Starling for business - downsides?

[Louis Balfour]

We currently have business relationships with Barclays, Nat West and HSBC. All of them are in my hate beam.

I have steered clear of challengers thus far, but Starling gets a good rap.

Any downsides? Is our cash as safe as it is with the bigger "old" banks?

[Frankstar_Rapper]

No problems with Starling Bank. Find their app really good to use and love the fact i can attach receipts and notes to each transaction.

[dmahon]

Use them for 2 businesses and personal accounts and it’s been faultless.

I started out a bit nervous and left savings accounts at Barclays, but im close to just moving everything over to have it in one place.

[Louis Balfour]

dmahon said:

Use them for 2 businesses and personal accounts and it’s been faultless.

I started out a bit nervous and left savings accounts at Barclays, but im close to just moving everything over to have it in one place.

Do you get the same protection as with other banks?

[hajaba123]

Louis Balfour said:

Do you get the same protection as with other banks?

from their website:

FSCS protected
A fully regulated UK bank account, where your money’s covered up to £85,000 by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.

[bigbaddom]

I found one negative. One of our suppliers wanted to be paid in £ but they are based in Poland.
Even though the supplier has a £ account, the starling app will only let you send money in their local currency.

Small thing - but annoying none the less

[J4rvis]

Switched to them a few years ago on a BTL portfolio. App is great, super straight forward and also syncs seamlessly with accounting software.

One thing, if you need help, most of that is conducted on live chat. Last few times I have wanted to flag to them a large money transfer (e.g. to a solicitor for completion), it has taken 10-20mins to get through the virtual queue. Not sure if those times have changed in the past year. Though, once through my request or question has always been dealt with swiftly and easily.

[Louis Balfour]

J4rvis said:

Switched to them a few years ago on a BTL portfolio. App is great, super straight forward and also syncs seamlessly with accounting software.

One thing, if you need help, most of that is conducted on live chat. Last few times I have wanted to flag to them a large money transfer (e.g. to a solicitor for completion), it has taken 10-20mins to get through the virtual queue. Not sure if those times have changed in the past year. Though, once through my request or question has always been dealt with swiftly and easily.

One of our business associates who uses them flagged this as the main downside. Not easy to contact a human. That said, nor is it with the old school banks we use.

[S600BSB]

Highly recommended. Great to be able to have both sterling and euro accounts.

[Frankthered]

I reckon the biggest downside with Starling would be if your business needs to deal with cash transactions on a regular basis. Fortunately, I have not had to do this, but I understand there will be charges and it's probably a bit of a faff to deposit at the post office.

Other than that, there are some horror stories of accounts being suspended and subsequently closed due to unexpected payments arriving in the account - in some cases, unexpected things like clients paying their bills! Best practice appears to be (as intimated by a previous poster) to contact them in advance and let them know it's coming so that their (slightly overzealous) AI algorithm doesn't take over and close you down!

Of course, that sort of thing can happen with any bank but, by all accounts, Startling seem to be slow to respond to such issues.

[Xenobian]

Louis Balfour said:

One of our business associates who uses them flagged this as the main downside. Not easy to contact a human. That said, nor is it with the old school banks we use.

If this is something you value a lot, consider looking into Handelsbanken and see if they suit your needs. Very good when it comes to real human contact, all at the local branch level as banking once was and should still be.

[Mr Whippy]

Xenobian said:

Louis Balfour said:

One of our business associates who uses them flagged this as the main downside. Not easy to contact a human. That said, nor is it with the old school banks we use.

If this is something you value a lot, consider looking into Handelsbanken and see if they suit your needs. Very good when it comes to real human contact, all at the local branch level as banking once was and should still be.

They were in the loop on my cash house purchase recently and were very good on the phone, instant pick-up and professional UK person with no difficulty understanding them.

Their branches aren’t conventionally located though, usually they’re in office type estates aren’t they?
Not a problem as access is in theory much easier but not if you like to cash money regularly from town/city centre etc.

[Xenobian]

Mr Whippy said:

They were in the loop on my cash house purchase recently and were very good on the phone, instant pick-up and professional UK person with no difficulty understanding them.

Their branches aren’t conventionally located though, usually they’re in office type estates aren’t they?
Not a problem as access is in theory much easier but not if you like to cash money regularly from town/city centre etc.

Agreed about their locations, although the number of them has increased a lot in recent years, so most people are probably not TOO far of a drive from one nowadays (even if they don't realise it). Definitely a good option if you are not handling physical cash very much day to day I would say.

[Louis Balfour]

Mr Whippy said:

Xenobian said:

Louis Balfour said:

One of our business associates who uses them flagged this as the main downside. Not easy to contact a human. That said, nor is it with the old school banks we use.

If this is something you value a lot, consider looking into Handelsbanken and see if they suit your needs. Very good when it comes to real human contact, all at the local branch level as banking once was and should still be.

They were in the loop on my cash house purchase recently and were very good on the phone, instant pick-up and professional UK person with no difficulty understanding them.

Their branches aren’t conventionally located though, usually they’re in office type estates aren’t they?
Not a problem as access is in theory much easier but not if you like to cash money regularly from town/city centre etc.

I've written about Handelsbanken elsewhere. When I last checked, they were still staffed locally by ex HSBC staff (the not very good ones) and they had no interest in our businesses outside of offering a current account, for which they wanted to charge a fortune.

[Xenobian]

Louis Balfour said:

I've written about Handelsbanken elsewhere. When I last checked, they were still staffed locally by ex HSBC staff (the not very good ones) and they had no interest in our businesses outside of offering a current account, for which they wanted to charge a fortune.

Fair enough, I haven't used them for several years now, as needs have changed.

[Tyre Smoke]

Frankthered said:

I reckon the biggest downside with Starling would be if your business needs to deal with cash transactions on a regular basis. Fortunately, I have not had to do this, but I understand there will be charges and it's probably a bit of a faff to deposit at the post office.

Other than that, there are some horror stories of accounts being suspended and subsequently closed due to unexpected payments arriving in the account - in some cases, unexpected things like clients paying their bills! Best practice appears to be (as intimated by a previous poster) to contact them in advance and let them know it's coming so that their (slightly overzealous) AI algorithm doesn't take over and close you down!

Of course, that sort of thing can happen with any bank but, by all accounts, Startling seem to be slow to respond to such issues.

Just as the big four charge for cash deposits, so do Starling. There is no faff at all paying into a PO. "Hello, can I pay this in please? Insert card, collect receipt, instantly in account".

[Louis Balfour]

Tyre Smoke said:

Frankthered said:

I reckon the biggest downside with Starling would be if your business needs to deal with cash transactions on a regular basis. Fortunately, I have not had to do this, but I understand there will be charges and it's probably a bit of a faff to deposit at the post office.

Other than that, there are some horror stories of accounts being suspended and subsequently closed due to unexpected payments arriving in the account - in some cases, unexpected things like clients paying their bills! Best practice appears to be (as intimated by a previous poster) to contact them in advance and let them know it's coming so that their (slightly overzealous) AI algorithm doesn't take over and close you down!

Of course, that sort of thing can happen with any bank but, by all accounts, Startling seem to be slow to respond to such issues.

Just as the big four charge for cash deposits, so do Starling. There is no faff at all paying into a PO. "Hello, can I pay this in please? Insert card, collect receipt, instantly in account".

Does the PO actually offer business accounts of their own, or are they just a conduit for other banks?

[Tyre Smoke]

I think they're just a conduit for all the others.

[Puzzles]

Can starling cope with dual authorisations or any segregation of the payment process?

[Olivera]

No issues here, although they required documentary proof that I was a real and viable business with clients before they would open the account.