Anyway..
Back to Starling - Instant Access Flexible Cash ISA? Is that new?
3.85% AER
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Been around a couple of weeks, annoyingly like Monzo it doesn’t support transfers in
And now Barclays has also been hit with a £42m fine for poor handling of financial crime risk…
Looks pretty epidemic in the UK banking sector…was Starling just ‘unfortunate’ (*) to have been audited first?
(* - although that still doesn’t make any difference in that they screwed up and should have made sure they were taking the correct actions to reduce this risk in the first place!)
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Thinking of moving to Starling, anyone using them for main banking? I do worry that they seem to have halted doing anything much since the fines, I don’t want to move over then they end up closing accounts or something lol
Why does it worry you that Starling haven’t done “anything much” recently? To me, that suggests they’re ticking along nicely. The big banks rarely change, or do anything new. If my bank was constantly changing and updating, I’d be worried that it didn’t really know where it was heading.
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Well the fact the credit card never materialised, they removed interest on balance which kind of ruined spaces.
Just generally not getting a good vibe from them at the moment.
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Since the fine they’ve actually done more than they did the year before that.
Added the new saver and cash ISA as well as the AI for spending analytics.
I’ve been using them as my main account for a few years, everything just works. The app is much simpler/cleaner than Monzo in my opinion and has all the features I want (including virtual cards for free)
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Yeah good point to be fair, I’ve had my account for years with them but only ever really for spending account.
I might just go for it then. I have opened the saver and cash ISA so it’s all ready to go
Edit: a package account would be nice too…
Agreed. We use them as our main account - Soles and Joint. Have done for several years now. All works fine.
Analytics and Virtual Card / Spaces flexibility are the key selling points, alongside a very clean and good App UI.
Lack of Credit Card and Joint Savings are frustrations (as was removal of interest in current accounts).
Considering Revolut as an alternative, purely for the Rewards (I use Ultra) - but Starling still wins out in terms of features and App UI to be honest.
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I could have considered Revolut but they still haven’t sorted out their full uk accounts and they just passed the 12 month mark. 
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Does it matter? The licence will come soon enough. Not like they’re suddenly going to pull out of the UK market as they didn’t get it done in time
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Agree with both of these, and the fact that they don’t yet let previous customers return which is stopping my wife re-opening an account and us getting a joint account with them.
Currently trialing Monzo & Revolut to see which we prefer
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One other niche frustration - 3D Secure limits.
Starling will ask for authentication for far smaller incremental amounts than Firstdirect or Nationwide (with whom we have accounts).
Sounds like nothing, but when you add an 80p cucumber to your online groceries and have to reauthenticate because the amount is 80p more it does get a bit annoying.
Don’t understand why they can’t increase limits or use behavioural algorithms….
Does anyone know if Revolut are similar?
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Does Starling have an equivalent of Monzo’s salary sorter?
It’s been a long time since I got paid into starling but I think they do but it’s called split or something
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Just pay with Amex. They reauthorise every couple of months on the supermarket orders and never on Amazon.
Yes they do
Good to know, thanks!
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Where do all these millions in fines go?