Honestly I’d forgot it was a thing until last week when I stumbled across it in app, never used it and probably never will.
I did consider it when Flux (I think it was called?) was an option, but didn’t seem many places supported it anyway.
Honestly I’d forgot it was a thing until last week when I stumbled across it in app, never used it and probably never will.
I did consider it when Flux (I think it was called?) was an option, but didn’t seem many places supported it anyway.
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 “open a new account” page. Now though, I’m getting the same as you. Not sure what triggered that to happen.
Only just noticed you can rename the Easy Saver, is that new? I didn’t think you could originally.
It’s 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 it’s a savings account and starling don’t do scheduled withdraws as far as I’m aware.
Exactly my point
It’s good that some providers are holding back on the reductions. A drop in base rate doesn’t always mean the bank is going to experience a sudden drop themselves.
I’m 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. It’s expected by most people, so why not.
Monzo certainly wasted no time dropping the full amount on to customers lol
Does Monzo say exactly what they do with customer funds held in current and savings accounts? This would be quite interesting to know. Obviously they lend, but that’s subject to limits.
I’m sure it will be somewhere on the Monzo site. Sadly, I’m not interested enough in this topic to go and look for it.
Smaller banks are actually allowed to do quite a lot with your money. I believe the rules only become super strict once you reach £25bn in deposits. This is why the likes of Marcus kept suspending deposits in the UK, to stop themselves being subject to the stricter rules.
Starling are transparent about this on their site:
“We invest your money on supranational bonds and securities backed by UK residential mortgages. These investments are to support the Bank’s liquidity. We carefully consider who we invest in, taking into account a number of factors. We do not invest directly in fossil fuels.”
Monzo stopped being the ‘better bank’ a LONG time ago tbf.
Where they can make a saving, they absolutely will.
The £25 billion is only really relevant where the bank has both a retail and an investment bank.
We’ve had this discussion before I think in another thread. You are correct, but reaching that threshold also limits what the retail operation can do with funds held, I’m sure.
Retail operations can and do invest, usually low-risk, easily convertible investments. You don’t need a separate investment bank to carry out these activities.
You are correct though, in terms of ring-fencing and separation of retail and investment banks.
I don’t know that they can invest as such, more put it in various cash related investments.
The ring fencing is to stop an investment arm of a bank pulling down the retail arm if things go badly wrong with the investment side. Think Lehman’s, which had at one point me as one of their retail clients.
They can and do. Bonds are still investments technically. They aren’t risk-free.
In terms of equities, definitely not. I think that is where we are diverging, on what we consider to be an investment. Ring fencing is for that purpose, but it has other requirements too which the retail parts must follow, even if they’ve not been separated from an investment arm.
I’m now going to read up more on this, to ensure I’m correct. I’m only 99% sure as you’ve made me doubt myself. Either way, I think we can both agree it’s a good thing that some providers are not passing on the base rate reductions?