starling bank Reviews

1.9 Rating 31 Reviews
23 %
of reviewers recommend starling bank

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Starling have restricted access to my account. My sister transferred me money that she owed me and I thought this was a good opportunity to start using the Starling Account. They have locked me out of the account and 8 days later still doing nothing. I would avoid them. Like similar reviews here, they are locking accounts with your money in them. AVOID!.
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Posted 1 week ago
This bank is not for anyone. If you think I’m lying look them up online. You will find court case against them. They locked my account since December 7th till date. They barely respond to my messages and I can see transactions in my account. When I asked the customer service. They said they do this transactions on accounts under review. Today I now know why they said ignorance is a bliss. I should have read the reviews.
starling bank 1 star review on 4th March 2024
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Posted 3 weeks ago
DO NOT USE THEM !! Holding my money for no reason … had the account 2 days and they restricted it ?? Awful at replying back they will take days !! Ask for proof of why someone transferred me £2 🤣 awful people Once my payment gets released I will be closing the account TERRIBLE SERVICE
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Posted 1 month ago
They make up their own rules. Despite HMRC and the UK's largest national residential landlords association confirming that money/income from property investment does NOT need to be run as a business and CAN be run by an individual, Starling bank will not accept this. Utterly preposterous and very troubling. HMRC are not wrong. The NRLA are not wrong. So why does Starling bank insist on closing my current account because they say investment income is business income? They are f***ing idiots.
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Posted 1 month ago
Extremely poor customer service. They shut my account down by accident without so much as an apology and my £20k has evaporated with it. I've spent 3 days now trying to reactivate with no success. All my payments and DD's failed with the closure, including a large VAT payment to HMRC resulting in a fine. Useless people on helpline telling me to keep reinstalling the app and it doesn't work. Then telling me to start a new application for a new account, which also hasn't worked 😤😤😤😤
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Posted 1 month ago
Awful , holding an international payment beyond processing 1-5 days for no reason lodged a complaint but no response after 3 days . No idea when my money will be available and nobody can tell me that. Avoid at cost. The moment I receive my money I am closing the account down. I think they are heading for the crash.
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Posted 2 months ago
Disappointing Experience with Starling Bank's International Payment Service I recently encountered a significant issue with Starling Bank's handling of international payments, prompting me to share my dissatisfaction. Despite the bank receiving the payment on January 5th, they inexplicably held onto the funds without providing any valid reason, surpassing their stated 1-5 working days processing time. Numerous complaints were lodged, and I diligently reported the matter to their customer service team. Unfortunately, the responses only consisted of apologies, with no tangible actions taken to resolve the situation. Despite providing all necessary information and documents, Starling Bank continues to withhold the money without a clear explanation. I strongly advise against opening any personal or business accounts with Starling Bank, as my experience indicates a propensity for negative impacts and delays in receiving funds. Regrettably, this has been a disappointing experience, and I hope others can avoid similar issues in their banking relationships.
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Posted 2 months ago
They will hold on to your money and not credit your account for weeks and say they are reviewing. I wish I read the reviews here before opening a business account with them.
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Posted 3 months ago
Opened this account only a few months ago as I need a Sterling and Euro account. Bank has been holding quite a few incoming Euro payments for 10 days as they said they need to check. Never heard anything like this before. Chatting to support takes ages, so I think that it's not worth keeping this account open.
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Posted 3 months ago
So, because starling were unable to contact me, they have frozen the account, I have since given the bank the relevant information but for some reason the account is still on hold, I am unable to retrieve my money and or pay the bills setup on the account, as a business uts extremely important that these bills are paid, I am being ignored eve. When I call, I am unable to vet to the rite team!! This is totally unacceptable!! Paul
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Posted 3 months ago
So costumer 3.5 years, opened a business mid pandemic, never had any government loans, help, etc. We just growed quarter by quarter, company never had any financial problems, all paid vat, corporation tax, never missed a payment on any thing, small business, but a more than average turnover for 11 staff company. 2 credit cards with other companies /all paid in full each month/ credit score on experian 100 business/ personal credit scores of directors excellent both no ever any adverse events / yet they refuse any line of credit, business load, overdraft. Nothing. It's a joke of a bank, they are good just for using them to hold your money and transactioning. Nothing else. They don't look to help grow no one. And yeah 2nd they don't offer bank refrenceing. When we were in thre process to open 2nd business, we were asked for a reference from lur main bank. - apparently they don't don't. So being with them 3 year plus but aren't able to give a simple referencing about how is your company with money. A total joke. Avoid, go to high street banks at least in case of anything you can meet someone face to face.not just heartless over the phone and online people which in 90% of the cases they won't help in any way.
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Posted 3 months ago
I recently had an experience with Starling Bank and I must say, it was far from satisfactory. I regretfully inform that I cannot recommend opening an account with this bank due to several concerns that I encountered during my time with them. From their poor customer service to their untrained staff members, it was an overall unpleasant experience.
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Posted 4 months ago
Appalling customer service and obstructive algorithms. I tried moving a modest sum to a savings account and the app point blank refused. I'm going going to close all three accounts and move them to a bank with real premises and real people.
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Posted 4 months ago
They decided to review my account on Tuesday at 5.29pm. I couldnt get in touch with the review team. This means that across four business accounts and two personal accounts all of my accounts are frozen, without reason. You cant make any payments, or direct debits will not be honoured. I asked them how do I pay 16 members of staff next week? Silence. How do I feed my kids? Silence. Avoid them.
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Posted 10 months ago
Be aware they treating you like a child blocking transactions to Crypto exchanges not only bank card transactions but also bank transfers. RIDICULOUS!!!! We are all adults and we know what we are doing. Remove this stupid policy!!!
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Posted 10 months ago
The onboarding process requires to send a video of yourself through the app saying a specific phrase. Unfortunately the app was unable to record audio. And that was the end of it. Other similar verification processes (from other companies) usually worked with taking pictures. They worked with apps or websites. Most importantly they work. From the helpdesk you get generic advice, like reinstall the app, restart the phone. Okay, software can have bugs. Technical issues are normal. But when workarounds are not even considered ("no, it has to be through the app"), this just gets frustrating. It seems, App-only is not a feature. It is a bug. And while the helpdesk is relatively responsive, it seems to be locked into a script. (As such, satisfaction starts higher, and bottoms when you realise your time is just being wasted) Perhaps it works for the "majority". As long as you are not doing anything off-script.
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Posted 1 year ago
One of the worst banks I have ever dealt with in the 20 countries I have lived in. Predatory, unprofessional, harvesting data unnecessarily whilst refusing to show where data is stored or sold. Read the reviews of how they freeze bank accounts leaving people stranded without access to their funds. Archaic systems, an app that does not work, call centre wait times of over 30 minutes. Do NOT using this company. I am one of thousands of unhappy customers. Starling is not a bank that supports its customers and should not be trusted.
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Posted 1 year ago
I have a 1a credit rating and wanted to open a business account for a new business. Unanswered all of their questions, but was declined with no explanation. Can’t speak to them either as no contact details. Clearly a computer algorithm In charge. Appalling customer service
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Posted 2 years ago
Your account is currently under review and remains restricted. There is no further information we can provide at this time however we endeavour to resolve this matter as soon as possible for you. Unfortunately our customer service team will be unable to provide any further clarification on this matter, please respond directly to this message. Sam Team Starling
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Posted 2 years ago
We decided we wanted to take advantage of Business Switch offered by NatWest bank. My wife and I have had a partnership business account with them for 25 years, however a number of banks offered us £1500 to switch accounts to them. We decided on the offer from Starling Bank and we were sent emails from Starling Bank to complete the Banking Switch. I spent time doing the research and filling in online forms. However when it came to opening an account with Starling it was puzzling as to how to go about it. After spending half an hour waiting for someone at Starling to answer the phone, I was extremely surprised to hear that I could not finish the application as Starling; 'does not accept multiple people on a sole trader account'. It’s a partnership! There is nothing unusual about that. There are thousands of such set ups. I can’t understand why this is a problem for Starling Bank. This is utterly bazaar. Are they a real Bank? They should at least have made it clear that a simple typical partnership business was beyond their capacity when offering business accounts with the Banking Switch.
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Posted 3 years ago
starling bank is rated 1.9 based on 31 reviews