Yeah honestly I can’t imagine cards are providing much profit in general. Many don’t hold a balance, those who do are probably not customers the banks are allowed to take on anymore (consumer duty, good outcomes. being in perpetual debt isn’t a good outcome)
Cashback isn’t possible, as much as I’ve been lobbying my MP for a relaxation of interchange
Brands like British Airways are paying up sums just to be in your wallet, so you remember the brand BUT, the card is a loss for them still. AmEx are the only ones making money on it
Besides that, I think the only cards that could potentially be profitable are ones where they don’t have an interchange cap (AmEx solo branded cards)
Im CASSing out of Starling, they don’t offer anything you can’t get anywhere else now. The whole thing is a bit stale and I’ve not used them for months, might aswell get paid!
I made the same choice in the last month. It’s a shame, it felt quite exciting when they launched but they (and Monzo) haven’t done enough in my view to lift them above being just another current account offering.
The only reason I’m keeping my Monzo account open with a penny in it is because they’re a PITA to rejoin, I read.
I rejoined quite a few times, they won’t let me back. But I think it’s pretty easy to get back if you have a new phone number; I just feel sorry if anyone gets the recycled number. Doubt Monzo will let them back
Which is exactly the reason why I discontinued my relationship with Starling. I got utterly bored with the App to be honest and there just seemed like there was nothing left for me to get excited about. It’s my personal view that the App itself needs a significant overhaul to revive it’s relevance, but I’m guessing they’ve found their space and they’re going to just sit there as they are.
Starling are reliable, with good support, and have a solid offering IMO. If I wasn’t with HSBC I’d be using them. I’d rather have something that I know is going to get the job done without me having niggling doubts in my mind, which I had when using Monzo day to day.
I’ve always found their customer support to be severely lacking. They’re quick to reply, but never very helpful. Their approach to accessibility is probably the worst in the industry too, from my experience.
And it’s a combination of those elements combined with a completely stagnant app and product for the entire duration of my custom the second time around the pushed me to use those as one of my donor accounts for the switching bribes last year.
After my two go arounds I’m pretty steadfast that Starling is not the one for me and will never me. I don’t miss it, which says it all really. Puts them in the same bucket co-op and Santander are in for me.
Thirded. It’s reliable, consistent and does the basics well with the most important fintech quality of life improvements like upcoming payment notifications.
All I want from my joint account where bills come out from. For personal banking there’s Chase.
Well that’s me gone. 5 years ago i thought that Monzo/Starling were the future, as it turns out, it’s all about the money and what I can get out of them over a nice app.
The only real problem with them is in some areas you still have a second class sort code.
Other than that, both have been great but they just haven’t progressed to offer much more than a well polished app, unfortunately.
They’re too high street bank, without the benefits that actually come with being a high street bank.
It’s not necessarily an issue of them not providing some key product/service/feature I don’t think.
It’s more how their products work compared to competition. In that sense it feels like they’ve lacked any real coherent direction from the outset, and as time goes on it shows more and more. It’s stagnant. And I know that’s not a bad thing for some, but it’s not like they cracked banking perfection from day one; they didn’t. But the needle hasn’t moved very much at all since then. It does mean they find a relative niche and serve that niche well. I’m just not that niche, and I suspect it’s a shrinking niche not a growing one.
If you’re real into the fintech side of banks, tech especially, almost every other option is more compelling than Starling. Chase fills their very same niche and does it better, for instance. I’ve been saying since Chase launched that they’re no threat to Monzo, but are a very significant one to Starling. From what I’ve noticed anecdotally, and what I increasingly see online, that theory seems to resonate true. Starling customers are noticeably leaving them for Chase.
To put it succinctly, Starling has middle child syndrome. They could be the best child in the world. But they’re still the middle child. In a nutshell, they’re too boring to be a compelling prospect for those who prefer banks like Monzo. But they’re not boring enough to be a compelling prospect for those who are comfortable with their high street bank.
It’s less to do with what they’re offering/not offering, and more to do with how they’ve approached their products, how they offer them.
And just to be clear, all of the above is just my opinion. It’s how I feel about Starling. There are no statements of fact, I just don’t want to have to write in my opinion before and after every sentence.
Got to say I agree with @N26throwaway regarding starling feels like they have gone stale. Monzo is too cluttered layout wise and bad customer service. Just started using Chase again recently. Good customer service and nice clean layout and lots of logos and good layout.
A reason to use them, simply. Every other bank account I actually use justifies its position as such by providing me with value in cash, rewards or exclusive access to some similar form of value.
Halifax give my fiancée and I £5 x 6 per month.
Natwest give us £3 x3 and access to a leading 6.17% savings account (with no set maturity), as does RBS.
Lloyds give us Disney+ and a couple of magazines.
Santander give us at least a fiver every month.
etc etc
There are all compelling reasons to use their service.
The closest they get to something compelling is in-credit interest but if that’s something you seek there are better options elsewhere, even if for some reason you need it to be on a current account.
For too long they’ve traded on having a better app, and they still do have a better app but the gap to the field is short.
Nothing wrong with any of your synopsis. Like you, I have a selection of high street (for want of a better term) banks which deliver specific benefits - you’ve quoted two of them.
Whilst I have Chase ‘cos it’s new (& 1% cashback) & algbra for the 1.5% cashback, I still regard Starling as warm & reliable. And that’s science !
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