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Jonas Haefele

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Review of the Starling Bank, Current Account:

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Started great, then stagnated

Review of the Starling Bank, Business Account:

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Started great, then stagnated

I've been with Starling since the beginning. I loved how they are a real bank, but had this startup spirit. It was more than just cute Emojis (sorry Monzo), but proper banking, done right. And they did personal and business accounts from very early on. But it seems they stopped innovating and improving their app. To this day, getting international payments is a huge pain. They only show up as "You paid yourself", which makes reconciliation with the accounting software a real hassle. I raised it several times over the years and keeps getting a "coming soon" answer. Now they introduced the "accounting addon" with cute icons for the most common card transactions and budgeting features, which - if you're using a professional accountant and their software - is a bit useless. Especially when the basics aren't right yet. Can't be that hard to surface payment details in the app if you're a bank?! So as much as I did and want to love Starling, wouldn't recommend right now. Trying to add the official HMRC account as a payee and pay my taxes ended up locking me out for "fraud protection". Like it REALLY was the HMRC account, I quadruple checked. Definitely no scam. The HMRC website (after logging in securely), my letter from HMRC and my accountant all agreed. Yet Starling wouldn't allow me to send them my tax payment... It's two account numbers to add to the fraud protection algorithm. Can't be that hard. Definitely easier than the cute but useless icons for transaction categories... Reviewed on: 18th February 2021

Jonas Haefele

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Review of the Starling Bank, Current Account:

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Best bank. That's it.

Been with starling since the beginning, joined because they were the first "real" challenger bank while monzo only had prepaid cards. But I stayed because of the great service and the speed with which they add new features and respond to customer ideas. For a bank that doesn't have branches their partnership with the post office is ingenious. Don't think there's anything I couldn't do with starling. Reviewed on: 3rd January 2020

Review of the Starling Bank, Business Account:

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Everything you need plus that magic extra

I've been with starling as a private customer since they launched and couldn't have been more excited to see them offer a business account right as I started my own company. The app just works, the customer service is fantastic and the speed they add new features with is incredible. Not to speak of the integration with freeagent (insert your accounting software here) that just works. Priceless. Reviewed on: 3rd January 2020

Review of the Starling Bank, Current Account:

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Best bank I've ever had

I joined starling back when they weren't cool and everyone was running to check out Monzo because their "waitlist was so cute". I got attracted to Starling because they had a no-thrills current account with all the most important features a high street bank has, just without the messy upselling and buggy software. Ever since then Starling kept improving their product, and over Christmas, I made the switch to have Starling as my main account. All from within the app, with updates, as payees and direct debits were moved over. From the fantastic customer service, the app/service marketplace, the notifications when you spend money, and the no-fee withdrawals on holidays, I couldn't ask for much more. Only "downside" maybe is that the "pulse", a pie-chart of your daily spending, is a bit useless and that they don't offer a competitive credit card product. Reviewed on: 10th February 2019

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