Starling Discussion & Feedback

It certainly doesn’t endear Starling to me. Sounds like punishment and 'you must do things our way".

That’s just my personal take - others will react differently. We don’t all have to agree on this.

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I think N26 has a ten year hold on reopening an account. Which would make Starling seem pretty reasonable in comparison. But still harsh compared to anyone that doesn’t.

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Do you think the same when you cancel a credit card and they say 6-12 months before you can get another with the same company?

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I agree, thems their rules , it would seem sensible with people who continually close and open accounts with every new feature pushed through - it has an expense for the issuer , Starling have decided that if you close your account , they won’t reopen it for a year. as Dan said there is no expense to let it lie dormant

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I think the same when companies are focused on punishing their customers for no real reason. I understand the credit card situation more if it’s about an introductory rate - but here there’s no sense to it. It’s Starling cutting their nose off, as the cliche goes.

Ultimately it’s each bank’s policy. We vote with our feet. If we don’t like it, we don’t bank there. I have a Starling account, so it’s obviously not a deal-breaker, but this policy doesn’t endear them to me.

I think that’s a view that I’m entitled to hold - and which others are entitled to feel differently about. But I can’t see myself changing my view on it. :man_shrugging:

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I don’t follow the punishment logic :man_shrugging:. If anyone’s leaves it must be for a reason so why care. Just my view and not Starling specific. I cancel my cc because the 0% ends. I don’t not use them again when the 6 month before reapply if they still have best offer

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What is the reason to close and re-open account? Incentives only?

I’ve said i think they’re different situations. I don’t believe that account opening is a significant overhead for a bank - especially a digital one. So, to me, the question has to be why don’t Starling do it? I can’t think of a logical reason aside from trying to dissuade customers from closing accounts so they can report high open account numbers. (Which I should say they’re perfectly entitled to do. But - as I say - it doesn’t endear them to me. And no one else is obliged to have a similar emotional reaction).

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Yeah but being told that you cannot return for 12 months is clearly intended to strongly discourage you. Just felt a bit underhand I guess.

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Exactly that :ok_hand:

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So if you do a full switch your account automatically gets closed and you can’t do anything about it. I wanted to switch to Monzo yes, but also still have a starling account. As I said, I quite liked starling. But being told no sorry, if you leave us your not having an account with us for 12 months felt to me, like they were trying to physiologically make me think “oh no I better stay” :scream: and I don’t like that kind of tactic. I’m a bit cynical because I worked for NatWest (rbs) and am well aware of the tactics the major banks use to manipulate people. I’m not saying starling are doing that, just that that was how it felt.

Monzo don’t operate such a policy and I’m also not aware of any other bank that does (could be wrong) the switch service even say if you change your mind, it’s better to let it go through and switch back…

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Surely if you want to keep an account open you just don’t full switch? I moved all my banking to Starling from Nationwide but wanted to keep the FlexPlus benefits. I just changed all my DDs and SOs manually - took about an hour.

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Does anyone else have a Starling card? Their card looks really nice and the card quality feels premium (along with their card packaging).

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What does the card feel like? A lot better quality than Monzo?

You could manually switch them over

Yes it feels like better quality compared to a monzo card. The starling card has a nice sheen to it and feels very smooth - the fact the card number and details are hidden at the back helps preserve the ‘newness’ of the card. On the contrary, the white text on my monzo card (i.e. card number and name) quickly fades after using it for a few days.

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I’m really not keen on the sheen! Wish it was just matte :see_no_evil:

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Yeah I probably should have gone down that route, but it’s pretty long winded as I have a lot of dd and standing orders etc. Was just hoping I could do the switch and open a new account to use as a backup. It’s not the end of the world though. :slightly_smiling_face:

Putting all the info on the back of the card means apps can’t automatically pull the card number from your camera.

It’s a bit of a step backwards, in terms of usability.
Curve has gone the same way.

Manual entry it is then!

I used my iPhone camera to capture my vertical Starling debit card details (white text on teal) into Apple Wallet the other day. Worked fine.

I’ve just tried with my Curve card, where the long number is smaller type and more on the left hand side of the back of the card, and that works too.

Even the transparent N26 card works.

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