Paying in cheques to Starling by Freepost

Murmansk

I wanted to pay a cheque into my Starling account, so I put it in an enveloped addressed to Freepost Starling as per their instructions.

It was returned to me about four days later with a Royal Mail red sticker with "incomplete address" ticked. I'd put my address on the back of the envelope to help it get back if there were any problems.

I reported this to Starling, who looked into it. Eventually they came back to me to ask if I'd put my address on the back of the envelope. I said I had and they said this was the reason it'd come back!

This sounds totally implausible to me - I wonder if anyone has had any experience of Freepost Starling or indeed having Freepost stuff returned if you put your address on the back!:rotfl:

jonnygee2

Royal Mail is really poor with freepost addresses. This happens all the time.

Although technically 'Freepost Starling' should be enough, it's better to write 'Freepost Starling' followed by the full address of the Starling offices.

No idea why Starling told you to put your own address on the back of the envelope though!

dj1471

Their response is obviously nonsense. The single-line address should be sufficient according to Royal Mail:
https://www.royalmail.com/business/services/sending/returns/freepost-name

Maybe check with RM whether the Starling FreePost service is valid/active?

custardy

Murmansk wrote: »

I wanted to pay a cheque into my Starling account, so I put it in an enveloped addressed to Freepost Starling as per their instructions.

It was returned to me about four days later with a Royal Mail red sticker with "incomplete address" ticked. I'd put my address on the back of the envelope to help it get back if there were any problems.

I reported this to Starling, who looked into it. Eventually they came back to me to ask if I'd put my address on the back of the envelope. I said I had and they said this was the reason it'd come back!

This sounds totally implausible to me - I wonder if anyone has had any experience of Freepost Starling or indeed having Freepost stuff returned if you put your address on the back!:rotfl:

Its nothing to do with your address.
Its either a Mail centre !!!! up or Starling are behind on their account payments.

Murmansk

jonnygee2 wrote: »

No idea why Starling told you to put your own address on the back of the envelope though!

They didn't - they told me NOT to put my own address on the back - but it was a good job I did or I'd not have got the cheque back!

onwards&upwards

I may be over cautious but when I paid a cheque to Starling I sent it signed for. It was a few hundred quid and for a little bit extra I felt loads happier getting an image of the signature and the exact time it was received etc.

Zanderman

Murmansk wrote: »

They didn't - they told me NOT to put my own address on the back - but it was a good job I did or I'd not have got the cheque back!

That might be debateable.
If the Freepost address is genuine then this is just a mess-up by RM. And they returned it to you only because they had your address.
If they did not have your address (i.e. you followed Starling's instructions) RM would have no choice but to try and deliver to Starling.
If the Freepost address is genuine and paid-up, then that would have worked fine.
If it is incorrect or expired I suspect RM would still have tried to deliver it, perhaps with postage due, to Starling.
Your adding of your own address (against Starling's advice) therefore, arguably, enabled the mess-up.
On this argument Starling did nothing wrong, and RM just made a mistake that you facilitated.
Happy to be wrong but this might, as Starling suggests, be partly your fault - a mail centre mess-up enabled by your address.

Takmon

onwards&upwards wrote: »

I may be over cautious but when I paid a cheque to Starling I sent it signed for. It was a few hundred quid and for a little bit extra I felt loads happier getting an image of the signature and the exact time it was received etc.

If you have a mobile phone and have more cheques to pay into a bank in the future it would be a good idea to open an account with a bank that supports cheque imaging on their mobile App. you then just need to take a picture of it to pay it in, you even get to keep the cheque in your possession so proof if something goes wrong.

onwards&upwards

Takmon wrote: »

If you have a mobile phone and have more cheques to pay into a bank in the future it would be a good idea to open an account with a bank that supports cheque imaging on their mobile App. you then just need to take a picture of it to pay it in, you even get to keep the cheque in your possession so proof if something goes wrong.

I have accounts that allow this but the cheque was over the limit.

Also, HSBC decided to freeze my whole account last time I paid in a cheque so I won’t do that again!

I’ll probably switch to NatWest from HSBC pretty soon.

Murmansk

Takmon wrote: »

If you have a mobile phone and have more cheques to pay into a bank in the future it would be a good idea to open an account with a bank that supports cheque imaging on their mobile App. you then just need to take a picture of it to pay it in, you even get to keep the cheque in your possession so proof if something goes wrong.

Indeed - I'd have thought that Starling would be enabling paying in cheques via their app given that they are very new and hi-tech and some of the conventional banks are now enabling it.

EssexExile

Just a thought, was someone in Royal Mail being pedantic? the address is "Freepost STARLING" not "Freepost Starling".:D