Anyone tried Starling Bank?

Anthorn

EarthBoy wrote: »

Where will you bank when you've dumped them all?

Yet again a terrible indictment of British Banking. Really, we should not be expecting banks to go down. They should be spending some of their billions on more reliable systems. But as all of us can see, even those banks which have new systems "built from the ground up" go down. Perhaps the situation is they go down because we accept the "occasional technical issues" without question. But really, is TSB going down for example due to "occasional technical issues". Looks more than occasional to me!

pmduk

You're talking nonsense. You find technology that never fails, its not just banking that would want it but the NHS and NASA.

Nothing is failsafe whether it be human or man-made.

System

With the app based banks, they should have less legacy systems to fall over.
In reality, they outsource everything and only have a single method of access.

Anthorn

pmduk wrote: »

You're talking nonsense. You find technology that never fails, its not just banking that would want it but the NHS and NASA.

Nothing is failsafe whether it be human or man-made.

Am I the one who is talking nonsense?

What you're saying is that banks with all their billions and headline profits cannot build a reliable system. But the same applies to large businesses: I look at my email inbox and I see emails from Currys PC World, Dixon's Carphone and Superdrug warning that their systems have been hacked and my personal details have been stolen.

The one and only reason why such things as bank failures and hacking of sites happen must be that reliable, secure systems do not get priority.

So therefore any bank which does not place a priority on reliable, secure systems doesn't get my money. But it's a question of degree. A bank going down is not so serious for those who just use their debit card to buy their cheap Aldi spaghetti rings once a week but for those such as myself who use their debit card several times a day every day it's something of a disaster.

EarthBoy

Anthorn wrote: »

Am I the one who is talking nonsense?

Yes

Anthorn wrote: »

What you're saying is that banks with all their billions and headline profits cannot build a reliable system.

There's a difference between reliable and "guaranteed never to go wrong". All bank systems are generally very reliable, but no system, whether used by banks or any other organisation, can be guaranteed never to go wrong. Such a system has not been invented and it's unlikely that it ever could be invented.

Anthorn wrote: »

So therefore any bank which does not place a priority on reliable, secure systems doesn't get my money. .... for those such as myself who use their debit card several times a day every day it's something of a disaster.

All banks place a priority on the reliability and security of their systems and they are seeking to improve them all the time. Are you saying that you've given up on all the banks and now keep your money under the mattress instead, or have you actually found a bank which has guaranteed never to have any problems with their system? If the latter, you should ditch that bank immediately because they're lying to you and can't be trusted.

pmduk

Anthorn wrote: »

Am I the one who is talking nonsense?

Yes, not for the first time.

Anthorn wrote: »

What you're saying is that banks with all their billions and headline profits cannot build a reliable system. But the same applies to large businesses:

That just proves my point, the technology doesn't just consist of hardware, but millions of lines of software and coding, any of which may interfere with another, particularly when changes need to be made. I'm not saying it's a problem that only applies to banks, I'm saying there isn't a system in existence without unplanned downtime

Anthorn

EarthBoy wrote: »

Yes



There's a difference between reliable and "guaranteed never to go wrong". All bank systems are generally very reliable, but no system, whether used by banks or any other organisation, can be guaranteed never to go wrong. Such a system has not been invented and it's unlikely that it ever could be invented.



All banks place a priority on the reliability and security of their systems and they are seeking to improve them all the time. Are you saying that you've given up on all the banks and now keep your money under the mattress instead, or have you actually found a bank which has guaranteed never to have any problems with their system? If the latter, you should ditch that bank immediately because they're lying to you and can't be trusted.

What you say is not supported by the facts. If banks "place a priority on the reliability and security of their systems" why is it their systems go down to the extent that the advice we see is to maintain back-up accounts? All I can say in conclusion is that their standards must be terribly low. In addition they are obviously too inept to run a bank in the first place!

meer53

In addition they are obviously too inept to run a bank in the first place!

What a ridiculous statement !

pmduk

You've been told several times, no system is immune from going down.

Mat_Lock

I opened a Starling account last month, after my loan payment went out on my previous account I then switched fully and it took 6 working days to fully switch.

Haven't looked back since. Ditched my First Direct Savings accounts too as was earning less than what Starling offer for current account balances.

I love the Spaces > Goals aspect and can personalise it completely. All my salary has been paid in successfully. I love how I know exactly what I spent immediately instead of 2-3 days of waiting for balances to clear.

I still have TSB current account with max savings in to get the 5% interest and a Halifax joint account for all our bills/mortgage so if Starling ever does go down I still have a lifeline or two.

When TSB went down I didn't even consider leaving, now I'm getting as much out of my savings as I can. I don't think I'll leave Starling now either unless something really comes along that's even better.