Is Starling dead now?

sebtomato

randompenitent said:

Starling *is* more than a retail bank - they sell "Banking as a Service" IT services to other financial services organisations. As a regular account holder, this has no effect on me and I don't particularly care, but it does mean they are attempting to be a platform business and perhaps have a more sustainable business model as a result.

If there is a market for it, great.

If "new" banks (e.g. Monzo, Chase) are building their own systems instead of leveraging Starling's offering, maybe not... or maybe it's for traditional banks to modernise and replace their mainframes, but then they would probably buy Starling.

Ballard

adamp87 said:

Ballard said:

Now that I’ve opened a Chase account I have little use of either Starling or Monzo but I’ll keep them as backup for overseas spending.

@randompenitent makes a good point about services they offer to other banks. I know that they perform KYC checks on behalf of other banks if the customer places funds on deposit via a platform. I have no idea what fee they get for this but it must be worthwhile.

Neither Starling not Monzo will miss my handful of transactions a year but Chase now have my savings and I’ll be spending with them in the UK for the 1% too. 

What will you do when the cashback runs out in 12 months time?

There's no way of knowing what will happen between now and then and unless I'm misremembering Chase reserve the right to end the 1% cashback early so I may need to rethink before then. I can only base my usage on what each bank is offering at this time.

randompenitent

I was amused by the statement that Chase will survive regardless, because they are part of JP Morgan. JPMC certainly have the resources to keep them going, but strategies change and there's no guarantee. I had a Chase credit card in the UK back in the 1990s. Long gone, and not because Chase went bust :-)

jbrassy

Starling isn't dead to me. I have set up a Chase account, but I am keeping Starling as a back-up card for overseas spending. I still think it's a decent bank account with decent features (no fees for overseas spending and ATM withdrawals, plus a slick app). 

In my opinion, the launch of Chase is another nail in the coffins of Monzo and Revolut. I think their offerings are poor compared to Chase and Starling. 

sebtomato

randompenitent said:

I was amused by the statement that Chase will survive regardless, because they are part of JP Morgan. JPMC certainly have the resources to keep them going, but strategies change and there's no guarantee. I had a Chase credit card in the UK back in the 1990s. Long gone, and not because Chase went bust :-)

Well I guess the point was that you are more likely to survive if you are a subsidiary of a large profitable bank, even if you don't make profits, as opposed to a standalone bank, not making profits. Investors might become impatient at some point. Seems like common sense.

sebtomato

jbrassy said:

I am keeping Starling as a back-up card for overseas spending. I still think it's a decent bank account with decent features (no fees for overseas spending and ATM withdrawals, plus a slick app). 

I think Chase offers the same for overseas spending, plus no fees on ATM withdrawals in the US, that Starling doesn't do.

400ixl

You can use WAWA ATM's in the US with Starling and other cards with no fee as an example. There are others as well.

Chase has the advantage of there being more branches though.

randompenitent

400ixl said:

You can use WAWA ATM's in the US 

WAWA?  Sorry, don't recognise the acronym. 

The_Green_Hornet

randompenitent said:

400ixl said:

You can use WAWA ATM's in the US 

WAWA?  Sorry, don't recognise the acronym. 

https://www.wawa.com/about

jbrassy

sebtomato said:

jbrassy said:

I am keeping Starling as a back-up card for overseas spending. I still think it's a decent bank account with decent features (no fees for overseas spending and ATM withdrawals, plus a slick app). 

I think Chase offers the same for overseas spending, plus no fees on ATM withdrawals in the US, that Starling doesn't do.

That's not true. Starling do not charge for overseas spending or ATM withdrawals (including in the US). It's the same with Chase. The main differentiator is that Chase pay 1% cashback during the first year that you have the card.