Starling Bank Review 2022: Better Than Your High Street Bank?

You've probably heard of Starling bank from your friends or their TV adverts, but you might wonder what Starling bank is and should you trust it with your money?

I like you had these same questions. After joining Starling bank, I wanted to share an honest Starling Bank review to showcase Starling and answer the many questions surrounding this new type of banking.

In short, yes, Starling is absolutely a real bank with a UK banking license with FCA protection for its users. It is regulated by the financial conduct authority just like a high street bank is.

In recent years, Challenger banks like Starling have really pushed the limits of banking, offering capabilities that you would traditionally have a queue at a bank for. 

Related article: Best Digital banks

Good to Know About Starling Bank

You won't find Starling on the stock market, and that is because it is privately owned. 24% are owned by CEO and founder Anne Boden, employees and ex-employees, and an employee benefits trust set up for employees. The rest are private investors.

You now know what Starling is about, but you probably wonder if it's worth setting up an account and what you actually get with this bank. Here's a breakdown of all the features:

Lock or Freeze Your Card

If you've ever lost or had your card stolen, you know how scary the experience is. If this happens with a Starling card, all you need to do is open up your Starling bank app, tap the card and just lock the card.

This will block all payments from your current account. You can do this in seconds!

Get Spending Insights

This automatically groups together similar purchases, for instance, shopping or eating out. This helps you take control of your spending habits with insights that can help you save money in the future.

If you knew that coffee out was costing you £60 a month, for instance, would you change your habits?

Check out the video below, showing exactly how this feature works.

Paperless Statements

You might wonder how you get a bank statement with an online-only current account on earth. It's actually easier than you think. Within the app, you can produce PDF or CSV statements.

This is great if you need to prove your earnings for any credit checks, and if you want to put your expenditure into a spreadsheet, you can do it easily.

Ability to Set up Savings pots (Without Having to Open Another Bank Account)

This is a really great and easy feature that you can set up again in seconds. When I had a traditional high street current account, I had to set up a separate savings account to keep my savings separate.

With a Starling account, you can do it all within the app. I love adding pictures to my goals, which makes them personal. 2022 update: You can now pay bills from your saving spaces, making it even easier to set money aside.

Tip: Use your savings pots to set aside money for key spending like a Grocery shop. 

Related Article: Best Budgeting Apps in the UK

App Marketplace

With the app marketplace, you have the ability to integrate other services to make your banking experience even better. A few usual apps on the marketplace are:

If you decide to set up the loyalty and receipts, feature then it's easy to access your receipts by tapping a card in the app, then 'loyalty and receipts.

Related Article: Best Money Saving Apps

Instant Spending Notifications

One of the biggest benefits of having a mobile banking platform is the instant notifications for spending. In my opinion, this adds an extra layer of protection against you going into an overdraft.

If you are unfortunate where fraud happens, you can deal with it instantly. 

Round up Spending

If you are terrible at putting money aside, this is the feature for you.

In a nutshell, round up spending automatically rounds up your purchases to the nearest pound and adds them to any savings pot you enable it on.

Tip: Want to save money faster? You can increase your round up amounts by up to x10 so that you save money quicker!

Related article - Apps that Round-Up Spare Change

Mobile Cheque Deposits

There is no need to worry about not depositing it with Starling. Within the app, you can deposit cheques of up to £500 by just taking a picture!

If your cheque is for more than £500, you can still deposit it into your account, but you will need to post it.

Other Cool Features that I Love about the Starling Current Account

Changing banks or just setting up another account is a big decision. After all, we don't want to give out our personal details willingly. It's important to go with a bank that you can trust.

And even if you plan just to use Starling for a second account or travel, so still want to know if this is a bank you can trust - I know I did.

Before signing up to Starling myself, I researched other sources that would be hard to fake to see what the 'many' thought of Starling. Here's what I found:

Starling Bank Reviews

Trustpilot is a great source of information as you have to be a verified purchase to review. It's not the kind of place where people can just buy reviews. As of writing, Starling has over 20,000 reviews with an average of 4.5 stars which is incredible.

To give you an idea of how good the reviews are that Starling has received both in quantity and quality, I compared all the major banks featured in Trust Pilot to see where Starling fits. As you can see, Starling comes out on top for both the number of reviews by users and the overall rating.

Award-winning

Starling has won best bank for the last 3 years from the Best British Bank awards. According to the British banking awards, this is like the Oscars for the banking world! It has also been awarded business banking customer satisfaction by Finder and a recommended provider for current accounts by Which?.

Getting an account with Starling is really easy. There are a few different accounts you can consider. In this Starling bank review, I have mainly concentrated on the benefits of the personal account; however, Starling does offer something for everyone. Here are the different options available:

Personal current account

It's easy to open a personal current account (Starling offers solo and joint). You don't need to make an appointment at a bank or on the phone. You can do it whilst sitting in the comfort of your home.

To be eligible for a personal account:

As shown earlier in this article, you will receive a contactless MasterCard debit card and be able to set up standing orders and direct debits through the app.

You can also connect instantly through Apple wallet as soon as your account is accepted and start using your account before your card arrives!

You might be wondering what happens from a cash point of view since this is an online mobile bank, so it's good to know you still can withdraw and deposit cash. Here's how:

• You can make up to 6 withdrawals a day with your Starling bank card, a maximum of £300 at any ATM.
• If you want to deposit cash, you can do that too, just visit any post office branch to do so. Note this is capped at £20,000 of cash deposits per year.

From an earning interest perspective, you do earn some, but it's small, 0.05% on balances up to £85,000.

Starling Connected Card

Starlings connected card is what the name suggests a card connected to yours. This is a card that you can order to allow someone you trust to spend on your behalf. The card is designed to be given to trusted friends, family or carers to stop the hassle of transferring money or splitting a bill.

Although the card is capped at £200, this is perfect for Grocery shopping. The £200 for the connected card is stored in a separate space in your Starling account. If you rely on the support of someone else, this is a fantastic service that I can't believe other banks haven't thought of sooner!

Cost: Although many things come free with Starling for this service, there is a small cost of £2 a month.

Starling Kite Account

If you have children under the age of 16, this might be something you want to consider. Starling Kite is like a pocket money current account for ages 6-16.

It sits as a space in your personal account like the connected card. The benefit of this is that it makes it easy to transfer pocket money into a secure place for your child to access.

Starling Business accounts

If you have a business, you should look into Starling banks Business accounts offered to sole traders and limited companies for no monthly fees. Business account holders get access to benefits including:

There are no fees for the Starling business account unless you opt for an additional business tool kit which costs £7 a month for extra bookkeeping, invoicing and VAT features.

You can hold both a personal and business account and easily switch between your accounts in the app.

Good to know: you can have a personal and business account and switch between them easily in the app.

Related Article: Starling bank review for business

Starling Banks Euro Account

Starling account also has a unique service offering in its launch of the Euro account. This is both for personal and business accounts. The Euro account is free for personal accounts and just £2 a month for business. When you send money abroad, it gives you the exchange rate. 

Related content: Starling Euro account review

It depends on what you mean by safe. A few things came to mind for me before I joined Starling. I really wanted to know:

Does Starling make money, i.e. is it financially secure?

As with any new business growing rapidly and innovating at such a pace, profit usually doesn't come hand in hand. However, I can tell you that as of late 2020, Starling entered profitability. They are the first digital bank in the UK to do this.

Is my Money Safe with Starling?

Starling has a full banking license and is protected up to £85,000 by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme, £170,000 for joint accounts. The FCA also regulates them. This means it must adhere to strict rules on protecting money for its users and treating customers fairly. It also means you as a customer have an escalation route should you not resolve something.

More information about Starling Joint Account read: Starling joint account review

From a data perspective, Starling says it uses advanced data encryption and storing technologies that ensure your personal information and transactions are secured safely.

To open an account with Starling is really easy. Here's how you do it:

1. Head over the Starling website
2. Pop your mobile number in the box
3. use the link they send you to download the app
4. Select the account you want to apply for
5. Complete your details and upload your documents by taking a picture

You will need proof of address and ID, if you haven't been living in the UK very long and need a account that doesn't ask for proof of address, you could also consider Monese as a option. 

Related article: Opening a Bank Account in the UK Without Proof Of Address

Monzo:If you've heard of Starling, chances are you have probably heard of Monzo, which is one of its main competitors. Starling and Monzo have lots in common as they are both mobile-only banks.Find out more in this related article: Monzo V Starling: Which is better for you?

Revolut:  Find out more in this article Starling Bank Vs Revolut.

Monese: Another online bank is Monese which offers similar functionality the main difference being it is not a registered UK Bank. More information can be found here: Monese Review