I’m obviously in the minority but I’m still full Starling - have been since switching to them in May 2018. I’ve just returned from the US and used my Starling card everywhere. Great exchange rate, no fees, free cash withdrawals… perfect when abroad. For day to day use, I make extensive use of the Spaces feature and find it’s revolutionised how I budget. I also use Virtual Cards - used to use Revolut purely for that feature. As for the usual banking stuff, I find payee management, payment scheduling, and the transaction feed much better than other banks I’ve used. Finally, I have Kite cards for my two boys, and they love them!
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I’ve just taken the decision to CASS my Edge account to Starling (which is the repository for my income streams). A bit of tidying up.
I recall the community having a considerable input to refining the payee element of the app. That put them ahead of the game in that regard.
I’m keen to know quite what the benefits of the Virtual Card and how best to employ it.
I use my virtual card to help have all my bills (the ones that need to be paid by card) all come out of one space with all my direct debits
Currently running my spending that earns cashback through chase otherwise everything else is in starling
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I was a fan of virtual cards for that kind of segregation in theory initially.
In practice, if it’s anything like Monzo’s, they completely fall apart and become more hassle than they’re worth. It’s an over-engineered solution to that problem. A problem Monzo USA solved far more elegantly with a solution both Monzo U.K. and Starling strung us along with the excuse that it was impossible to do it that way.
My approach to budgeting can be really rather fluid and constantly evolving, and the virtual cards solution is a very rigid and set in stone solution. Making a tiny change involves having to delete the virtual card and starting over with new details and then going out to merchants to update those details.
It’s really only the privacy boon that I find to be worthwhile benefit in reality. And they’re well worth using just for that.
A virtual card for online purchases and subscriptions (which might benefit from having their own separate virtual card) protects the integrity of your physical card. And in turn your physical card protects in the integrity of your virtual ones.
If your virtual card for online spending gets compromised, your subscriptions virtual card remains safe so your subscriptions are safe and you don’t need to worry about updating card details there. You can continue to spend in person in shops too, because your physical card also remains safe. Likewise if your physical card gets compromised, you can still spend online, and your subscriptions would be fine.
With Monzo Plus I had one virtual card for online spending, one for subscriptions, and one for dodgy shops. Not for the segregation, but to protect my other cards for other uses. I’ve since found the segregation between different sorts of online use to be a bit moot though, and one card virtual card is plenty sufficient.
But it’s definitely this privacy angle where they make the most sense to me, not the budgeting one.
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I use them for restaurants which demand such things when making a booking, and then immediately destroy them after the booking is done.
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I have a subscriptions space with a debit card attached to it. Netflix, Prime etc are all attached to that card. The space gets topped up to the target amount every month. I like that you can now set it to do that rather than setting a fixed amount and having to move money out when it goes over the target.
You could also set up a space for any monthly travel cards you pay for --monthly bus passes etc. The virtual cards can also be added to Apple/Google Pay so you can use them when you’re out and about.
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One of the big benefits for me is the company that does my kids’ school photos. They insist on you adding all your card details onto a paper slip - I give them a virtual card number and make sure that Space only contains enough to cover the order. If the details go astray, there’s no money for the fraudster to spend.
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Isn’t that just the modern alternative to card imprinting for non-embossed cards?
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Yes, and equally insecure!
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I’m not sure a paper order form is the modern equivalent to anything!! Still loads of paper mail order going on, crazy really in this day and age but next time you get a catalogue in the post flip to the back page and there’ll be one there probably, sometimes a freepost envelope too.
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It’s what the opticians do when the come up to the island (specsavers or vision express, can’t remember which) and you don’t have an embossed credit card for their imprint machine (they can’t bill anyone until they return to the mainland so that’s how they do it).
I’ve had out of hours vets spring those on me in emergencies too (and that was back in a super high tech modern English city, not the middle of nowhere) because they can’t process payments either.
I remember those paper mail order things too! Haven’t seen one in forever though.
Question about spending from Spaces:
If I inadvertently underfund a space will a bill be paid from the main account?
No, your bill won’t be paid if the space doesn’t have enough money in it.
"What happens if there’s no money in my chosen Space?
Sometimes, there might not be enough money in your Space when a bill is due. When this happens, the payment will fail. We’ll notify you of the payment’s failure, and then continue to try and take the money until 4pm that day. After 4pm, the payment will be marked as declined."
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Thanks. Just found that reference.
Good to know. 
Now set DDs up within Spaces. I didn’t realise how smart this feature is (or, frankly, that is even existed). Don’t know if any other bank has incorporated such a feature, but this really does look promising.
I don’t need a Budget Manager - budgeting has never been an issue for me - but it sure does neaten things up.
Pots with Monzo, Pockets with Revolut
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I tend to see Monzo’s solution as a bit of a kludge. The funds to pay the DD are transferred back to the main account and paid from there. It still works in the sense that you have separated the DD funds from the main account, though.
How does Revolut handle it?
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Comes straight out of the pocket, that’s for DDs and CPAs
Only issue I’ve had is sometimes it’s taken till the second payment for it recognise it as being regular and then you can add it to the pocket.
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I’ve been using this feature since it was released. Really useful. I have so many Spaces anyway for budgeting, being able to have payments come directly from them is great.
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Does Starling still charge 0.7% if you deposit more than 1k in cash per year unlike full service banks?
Yes. It’s per calendar year.