You might not have heard its name as much as its competitor Monzo, but Starling definitely has a lot to offer.
Starling’s mobile app is arguably among its greatest assets – its feature-rich, intuitive, and fully accessible to all users. With options to open a joint, kids, and business account, it caters to various everyday banking needs.
That being said, Starling falls short in providing a rounded banking experience: its saving and borrowing offerings are somewhat limited in comparison, and it doesn’t provide benefits like cashback or discounts like many of its competitors.
Who is it best for?
Starling is an excellent choice for families, those who just arrived in the UK or here on a temporary basis, and to use while travelling.
| Name | Score | Visit | Disclaimer | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | 8.5 | Visitstarlingbank.com |
Types of Accounts
Costs | Eligibility criteria | ATM Limit | Interest Available | Money Transfer Limit | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Current account | ❌ | Over 16 years old, live at a UK address | £300 per day, 6 withdrawals | 3.25% AER | £10,000 |
Joint account | ❌ | Both account holders need to be existing Starling customers | £300 per day, 6 withdrawals | 3.25% AER | £10,000 |
Euro account | ❌ | Over 18 years old, live at a UK address | £300 per day, 6 withdrawals | ❌ | £10,000 |
Starling Kite | ❌ | For ages between 6-15 | £300 per day, 6 withdrawals, limits can be arranged by parent/guardian | ❌ | £10,000, limits can be arranged by parent/guardian |
Starling Teen | ❌ | For ages between 16-17 | £300 per day, 6 withdrawals | 3.25% AER | £10,000 |
Business account | Free, optional add-ons | Limited Companies, Limited Liability Partnerships, Community Interest Companies (CIC). | £300 per day, 6 withdrawals | ❌ | £250,000 for domestic and £10,000 for international transfers |
Starling Personal Account
Unlike its close cousins Monzo and Revolut, Starling doesn’t do tiered accounts – all types of bank accounts, including the personal current, joint, kids, and euro, free of charge.
A Starling Bank personal account offers access to all of Starling’s suite of banking features and services – from Connected Cards to fee-free spending abroad (more on these below), there are no restrictions.
Starling is also one of the few banks that allow users to earn interest without any monthly fee or minimum pay-in requirements, yet there’s a maximum limit of £85,000.
The rate is competitive at 3.25% AER on balances up to £5,000. This means that if you were to keep £5,000 in your account for a year, you’d be earning £162.50 in one year with this rate. By comparison, Santander’s Edge Up current account comes with a monthly interest of 3.45% AER on balances up to £25,000 – but costs £5 a month.
Here are the current restrictions in place for spending and transferring:
Debit card spending limit | £10,000 per day |
|---|---|
Contactless Limit | £100 per day |
ATM withdrawals | £300 per day, 6 withdrawals |
Virtual cards | £500 per day |
Traditional banks don’t usually set spending limits, unless it's online spending – which are considerably higher: HSBC, for example, limits online spending at £25,000 per day. Lower limits as such are popular among digital-only banks, Monzo also supports a £10,000 limit whereas Monese’s is as low as £7,000.
Considering that most use accounts offered by online-only banks as their secondary accounts, it’s not really a major issue.
Besides the lack of high-street presence, online-only banks also offer fewer options for cash deposits compared to brick-and-mortar banks. Most importantly, you can’t deposit cash through an ATM, you need to seek a Post Office instead.
The good thing is, Starling partners with all of the Post Office branches across the UK – and 99.7% of us have one within a 3-mile radius. The bad thing is, they are only open Monday through Friday and Saturday mornings, so if you ever find yourself desperate to deposit cash to your Starling account on a Sunday afternoon, you may be short of options.
Other ways include:
Bank transfers – there’s a very useful feature helping transfers from another bank account: as you click “Add Money”, you’ll see a list of banks to choose from (most of the major banks, the likes of HSBC or Barclays, as well as online banks like Monzo or Revolut are there). If you click on your bank and enter the amount, you can authenticate the payment on the respective bank’s app and send the payment within seconds.
Cheque scanning – you can digitally scan cheques under £1,000 in-app. You have to post the larger cheques to Starling, which isn’t ideal.
Having fewer cash depositing options is one of the caveats of online banks – yet, these banks are more likely to be your secondary bank account. You can simply use ATMs to deposit cash to your main account and easily send money over to your Starling bank account.
Considering that Britain is at the forefront of being a cashless society (cash payments only made up 10% of all payments across the country the previous year), I expect this to become an even smaller problem in the future.
Starling Joint Account
Starling’s joint account grants access to all of the features the bank offers, and frankly, it is one of the most convenient offers in the market.
I particularly liked the Bill Manager feature. You and your joint account holder can create a Saving Space dedicated just for bills and set up direct debits and standing orders straight from there. This allows you to put aside committed funds (and help you avoid spending them) and get a full picture of your commitments and what’s available to spend.
The Saving Spaces also make an excellent tool for short-term saving – something like a holiday, a puppy, or a new TV. It’s more suitable for short-term savings, simply because there isn’t interest available with these unless you’re willing to lock your money in for a year (more on this below).
That being said, the online-only bank's flagship Round-up feature (which rounds up your purchases to the nearest pound and saves the change) often adds up faster than interest anyway. You can set your spare change to be transferred to your Saving Space, and have the change from your bill payments boost your savings.
Plus, the visual appeal is fairly encouraging. You can see how close you are to your target, and add pictures to encourage one another.
Starling Euro Account
While it’s not as functional as a multi-currency account (nowhere near as much as Revolut’s 28+ currency holding capacity or Wise’s 50+), a euro account comes in handy regardless. You can transfer, hold, and receive euros with this account. You can use your regular debit card for it, and make transfers over the weekends.
Starling levies a standard fee of 0.4% for currency conversions on top of the market exchange rate – which is, to say the least, quite a good deal. The closest contesters that I mentioned above, Revolut and Wise, can possibly charge more.
Revolut’s charges are not transparent and include a 1% fair usage fee for Standard users, which is lifted for Metal users. While Wise famously uses the mid-market rate, they sure make up their loss with the fees.
Note: Euros sent to the Starling euro account are credited as pound sterling, and thereby incur a conversion fee of 0.4%.
All things combined, if your foreign currency needs are limited to euros, Starling’s euro account is an excellent choice.
Starling for <18
Starling Bank has two offerings for underage accounts: Starling Kite for the ages between 6-15, and Teen Account for ages between 16-17.
Starling Kite
Much like its euro and joint accounts, Starling’s child account is among the most convenient you can find on the market. There's no monthly fee and all ATM withdrawals are within the daily limits.
In a truly online bank fashion, its additional features make the account special.
It integrates with your personal account fully and allows you to transfer money as you wish, and set limits and saving goals. You can also distribute a KiteLink around to have your friends and family quickly send in money. With parents in full control, it’s an excellent tool to teach your kids the value of money.
If you are serious about saving though, legacy banks may provide better value: HSBC’s My Savings account designed for children aged between 7 and 17, for example, has some of the highest interest rates across children’s savings accounts.
Starling Teen Account
The account is specifically designed for the ages of 16 and 17. It doesn’t have the parental controls the Kite account offers – in essence, it’s pretty much the same as a current account, just for those who are not yet 18.
It also has no monthly fee and levies the same charges as the current account. The features are all accessible, cardholders have full control, and they can also earn interest.
Starling Business Account
It seems like whatever Starling is losing on its free current account, it's making up for it via its business account.
The base account is free of charge, and it ticks all the fundamental boxes: fee-free spending abroad, saving pots, instant payment sent/received notifications, and integration with tax software Quickbooks and FreeAgent.
The real value of the Starling business account lies in the add-ons
Monthly Fees | Features | |
|---|---|---|
US dollar business account | £5 | Hold, receive, and send US dollars + local bank account details |
Euro business account | £2 | Hold, receive, and send euros + local bank details |
Business Toolkit | £7 | Create & send invoices, HMRC tax calculators, tax reports, and automated savings |
The Starling business account truly comes to its own only with add-ons, all of which set you back £14 a month and £168 a year.
While it may sound a bit much considering the account is mostly geared towards sole traders and freelancers, they offer good value for those who work with clients/suppliers in the US and EU.
In comparison, accounting software integrations and multi-user access capabilities are reserved for paid business accounts with Monzo, and it’s not possible to hold any currency other than GBP.
Those who seek banking solutions endowed with digital bank perks for larger organisations may find Revolut’s plans more attractive: With the ability to hold over 25 currencies, sophisticated member access configurations, analytics, and business API integrations, Revolut definitely has a lot more to offer for bigger operations.
Benefits & Additional Features – 8/10
In terms of benefits and features, Starling is good – not perfect. There are many original features to be excited about, and all are fully accessible to account holders. But in terms of benefits, it falls short of the competition.
Benefits
Unlike its close competitors, Starling doesn’t have any packaged account services accompanying its current account. Instead, it offers access to a personal finance marketplace comprising nine providers as of this writing.
Insurance | Anorak, Churchill, So-Sure |
|---|---|
Credit scores | Credit ladder |
Mortgages | Habito |
Pensions | Penfold, PensionBee |
Cashback | Tail |
Savings & Investments | Wealthify |
I find Starling lacking in this area, especially considering the length some of its competitors go, most notably Revolut’s extensive, in-built insurance offerings and Santander’s attractive cashback deals on household bills.
While all these providers have solid industry reputations and offer decent products, you can find many more that could be more suitable for your individual needs with a little research. Given that there aren’t really added benefits to using your Starling account to access these services, you won’t lose anything.
Features
Starling indeed falls short in benefits, but it makes up for it with its abundance of features.
It's important to note that the features themselves are not quite revolutionary. They are fairly standard among digital banks. It is unique in that all is accessible without any restriction as Starling strayed away from a subscription-based service.
Card Management
Connected card. You can request a second, connected debit card to give people who will be spending money on your behalf – a friend, colleague, childminder, or even a kid if you don’t fancy opening up a kid’s account. The spending is capped at £200, and you can manage the card via its dedicated space in the app.
Card controls. The control hub allows you to block online and contactless payments, as well as impose gambling restrictions. It's a quite handy tool for times you think you lost your card but you can’t be sure. You can simply turn everything off and look for it (and if you can’t find it, you can cancel the card in-app).
Instant payment notifications. Another feature that I cherish a lot. As we stray away from cash payments, I find it hard to keep track of my spending – making contactless payments doesn’t send the same cognitive signals as the physical act of giving cash. After a period of adjusting, I found that having spending notifications piling up has a comparable effect. Plus, it’s a pretty handy security measure.
Money Management
Saving Spaces. Saving spaces, Vaults, Pots – little sub-accounts where you can stash your money for a variety of purposes is one of the most cherished capabilities online banks introduced. You can dedicate these “virtual jars” for whatever reason – a festival, holiday, new boots, a new laptop, you name it. You can also set up round-ups to go to any space.
One caveat is that unless it’s dedicated to paying bills, you can’t make payments straight from these spaces (with Monzo, you can) – which is a shame as it could make it easier to categorise spending and set individual limits for each category.
Bills Manager. You can dedicate one of the spaces for bills, and when you activate it, the app allows you to set up direct debits straight through the space (not possible otherwise). You can set up automatic payments from your main account to the bill space, and add all your bills to get a holistic view of your commitments.
Payments
Round-Ups. The flagship feature of digital banks, the round-up feature is my personal favourite. It rounds up your payments to the nearest pound and saves the change in whichever saving space you choose. It sounds awfully trivial, but unless you have a substantial amount in your savings, it adds up much faster than interest.
Virtual Cards. You can use disposable virtual cards for your online payments to avoid giving your card details to vendors you don’t particularly trust.
Settle Up. You can easily generate a payment link to settle up any group tabs. The payers don’t have to be Starling users (the same feature on Monzo requires all payers to be Monzo users).
Split the Bill. If you’ve already paid for the group tab, you can generate a link to split that payment among different payers as well.
Split Payments. This is an extremely useful feature for saving and budgeting. You can automatically split an incoming payment, like your salary, student loan, or rent payments, into your different Starling Bank accounts and saving spaces.
This way, you can automatise your savings and set aside money for bills.
I interviewed Hal Hershfield, a researcher and Associate Professor of Behavioural Decision Making at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management. Hal has been working on saving behaviour for the last few decades, and he had one simple advice on how to start saving:
“Make it automatic! It may seem impossible to start saving, but starting small can help. Don’t try to go from being a non-saver to saving everything overnight. Rather, start with a small portion from your paycheck, and if possible, set up an automatic transfer so that every time you get paid, a portion goes into a savings account. Put in a reminder for yourself to gradually increase that amount in, say, 6 months’ time.”
Starling's Split Payments feature is an excellent tool to automatise your payments. Start with 10%, for example, and when you hit £2,000 lock it in for a year using Starling's 1-year fixed savings account. You can't top up your Fixed Saver account, but you can have multiple Fixed Savers at once.
Saving & Interests Earned – 8.3/10
Interest Rate | Accessibility Terms | Minimum deposit | |
|---|---|---|---|
1-Year Fixed Savings Account | 4.48% AER | Locked in for one year | £2,000 |
Although impressive considering the giant difference in resources and network, online-only banks are yet to match the impressive suite of savings facilities high street banks offer.
The closest contestant, as it stands now, is Monzo – who provides a range of savings accounts with varying rates and accessibility terms. In comparison, Starling’s offerings fall slightly short.
Besides the low interest (0.5% APR) offered on current accounts, there’s a 1-year fixed-rate account on offer with an interest rate of 4.48% AER.
At £2,000, the minimum deposit requirement is quite high. Yet, it also ensures somewhat of a meaningful return: if you were to lock in £2,000 for a year, at the current interest rate, you can get an extra £89.60 in interest. Here are some returns for varying amounts:
Deposit | Interest Earned |
|---|---|
£5,000 | £224 |
£10,000 | £448 |
£15,000 | £672 |
The fixed rate also gives the peace of mind of knowing what you’ll be getting at the end of the year – which in turn makes it easier to budget and set goals.
While Starling’s own saving offerings are somewhat weak, it fully integrates with Wealthify – a renowned investing and saving platform. You can locate the platform on Starling’s marketplace.
There, you can open a (very) low-cost ISA account. For £20,000 a year (which is the annual limit for ISAs), you’ll be paying £152.00 per year in fees.
Overdraft Limits & Fees – 7.5/10
Interest rate(s) | 15%, 25% and 35% EAR |
|---|---|
Maximum Amount | £5,000 |
Starling offers overdraft facilities of up to £5,000 at rates of 15%, 25% and 35% EAR (variable) – which are quite competitive.
For comparison, all borrowing incurs a 39% interest rate at Barclays, and a whopping 39% at HSBC. Even at Monzo, which offers similarly low representative rates, it can go as high as 39% depending on your credit history.
As a standard, interest is accrued daily and charged on the 15th of the following month, and it’s updated every day on the app. There are also no extra interest charges or fees for going over your arranged overdraft limit, following suit with the FCA’s latest ruling on the matter.
Business account holders can apply for an overdraft of between £1,000 and £50,000.
The cost of £500 overdraft at different rates
7 days | 30 days | 60 days | |
|---|---|---|---|
15% EAR | £1.35 | £5.81 | £11.62 |
25 EAR% | £2.16 | £9.33 | £18.66 |
35 EAR% | £2.92 | £12.63 | £25.26 |
Other Borrowing Options
Type | Fixed-rate loan |
|---|---|
Amount | £25,001 – £250,000 |
Terms | 1 to 6 years |
Turnover/Trading Criteria | No specified minimum turnover, a minimum of 18 months of trading |
As of this writing, Starling doesn’t offer personal loans – only business loans are available.
Starling business account holders, provided that they run a Limited Liability Company or Limited Liability Partnership, can apply for a loan with amounts ranging from £25,001 to £250,000.
In order to be eligible, you need to be running your company for a minimum of 24 months and provide a Personal Guarantee – this means that one person will be held accountable for paying the loan back, and need to step up if the business fails to do so.
While the terms are friendly, there are better options:
No early repayment charges,
Terms vary from a year to six years,
Fixed monthly payments,
And a one-off loan agreement fee of 4% at the point of drawdown.
Requirements are somewhat standard, but the 4% fee is fairly steep. For comparison, HSBC’s SME loan imposes no turnover requirement and only levies a 1.5% fee. Here’s the one-off fee you’d be paying for a £100,000 loan from two banks:
Amount borrowed | Arrangement Fee (one-off) | |
|---|---|---|
HSCB | £100,000 | £1,500 |
Starling | £100,000 | £4,000 |
Overseas Usage – 9.5/10
Currency Conversion Fee for Transfers | 0.4% |
|---|---|
Global Reach | Wherever Mastercard is accepted |
ATM withdrawal limit | £300 |
International card use fees | ❌ |
Low fees to no fees for overseas spending is one of online-only banks’ greatest strengths. High-street banks are notorious for hefty fees and an opaque way of charging them. More often than not, it's not possible to see how much is added as a currency conversion fee.
Much like Wise, Monzo, and Chase, Starling also supports fee-free debit card use and ATM withdrawals while abroad. For comparison, here’s what you’ll pay for £100 in debit card use in the EU and beyond with HSBC and RBS:
Starling | HSBC | Royal Bank of Scotland | |
|---|---|---|---|
Debit EU £100 cost | £0 | £2.75 | £2.75 |
ATM EU £100 cost | £0 | £4.75 | £2.75 |
Debit world £100 cost | £0 | £4.75 | £2.75 |
ATM world £100 cost | £0 | £4.75 | £2.75 |
International Money Transfers
In terms of money transfers, Starling Bank recently expanded its global coverage from 17 countries to 36 (still lagging behind Wise’s coverage of over 50 countries, though).
The best part is that the pricing is not dynamic – it remains set at 0.4%. This means that the highest fee you’ll be paying is £40, which is applicable for a £10,000 transfer, your maximum limit.
The prices are, although very nominal, lower than one of the best remittance providers available, Wise. Here’s a breakdown of sending £1,000 to the US for comparison:
Amount | Transfer Fee | Delivery Fee | Total Cost | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Starling | £1,000 | £4 | £0.30 | £4.30 |
Wise | £1,000 | £4.64 | N/A | £4.64 |
That being said, Starling’s £10,000 limit is considerably low – with Wise, you can send up to £1 million without any assistance.
Usability – 8/10
What makes digital banks like Starling Bank truly special is their impeccable online banking services. It’s a tradeoff between a human touch that you’d get from a physical branch and a versatile, modern-looking, and sleek mobile application.
Let’s dive into the details.
Starling Bank App Review
Unlike their newer counterparts, legacy banks like HSBC or Barclays have gone through a process of digitalisation. For many, their mobile app is a secondary feature – for Starling Bank and the likes of it, it’s their central feature; it’s simply how they pitch their product.
This translates smoothly to the user. When using HSBC, for example, I’m transferred to its website whenever I enquire about a different product like a savings account or loan and navigate thereafter.
Conversely, I don’t have to leave the app to browse and apply for services and different products with the likes of Starling – this containment alone gives it a great competitive edge.
Design and navigation
A pie graph demonstrating what you’ve spent in what category today greets you as you open the app. The pie is central to the screen with nothing else around (the Starling app is by far the most minimalistic one I’ve reviewed so far).
Personally, I find it quite bare – there’s not a lot of information at a glance. In that sense I, and probably those of you who also would like to see more information on spending insights or current budget situation, would rather have a dashboard like Revolut’s, where your entire financial snapshot is packed into a single screen.
That being said, it’s not too hard to navigate around to access these details.
You can swipe up to see your transaction history, and easily change tabs from the bottom bar.
Payments
The payments space is divided into two tabs, Scheduled and Payments.
The Scheduled tab is a divine help. You can view all your scheduled payments, direct debits, and standing orders at a glance, as well as when they are coming up, and who you are paying to. To view past payments, you can visit the payments tab next to it.
You can start a new transfer on the Payments tab as well. If you’ve already paid the beneficiary, it only takes a few clicks to send money over. In order to create a new payee, you have to enter the password you created upon signing up as a security measure.
Spending
On the same bottom bar, you’ll find the Spending tab. Much like the other parts of the app, it's cleanly designed and straightforward. You can view your spending in two categories, merchants or spending categories.
Spending categories include things like entertainment, groceries, food, and so on. Note that these are automatically allocated and the app is not always entirely accurate.
I always get the most insight from the merchant categorisation. It bundles up all your payments by merchant and is very helpful for your budgeting as you can see exactly how much you’re spending and where.
At a glance, you can see how much you spend at Tesco, transportation, morning coffees, and so on. It’s also helpful to understand what your money suckers are – did you order in too many nights with Uber Eats last week? Spent a bit too much time on Amazon last month? The answers are all there.
Card Management
All of the card management features I mentioned above as well as your card details are in this space.
Your card details are visible at a glance, from where you can copy them for your online transactions. There’s also a frequently changing online payment code that you can use to authorise online payments, adding another layer of security.
You can also add your card to your Apple Pay or Google Pay from there easily.
Login and security features
You are required to create a PIN code for the app as you set it up for the first time, or alternatively, you can use the biometric login to access it – all of which are pretty standard.
Besides the online payment code I mentioned above, you can also use virtual cards for your online payments to avoid submitting your actual card details.
Opening a Starling Bank Account
Set Up Your Account
Submit Your Personal Information & Verify Your ID
Give Information About Your Financial Situation
Wait Until the Review Is Complete
Customer Satisfaction & Reputation – 9/10
Starling Bank received overwhelmingly positive reviews on various platforms and to its mobile product.
As a fully regulated and licensed UK bank with a variety of additional security measures in place, it also ranks well in safety as well as reputation.
Customer Reviews
Score | |
|---|---|
Trustpilot Score | 4.3/5 – 36,320 ratings |
App Store Score | 4.9/5 – 430,900 ratings |
Google Play Score | 4.5/5 – 104,000 ratings |
What is Starling Bank rated on Trustpilot?
A stellar 75% of Starling Bank ratings are 5-star on Trustpilot – many praise its resourceful app, easy signing-up process, and attractive terms of international money transfers, as well as abroad use.
While there is a myriad of users who have their accounts approved within less than a day, there are also some who have been waiting for days to activate their accounts due to a surge in applications. Other common complaints include the strict due diligence carried out over business account applications.
According to Trustpilot, Starling Bank replies to 88% of all negative reviews – which is a fairly respectable response rate. The team provides personalised messages and ensures that users are in contact with the appropriate support team.
What is Starling Bank rated on the App Store?
Starling received a whopping 4.9/5 rating on the App Store. While there are only a few negative comments including incidents of restricted accounts and slow response times by customer service, the App Store only displays a mix of reviews submitted between 2019 and 2023 – so it's wise to take it with a pinch of salt.
That being said, the iOS app receives an average of three updates a month, all of which are improvements to the user interface. As expected from a mobile-first bank, this shows that there’s an awful lot of development goes into the product.
What is Starling Bank rated on Google Play?
Starling’s Android product performs worse than its iOS version, receiving only 4.5 out of 5 on Google Play compared to 4.9/5 on the App Store.
Although it receives updates at similar intervals, many reviews complain about the user interface not being as intuitive as it could be as well as similar complaints regarding the due diligence and restricted accounts.
Customer Service
Phoneline | 0207 930 4450 |
|---|---|
In-app chat | Yes |
Starling Bank prides itself on its 24/7 customer service – which is a rare find among banks, legacy banks, to be precise. In comparison, you can only contact a representative of Barclays between 8 AM and 8 PM on weekdays, and can only access a chatbot after hours and weekends.
This is a common practice among online banks, but what sets Starling apart from subscription-based services like Monzo or Revolut is that it doesn’t offer priority services to paid customers. Meaning that you don’t need to be paying a monthly fee to receive good service.
Security
FCA regulated | ✔️ |
|---|---|
FSCS Protected | ✔️ |
2FA | ✔️ |
Virtual Cards | ✔️ |
Starling has several security measures to guard against fraudulent activity.
Upon signing up, every user is required to send a video of themselves as well as their government-issued photo ID. This way, the bank prevents incidents of identity fraud.
Most important activities are protected by passcodes and passwords:
A passcode to access the app,
Biometric login to accompany the passcode if applicable,
A password to set up payees and authorise payments.
Though annoying at times I find the password addition to be a very important extra layer of security.
The bank also supports virtual cards for all of its users, so you don’t have to submit your actual card details when shopping online.
Unlike many of its close competitors, such as Monese or Revolut, Starling Bank is authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) as well as the PRA.
This means that it’s legally treated as a licensed bank, and in the event of becoming insolvent, eligible deposits are protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme for up to £85,000.
