Starling Bank - Praise

hugheskevi

I was moving a fair amount of money between saving accounts and ISAs, which triggered a potential fraud flag (a little annoying, but understandable).

Starling sent me a message saying they were going to call to discuss the transactions. This was an issue as I am away in South America so can't take calls. I thought this was going to be the beginning of an inflexible process whereby nothing could continue until they spoke in person to me, but within minutes of me messaging back in the Starling app all the transactions were processed.

It was refreshingly surprising to see flexibility and common sense being applied to processes.

oldagetraveller1

Would you have been as impressed if it had really been fraudulent activity and they had gone ahead processing the transactions?

hugheskevi

oldagetraveller1 said:

Would you have been as impressed if it had really been fraudulent activity and they had gone ahead processing the transactions?

Are you suggesting the customer service operative should have not been permitted to read the in-app messages and apply discretion about whether there was fraud in this circumstance?

If so, do you think mandating an in person conversation in all circumstances, including where it is not possible, would be a security improvement and good customer service?

Their concern was around the involvement of a third party, the standard your account is not safe, move it to another one type of thing. My in app response addressed their concerns, so it all seems very sensible and proportionate?