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Questions for Starling account holders

For overseas spending I have Halifax Clarity cc, PO Money cc & husband has Nationwide Select cc. We travel a lot and use cards for most things but often take some cash. Upshot is, we have well over £1500 in dozens of denominations:cool:

I'm considering a Starling account, mainly for free cash withdrawals, so I could withdraw small amounts as and when required. I know I can use Halifax cc but don't always want to pay balance off immediately to avoid interest.

A few questions:

I'm not a fan of selfies & especially selfie videos:o. Can someone tell what it entails?

Is it possible to have the app on my husband's iPad, to cover the unlikely event that I lose my phone, or it gets stolen.

Anyone recommend a better account?

Comments

  • d123
    d123 Posts: 8,708 Forumite
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    badger09 wrote: »
    For overseas spending I have Halifax Clarity cc, PO Money cc & husband has Nationwide Select cc. We travel a lot and use cards for most things but often take some cash. Upshot is, we have well over £1500 in dozens of denominations:cool:

    I'm considering a Starling account, mainly for free cash withdrawals, so I could withdraw small amounts as and when required. I know I can use Halifax cc but don't always want to pay balance off immediately to avoid interest.

    A few questions:

    I'm not a fan of selfies & especially selfie videos:o. Can someone tell what it entails?

    It's a short (around 10 seconds) video where you say your name and read a short sentence.
    Is it possible to have the app on my husband's iPad, to cover the unlikely event that I lose my phone, or it gets stolen.

    You can install the app on up to 10 devices.
    ====
  • badger09
    badger09 Posts: 11,475 Forumite
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    d123 wrote: »
    It's a short (around 10 seconds) video where you say your name and read a short sentence.

    Thanks

    You can install the app on up to 10 devices.

    I know it can be installed on multiple devices, but only 1 device is mine.

    Suppose it would only be an issue if husband later decided he wanted a Starling account. I'm more likely to win the lottery than husband having an app only account though. And I don't buy tickets:rotfl:
  • Ben8282
    Ben8282 Posts: 4,821 Forumite
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    edited 19 January 2020 pm31 6:39PM
    Starling again!
    I know I can use Halifax cc but don't always want to pay balance off immediately to avoid interest.
    Slightly contradictory. You are happy to transfer your funds from your usual bank account into a Starling account but don't want to leave the above mentioned funds in your main bank account and then use those funds to pay off the Halifax clarity card immediately to avoid the few pennies of interest that you would pay. Do you realise just how small the amount of interest that Halifax will charge you is? Why put yourself to all the trouble of opening this Starling account (the selfie that you don't like, your husbands dislike of an app only bank etc) to save a few pennies
  • badger09
    badger09 Posts: 11,475 Forumite
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    Ben8282 wrote: »
    Starling again!
    I know I can use Halifax cc but don't always want to pay balance off immediately to avoid interest.
    Slightly contradictory. You are happy to transfer your funds from your usual bank account into a Starling account but don't want to use the above mentioned funds to pay off the Halifax clarity card immediately to avoid the few pennies of interest that you would pay.

    I don't see any contradiction.

    My Halifax Clarity balance could easily be over £3k on our next trip as it will be used for major spending. Even a few days @ 19.45% is more than a 'few pennies of interest'.

    I am perfectly happy to transfer a couple of hundred to Starling, in case we need cash in various countries.

    This is MSE after all;)
  • Ben8282
    Ben8282 Posts: 4,821 Forumite
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    edited 19 January 2020 pm31 6:47PM
    badger09 wrote: »
    I don't see any contradiction.

    My Halifax Clarity balance could easily be over £3k on our next trip as it will be used for major spending. Even a few days @ 19.45% is more than a 'few pennies of interest'.

    I am perfectly happy to transfer a couple of hundred to Starling, in case we need cash in various countries.

    This is MSE after all;)

    OK transfer a couple of hundred to starling. If you were to withdraw £200 on the Halifax clarity card and leave it outstanding for a whole month you would pay about £3.25 interest. If it was outstanding for a week the interest would be about 82p.
    The time taken to open this Starling account and do this selfie etc will exceed the time taken to make a repayment of £200 to the Halifax Clarity card during your travels.
    I am assuming that you will be repaying the Halifax Clarity card in full every month and not paying interest on the £3000+ balance because if you are the £200 transferred to Starling would be better used to reduce the interest bearing balance on the Halifax card.
  • masonic
    masonic Posts: 25,532 Forumite
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    The reason I prefer to use Starling vs Halifax Clarity for cash withdrawals is I can pre-load the current account and don't need to worry about remembering to make a transfer when I next have internet access. Also, the effect of cash advances on my credit file.
  • colsten
    colsten Posts: 17,597 Forumite
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    Ben8282 wrote: »
    Do you realise just how small the amount of interest that Halifax will charge you is?
    . Errm. They charge in the region of 20% interest. Whilst Starling actually pay you interest - if only a tiny bit.
    Ben8282 wrote: »
    Why put yourself to all the trouble of opening this Starling account
    I am no fan of appearing on video myself but signing up to Starling was so painless that I can't even remember the video-bit. It is doubtlessly the least painful current account opening I have ever gone through.

    @badger09, the only downside of Starling I am aware of is that it's a Mastercard. So, like with the Halifax Clarity, you might not be able to use it in some of the more remote places in Asia or South America. I have just experienced this issue several times myself in the last couple of months. VISA is still much more widely accepted and you need to have a VISA card as a backstop. Which you/your husband seem to have, anyway, with the Nationwide CC.
  • badger09
    badger09 Posts: 11,475 Forumite
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    I decided to go ahead. Account open & funded in less than an hour.

    Should prove useful on our next trip to Australia & NZ as I can withdraw small amounts of currency as necessary for us & friends travelling with us. Even better on cruises for multiple currencies.
  • ColdIron
    ColdIron Posts: 9,642 Forumite
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    colsten wrote: »
    @badger09, the only downside of Starling I am aware of is that it's a Mastercard. So, like with the Halifax Clarity, you might not be able to use it in some of the more remote places in Asia or South America.
    I've used it for ATM withdrawals with no problems in Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and Burma (one rejection, moved to the next machine, worked fine). I'm a big fan. £300 a day and 0.5% interest, what's not to like?
  • badger09 wrote: »

    Is it possible to have the app on my husband's iPad, to cover the unlikely event that I lose my phone, or it gets stolen.

    As above, you can have the app installed on another device. Just make sure if it is installed on someone else's phone that you put a PIN on both the device the app itself so they (or someone else if the device gets lost/stolen) cannot access your account without permission.
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