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Michael Firth

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Review of the Starling Bank, Current Account:

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Opened a Starling Bank account as an experiment, has now become my main current account...

We’ve all been there (probably). You log on to your internet banking app to change your postal address after moving home and you can’t. You go to their website, login, look for the change of address section and can’t find it there either, so you Google it, and you find a page which tells you you need to call the bank, or worse still, fill out a form and send it in with a copy of a bill and a photo ID. If you’re really unlucky, you’ll have to do all three of the above. Frustrated, you sign up to the ‘app only’ Bank, Starling. After discovering that every time you send and receive a payment, use your Apple Pay or your debit card you’re informed instantly with a notification on your phone that money has changed hands you’re impressed. Payees you setup can have multiple accounts associated with them with helpful names you choose, so you’re no longer shouting “what are the last four digits of the joint account again?!” across the kitchen each time you make a transfer. Then you move house, and as you’re sat on your laptop changing addresses on every account you can think of while muttering about ‘life admin’ you realise you need to change your address with Starling Bank, too... So you open the app, authenticate using only your face/fingerprint, then click settings > account management > personal details and pop in your new postcode to find and update your new address. And that’s it done. This is a true story about the future of banking and the end of the fossilised behemoth high street banking chains as we know them; I once called a bank to change the address on my credit card only to be told it had to be done in branch. Frustrated, I turned up at the bank and spoke to a staff member, who told me it had to be done over the phone, but it had to be done from in store using their dedicated customer service phone...it took me fifteen minutes and all kinds of security questions to change my address, while the staff member (who could’ve checked my ID/face/signature) stood around directing people to ATM’s and cashiers. If you can relate to the sort of ridiculousness that ‘traditional’ banks inflict upon the public, please give Starling Bank a try. You will be pleasantly surprised. Reviewed on: 20th January 2018

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