I put my email address as the username, I think?
Edit: Just checked for you, yes I did!
Iāll try that hang on
Edit - that worked a treat. Adding a username, even though itās unused, makes it work just fine. Thanks a lot.
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Youāre welcome. Glad it worked!
I just use my email address more as a reference for myself than anything, since I have several and that way I can always check what my Starling registered email is quite easily.
Iām sure you could just put anything in that field as long as you fill it in - like you say, itās unused!
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Iām on Android. I see your problem is sorted anyway now 
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Another small thing, but I find reassuring, is that Starling have taken the concept of card freezing a step further than most (all?) other banks.
Monzo (like most other banks now) lets you freeze your card if youāve lost it however Starling lets you decide which type of payment on your card you want to let through.
So, you can turn on/off a whole load of different payment types:
- Card Present
- ATM withdrawals
- Online Payments
- Mobile Wallets
- Magstrip Payments
(oh - and gambling payments)
I generally have āCard Presentā and āMagstrip Paymentsā turned off. I wish theyād split Card Present to be āContactlessā vs āChip and Pinā (ie - to turn off Contactless completely) but having it set for Apple Pay and having the āphysicalā card blocked is a good compromise. Itās not often I get caught out when I canāt use Apple Pay anymore (although need to plan slightly in advance if Iām going to Tesco!).
But - the one thing thatās keeping me āfull Monzoā and not switched over to Starling - Bill Pots. The idea of just dumping all the money I need to cover my bills into a pot and forgetting about it and knowing what Iāve got left in my account is what I really like. In the past I used to do this with 2 completely different current accounts.
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Revolut has this too. Itās been invaluable during the lockdown as Iāve often had to entrust an alarmingly forgetful member of my household with my card and pin for some shopping.
Nice to see starling add this too. I presume this also applies to the spare card?
I believe Lloydās allow you to do this as well although not quite to the same level. I assume halifax and BoS with it being the same brand although I know there are slight differences per app / brand.
Pension provider ā Penfold ā added to the Starling marketplace. Itās developing nicely.
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It really does feel like the tables have turned with Monzo and Starling now.
Starling used to have major stability issues which have largely calmed down. New (and good) features seem to be coming out regularly. They havenāt turned their back on the fee-free elements that made Monzo and Starling majorly attractive in the beginning and they havenāt added a 5 quid
āPlusā package with little ongoing benefit.
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I know thereāll be accusations of bias, but the core product looks and feels to me pretty identical to how it was when it launched.
I think the only product launch of note (for me as a personal account holder) has been cheque imaging. Aside from that itās all been pretty much static.
Now, the thing Iād love them to fix is the pulse pie chart thing and that awful green button to get to the transaction list.
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Now that I agree with. They could entirely remove that whole thing and just have the transaction list and balance. I donāt find it useful at all.
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Agreed on the pie chart in general, though if you swipe you get a month pie chart which breaks the categories down over the course of a month, which may be useful for some to broadly see where last months spent went. Iām not sure what you mean about the green button though, I just have a tab to pull up for the transaction list.
I find the pie chart useful. Not very, and I wish it ran payday to payday, but I prefer it as a visual aid to Monzo.
I think the green button is Android, and pretty much universally hated. (Iām iOS and the app is beautiful)
In response to @Peter_G I think the connected card, and instant euro account were both very innovative for a UK current account. Monzo probably beats Starling for sheer innovation though.
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I think the key here is the fin vs the tech. Thereās an argument to say that Starling has been more focused on the fin, Monzo on the tech.
On the examples, I have a euro account. But this feels like something very different - and doesnāt negate, I think, my claim that the core product (personal GBP current account) hadnāt had much progress. On the connected card, that does feel like genuine progress, even if I donāt have any use for it myself.
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Perhaps not innovative, but I still think the āoffsettingā of goals balances against any overdraft charges is an improvement over traditional banks. I believe Monzo charge overdraft fees if the main account goes into overdraft, even if the overall account balance (including pots) is positive.
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Starling has always been rather traditional and I think theyād be rather happy being just a successful ābankā. I donāt have a problem with that, and theyāve thus far been better in this sense with things such as free Post Office deposits and cheque imaging.
From my perspective, Monzo still hasnāt settled on what it wants to be. The bank side needs some work, and Plus suggests they want to go into the money management / aggregation sector, but trying to do all the things is starting to show as I believe theyāre spreading themselves too thin.
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I think a lot of people underestimate Anne Bodenās adoption of ātechā. Itās obvious that Starling is as tech-focussed as Monzo is (a recent example is the speed at which it was able to roll out Bounce Back loans, and also its successful Banking-as-a-Service platform, granular card controls, Open Banking adoption), but the public-facing bank is obviously pitched to a different market to Monzo.
Bodenās constant citing of the technical aspects of the new banking landscape demonstrate sheās no traditional financier.
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I completely agree, and it is excellent for consumers. I would be curious though about path to profitability, though it does appear to be pushing loans quite hard
I believe Anne Boden mentioned as far back as 2017 that standard current accounts are profitable, despite what big banks claim, and that Starling was on track for profitability by late 2020. I suspect the Coronavirus situation will impact on that, but I fully suspect Starling will be profitable before Monzo.
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I not a fan of the app on Android it does look quite basic not sure what iOS looks like, would be nice at some some point to get a complete overhaul to get it looking a bit more modern.
If they ever get bill pot functionality thatās when Iād probably look at moving over to them