going to experience a sudden drop themselves.
Iâm sure Starling, Monzo and others are investing customer funds in supranational bonds and other securities to offset sudden base rate drops.
The main reason these base rate reductions are passed on immediately by most banks is simply because there is consumer tolerance for it. Itâs expected by most people, so why not.