I got a switching bonus by upgrading my existing Lloyds classic account to Club Lloyds. After I made the upgrade choice it gave me the CASS option so I switched an old unused Metro Bank Account
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See? It turns out theyāre actually very useful 
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Still hanging on to mine.
Nearly used it for the Virgin Money promotion, but saw no value in the wines on offer.
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Would be interesting to see figures broken down by the different things they charge forā¦ If they ever do that is.
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They never actually shutdown your online banking or credit check you for a new account. If you do decide to switch wait a couple of weeks and then just open another account at Metrobank inside the online banking
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Did she provide ID?
Theyāve been trailing that for a while (after a long time saying they had a better solution, which seemed to be a Ā£2/month fee for a second account).
Contrary to most others, it seems to me that innovation at Starling has dried up. The current account has barely changed from the initial offering, although they seem to be quite good at new products (business accounts, connected cards etc). Although, to argue with myself, I suppose they recently faffed with the navigation (to its detriment), and chat seems to have changed since I last used it (with them wanting permission to overwrite the screen no matter what app Iām using - feels like an overstep). Different approaches, though, I suppose.
I have to say, though, that I really dislike the 
soon fintech meme - be it Starling, Monzo or whoever. Starling has been teasing their credit card for years now - I suspect payments from Spaces will be similar. And will only happen if growth slows or they feel they need to do it to keep pace.
(Firmly attaches hard hat).
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Yeah, āweāre working on itā has lost all credibility.
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Did anyone else read Anneās book in full? She talked an excellent game of using banking data to the benefit of the consumer (I was quite taken by it) - but nothing yet appears to have transpired on that front.
(This isnāt an anti Starling post, by the way - I want both Monzo and Starling to excel and push each other to reach new heights. Iām not sure Iāve seen much of that from either recently, though).
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I have got quite used to it now.
May even say I prefer it to what it was, for how I use the account anyway.
The swipe up for transactions is a plus imo.
Iām happy the green button is gone - but the white bar and lack of discoverability of setting / other features puts me off. But then I have high standards (see topics passim on how Monzo can do better).
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This is what I was getting at really. I think the same.
Iām with you on the whole āSoonā¦ā thing too, itās so annoying. If they arenāt working on something, it canāt be soon! Why not just say?
Monzo are no better, of course, cheque imaging is officially still āpausedā after it was, at one stage, coming soon.
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I kind of agree with you here but I think innovation has dried up accross the board on fintech at the moment in general. Obivously part of that is due Coronovirus but also anything new created just ends up behind a paywall which leaves the bank gambling as to whether enough people will sign up for it before they decide if they are going to invest in making it.
I will say this though, I really dislike connected cards and I think there should be an option to order a seperate card.
If I am going to pay Ā£2 per month for a second bank account (I wouldnāt btw) then I want a card with it so I can use it. Same applies to the Euro account, having to switch back and forth when I am abroard is a pain.
To keep this on Starling though it seems that they use their investment to develop fee paying business account functionality and then after a while those updates come to personal accounts.
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Hmm, Iām not sure about that.
I think that one of the reasons this might appear to be true is that over the years weāve had excellent insight into whatās happening at Monzo. It can work really well (the co-creation of the new design by @bruno remains the gold standard) but it also has let Monzo team members say stuff conversationally (like the monzo.me pay thing) thatās more an aspiration than plan.
Starling, though, is tight lipped, so thereās no commentary (or engagement with) fixing things or iterative improvements. Instead they go big and promise massive stuff (credit card etc) that they then donāt deliver on.
I think a more nuanced way of saying it is that I donāt mind being told something is next (Indeed, and would positively encourage it) if we get Bruno levels of engagement and it feels like community is making a difference. But if not, then save it for a beta/labs thing - but definitely (Starling take note) donāt promise major new products for years without delivering. Itās a really bad look.
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Iām personally much more tolerant of Starlingās possible lack of innovation due to the fact that (IMHO) their base product is so strong and fits all of my traditional banking needs with some nice fintech sprinkles on top.
So whenever Starling do launch something new itās all gravy for me, rather than catching up on basic functionality.
Obviously everyoneās non negotiable features will vary.
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Agreed
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Thats actually the beauty of having the one card you can enable it so that if youre paying in euros it automatically knows to take it from your euro account without having āto switch back and forthā
I dont like alot of starlings implementations but this was one of the better ones i thought
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But if you find yourself out of ā¬ās the transaction declines and if you forget to switch it on then you get it comes from Ā£ās even if you have ā¬ās
Apply the same thing to the secondary Ā£2 per month and youāre constantly switching back and forth.
Itās not a bad implementation but it could be a lot lot better
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For Ā£2/month it does feels like an (optional) physical card is essential. Weāve seen that folk really want to be able to spend from pots - if the second account is the Starling equivalent then a (different colour or design, or customised) card would be essential. If it were free, Iād understand the reluctance, but when chargeableā¦
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I absolutely love the connected card, itās own space, itās own card, separate away from everything else.
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