Came across this on Reddit. Link below, but as a snippet:
A starling employee reach out to me today saying the consultation has started and would be redundancies, I’m an ex starling employee myself, and I can tell you, Starling salaries are much lower than a traditional bank. They now want to move all operations to Wales and other locations in the UK… so they can pay less.
What’s everyone else’s take on this, and the wider changes (rebrand, etc.)?
Obviously people potentially losing jobs is sad but as far as Starling as a banking provider, on a personal level, I dumped them almost 3 years ago. Whether they continue to offer a banking experience that is better than other fintech banks, others may have their own thoughts. The whole Covid loans thing hasn’t done them any favours either I think:
As a pure matter of interest, how many contributors here are still using Starling? By that, I mean as a main bank account? My Wife still has a Starling account but now barely uses it as she pretty much uses Chase for all of her personal spending. I gave up on Starling because I got sick to death of their App Similarly, I now only keep £50 in my Chase account since they removed all of their decent savings interest and I barely use the account any more. Bizarrely, I’ve ‘returned’ to the High Street banks with their Apps, Santander for instance, which I now use on a daily basis. Funny how things turn around
Starling is still part of my current account portfolio (19 atm) as I use their FREE virtual cards on a regular basis.
Definitely cannot be considered my MAIN account though.
Chase - I hold two current accounts. One for 1% cashback on petrol and rail fares. Other is purely used to give out if someone owes me money. Sort of a firewall for my main accounts, so to speak.
My sole Chase Savings account is the one where I deposit my minimum monthly payment for my Chase CC as they do not allow payment via external direct debit yet
As with @Breezy I’m using their virtual cards, but not a lot of money is going into that account now.
How they still don’t allow automatic transfers into their savings accounts months after introducing them I’ll never know. If they are circling the drain, that would probably explain it.
Starling was my first fintech bank and initially I thought it was fantastic. It served me well during the pandemic from a cheque perspective in regards to me shopping for my former elderly neighbours. Then, rather rapidly, I just lost my mojo with them. For me, Starling just got boring and I got bored with their App. Then Chase came along and was very much a game changer. Sadly, even Chase for me have gone a bit stale hence why I now rarely use them, heck, they can’t even be bothered to introduce dark mode.
So, whether Starling survives long term in the personal banking sector, I guess we’ll have to see.
I do bank with Starling as my main bank, although I admit things seem a bit… dull? No real progress. I’m not sure what the progress should look like mind you
I also have a joint and a few business accounts with them. For the business account specifically, I love the openness of their API. That’s been a really nice tool to have and use in my own ways to automate things.
If truth be known, I have in the last couple of months, just started to become bored of most of my banking Apps. As long as they work and they have the functionality I need, then that’s all they need to achieve for me I guess.
A couple of weeks ago, I completely out of the blue, received a cheque from British Gas, a credit going back 2 years. The only banking App available to me with a cheque clearing facility, was my RBS App and it worked a treat.
Last couple of weeks, it’s been Santander almost every day, the App has been faultless and I’ve had fee free ATM withdrawals in Spain when needed.
As for Starling, the card and App were excellent when I used them back in the USA in 2019, but over time, I just couldn’t see where Starling were heading and truth be known, I still don’t.
All this as I stand here using my Chase debit card at an airport
I know I am late to this post but starling are still my main bank and longest I have been with since 2017. They have all the stuff I need and are less information overload on the app compared to Monzo. There are also good as they still update the logos when submitted in the app.
Similarly, I now only keep £50 in my Chase account since they removed all of their decent savings interest and I barely use the account any more. Bizarrely, I’ve ‘returned’ to the High Street banks with their Apps, Santander for instance, which I now use on a daily basis. Funny how things turn around 
