Starling Feedback

:joy:

Congrats on the full commitment to the cause!

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So the Business users are subsiding the cost of the Post Office service. Makes sense because itā€™s always been the case for legacy banks IIRC. As they say, I think itā€™s also cheaper than some others, but Iā€™m sure people actually with Business accounts at the moment will know more as I havenā€™t had a business account for a few years. Also makes sense as to why Monzo is charging because they havenā€™t got Business customers to subsidise this with.

Havenā€™t had chance to try it out as I donā€™t pay cash in all to often but glad theyā€™ve gone with the more expense real-time paying in as some have witnessed above!

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I payed in some cash into my Santander account at the Post Office the other day and unsure of the process, I asked the bloke behind the counter if I could pay in with the card. He got a bit arsey with me for a second and said ā€œYeah, you can, but it costs US money!ā€. He was fine with it after that to be fair as I think he realised he was being a bit rude.

I thought the only way to pay in Cash with Santander was using my Debit Card. I know they canā€™t do Cheques, they literally just give you an envelope and they post it (which you have to pay for), so you need a Paying In slip to do it.

Why would you say business users are subsidising this?

Surely if its a per transaction fee like Paypoint then this wouldnā€™t be true?

Sounds to me like theyā€™re just trying to match the market norm (charge for business account cash deposits, donā€™t for normal current account cash deposits)

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Because itā€™s Ā£3 per transaction for business customers and Ā£3 + 3% on deposits over Ā£1,000, so if itā€™s per transaction why add the 3%?

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Was it not 0.3% over Ā£1000 (I maybe wrong)

According to their official blog post it is 0.3%, yes

Strangely, the top FAQ in the Starling app is Can I deposit cash?, but the text hasnā€™t been updated with the new PO arrangements. I would have thought this would be pushed out at the same time as the blog post.

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Itā€™s 0.3% per transaction with a minimum fee of Ā£3.

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Same as the interchange fee cap for credit cards! Wonder if thatā€™s relevant

For business account cash deposits up to Ā£1,000, thereā€™s a Ā£3 charge and for anything over Ā£1,000, thereā€™s a 0.3% charge on the deposit value.

Which is exactly what I said above: itā€™s 0.3% per transaction with a minimum fee of Ā£3.

Up to and including Ā£1,000 - Ā£3 fee
Above Ā£1,000 - 0.3%

So Ā£1,500 would attract a fee of Ā£4.50. It isnā€™t Ā£3 plus 0.3% of the total deposit.

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Ah, I wasnā€™t thinking about Ā£1,000 at 3% would be Ā£3!

Probably why I donā€™t run my own business.

Either way though, my comments about the Business Pay-in probably subsidising the personal Deposits still makes sense I think.

Yeah, you could be right, sustaining rather than subsidising but either way itā€™s definitely a good excellent proposition from Starling. The process looks smooth and the in-app bits look well thought out.

With it explicitly saying Post Office Banking Services and having the logo, I wonder if thereā€™s the possibility of other methods of paying-in coming up. Did the NatWest paying in have something similar? I wonder if theyā€™ll ditch the agreement with NatWest now that this is in place?

I think theyā€™ve probably learned their lesson with regards to teasing things maybe a little prematurely, especially when it involves third parties! It would be nice to see a little bit of inbetween going forward, like a sneak peak a few weeks before they know theyā€™re going to launch but I guess that might not work without a forum anymore because the feedback loop isnā€™t there. Iā€™m not sure Twitter is necessarily the best platform for that?

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Already have this feature with my First Direct account.

Nice to have a second option though.

No, 3% of Ā£1,000 is Ā£30! Itā€™s 0.3% of Ā£1k that is Ā£3. Another way of writing Starlingā€™s fee for business account deposits is ā€œ0.3% of the deposit amount, with a minimum of Ā£3.ā€

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Haha my maths is clearly fried!

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I asked CS for new cards to use PO deposits, and was told they would send one for my personal account, but one wasnā€™t needed for my joint account, since that already works.

I donā€™t have any vertical cards, but my joint account card is much newer. Iā€™d imagine, therefore, that all joint account cards, and personal vertical cards, have chips that are compatible with PO deposits.