Experience with Starling Bank. Good and not so…

[DavidJ]

Just thought I’d share an experience with Starling bank for Euro spending. (Mostly on the boat)
Generally I like the website and also that you “push” money from your (for me Lloyds) account rather than have Starling “pull” money from your account. The fees of 0.4% are OK for me.
However
Don’t use the Starling card for ”Pay at Pump”
The way it works is that the “Pump” tests if you have enough money on the card by taking the max fuel amount (€150) and puts it in “pending”
Then you fill (€80) and it takes the money but does not cancel the “pending”.
It took Starling 31 days to pull my money back. Settled this morning after two calls.
Great for “face to face“ transactions but hope this helps so as not to fall in the same trap.

 

[Andy Bav]

Thanks for that, I did about 6 pay at pumps when I drove from SCM to home last September - I’m a half tank = empty type though.

 

[markc]

I found similar with Revolut, not at the pumps because with 100l tank, I always seem to hit the pre-approval limit :-( , but at visiting marinas. At PV in Antibes you need a special electric socket and they take pre-approval on a card for 550 euros - took 2 weeks to get it back, but stupidly did the same thing the following visit! Worth noting with Revolut, no fees at all.

 

[DavidJ]

Worth noting with Revolut, no fees at all.

I‘ve used Revolut with some success but because it “pulls” from your bank I was getting declines from my bank who I suppose thought it was a dodgy transaction and I was having to make phone calls (“ the queue is now 20 minutes, we value your custom”) to clear the money.
I did wonder at the time how Revolut made any money.

 

[julians]

I‘ve used Revolut with some success but because it “pulls” from your bank I was getting declines from my bank who I suppose thought it was a dodgy transaction and I was having to make phone calls (“ the queue is now 20 minutes, we value your custom”) to clear the money.
I did wonder at the time how Revolut made any money.

Just make sure your revolut account always has some funds in it, ie enough to cover the transaction, then it won't pull from your bank.

I've been using revolut a lot for foreign exchange and euro bank transfers recently.

 

[markc]

I‘ve used Revolut with some success but because it “pulls” from your bank I was getting declines from my bank who I suppose thought it was a dodgy transaction and I was having to make phone calls (“ the queue is now 20 minutes, we value your custom”) to clear the money.
I did wonder at the time how Revolut made any money.

I always keep funds in Revolut in Sterling and Euros, so never get the 'pull' either. Also, to add money from a Natwest account to Revolut takes just a few thumb prints and a couple of seconds to land in my Revolut account. They make money by people exchanging currencies when the markets are closed as that's when they charge a fee

 

[hinch]

Don't get me started on Starling their shocking customer service, their unilateral rejecting payments into accounts unless you can tell them exactly what you're spending it on, their insanely low daily limits making it impossible to actually pay people like builders etc doing work for you and their total inflexibility increase or change any of these limits.

Its funny you mention Lloyds as i'm now looking to move away from starling to a Lloyds account because of all the shit I've had to deal with at starling in the last couple of weeks.

 

[SC35]

Don't get me started on Starling their shocking customer service, their unilateral rejecting payments into accounts unless you can tell them exactly what you're spending it on, their insanely low daily limits making it impossible to actually pay people like builders etc doing work for you and their total inflexibility increase or change any of these limits.

Its funny you mention Lloyds as i'm now looking to move away from starling to a Lloyds account because of all the shit I've had to deal with at starling in the last couple of weeks.

Lloyds are pretty good in this respect.
Some transactions will require you to receive and type in a 6-digit code from an SMS, but it's fairly painless.
e.g. £40k on a car using the debit card wasn't a problem.

 

[jcwads]

Another thumbs down for Starling. The amount of nonsense to make some payments to France. It was like talking to a detective. They wouldn’t make my payment for 3 days. I just use good old Barclays now for day to day when out there and then TorFX for any bigger payments when required.

 

[ashtead]

Do Barclays have good euro services? I have Barclays online sterling account but would like an account to stash some impending euro in .

 

[markc]

Not to play the same old record, but Revolut is really good, I've been using it for 4 years. You buy and sell at market rates, zero charges for transfers, you can hold tons of different currencies and spend them via the same Visa card, use via Google pay, free junior account and card for kids, they can spend pocket money at home and on holiday in local currency. I still have a French bank account but just for direct debits, but otherwise everything else I use Revolut

 

[jcwads]

Do Barclays have good euro services? I have Barclays online sterling account but would like an account to stash some impending euro in .

I wouldn’t use barclays for that. I just use Barclays for traditional card payments as my account doesn't have big fees. But for holding euros I couldn’t help