I don’t see why money-management advice should have a gender at all, but in any case I wouldn’t recommend any advice from someone that can’t even run her own business properly. Starling is still a joke and the “beta” excuse doesn’t cut it anymore.
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A couple of months ago I got Starling to confirm they was not beta, because @nickh was so adament that they still were. Starling removed beta from the website months ago, and haven’t classed themselves as beta for a long time.
The problem is, Anne is using her technology skills in a banking environment, which is great. However her thinking is still very old fashioned in the way the bank should be run, its not doing anything different to most other bank, it’s even got the broken app right, every update is buggy.
It has potential, but without getting opinions other than its own staff, it’s potential will waiver. As we have seen by everything its done recently, poorly planned app releases, poorly planned press releases, poorly planned feature releases, incorrect information given out by websites like MSE.
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In fairness to Starling - IF the likes of Starling and Monzo hadn’t occurred banking would just be the same old, same old, I for one am glad these new firms have come on to the market to actually disrupt the banking industry, otherwise you could kiss goodbye to instant notifications , freeze card , budgets, etc etc - banks would just have carried on harvesting peoples hard earned money with no performance enhancing features - why bother in a captive market ? 
hopefully Starling don’t get on the RBS bandwagon - maybe it will work for them financially - which is good - every business needs to make a profit to continue , maybe corporate banking will take over and Starling investors will sell out
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A bank account coannot be “in beta”. It’s a meaningless phrase in the context of banking and I’d love to know what interpretations people think it carries. In software terms, great, it has relevance. In current account terms, forget it, it’s just a buzz word to try and draw business.
I may have made this point before 
and I may feel quite strongly about it…
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The way I would interpret any app based banking service as “beta”, would be that the app itself wasn’t the finished product (possibly buggy), and perhaps the actual banking functionality isn’t close to being finished.
Purely my own assumptions of course, and it doesn’t really mean anything at the end of the day.
Very difficult to try and differentiate software from banking with an app exlusive banking service.
As far as bugs go, both Monzo and Starling have had more bugs than any other banking app I’ve ever used (by a considerable margin). But that’s to be expected from an app that is adding new functionality at a rapid pace.
In response to @anon24692559 - it’s amazing how quickly people forget when there is no longer a forum to reference against 
Myself and many others assumed Starling was in beta because of their app version number (0. something), and the fact that it was referenced multiple times throughout the conversations on the forum.
After people disagreed they were in beta (but with no official word), I asked Logan, who confirmed they no longer considered themselves in beta - Sorted.
Kris also came on to explain their app version numbers.
Its great to see more Starling forum members contributing here after vowing they never would 
The more opinions the merrier.
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I am still left wondering what the next update will bring, as it’s been a long while coming. Surely delays getting the updates past review can’t be the only cause.
The Starling app was updated on iOS on Friday?
Popular demand where? Their forums? Because they deleted all evidence of that.
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Ha! Must have been on mobile all that time…
The “beta” would apply to the software that makes the current account work I guess. So you can expect bugs, inconsistencies, payments failing (like Monzo receiving SWIFT payments which may or may not work as of now), etc.
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I don’t want more business accounts with Starling, I want business accounts with Monzo so I can finally close my Starling accounts. 
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Just noticed that the card in my Apple Wallet has changed to that weird Green, funny as the one in app is Purple.
Just had a payment declined on buying shares with Starling due to no 3-D secure support. The payment page had no details that it was attempting it or the reason why it was declined.
Went on their chat and customer support said:
If this is something we wish to do we will notify our customers. At this stage we have no current plans on allowing 3D secure payments
Transferred the money to Monzo and worked like a peach 
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I think that reply sums it up, not what our customers want, but what we want
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That’s quite ridiculous. So many online transactions require it.
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These are worrying times for Starling fans when they’ve shutdown the forum and now their response to a standard feature request is basically “do one”.
That’s a really legacy response. RBS needs to hurry up and get their chequebook out because this has become a joke now and is becoming an embarrassment to Fintech.
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You’ll get what you’re bloody given, and like it!
Awesome Starling, awesome…
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What was said on the 11FS podcast was interesting, with a prediction Starling would be bought within the next three years by major…
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I’m not sure what legacy banks people use, but even they try to pretend they care - even if it’s clear they don’t. Starling have just done away with any pretence.
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