What’s your favourite Starling app feature? We asked our social media followers and here are the ones that came up most often:

1. Saving Spaces

One feature that our customers love is saving Spaces. It’s a sort of virtual saving jar that enables you to set money aside from your main balance, for example for a holiday, a bike, rent or bills. As Ethan, a Starling customer, says: “It’s saved me from opening countless savings accounts elsewhere.” He’s currently saving for a new computer and setting aside money for a house deposit.

With the saving Spaces feature, you can name each of your saving goals, choose a target amount, and add a photo for inspiration, all within the Starling current account. You can also switch on Round Ups, a feature that will round each purchase up to the nearest pound and add the spare change to a saving Space of your choice. “I use the Round Up feature on my Space to save up for a house deposit,” says Ethan.

The money in your saving Spaces can’t be spent unless you move it back to your main account and isn’t counted in the balance on the app home screen.

Some customers use Spaces to help them budget, creating virtual envelopes for different goals. “It’s especially useful for wedding budgeting,” says Matthew. For example, you could use Spaces to ring-fence funds for the venue or catering.

Set money aside with saving Spaces

2. Real-time notifications

“I love the fact that I know as soon as money is in and out!” says Fiona, referring to the real-time notifications we send customers when money enters or leaves the account. This of course could be for anything, a salary, shopping or perhaps a meal out.

Starling app notifications are also George’s favourite feature. “I like getting an alert the day before a bill goes out,” he says. Real-time notifications are designed to help you track and plan your finances. They help you avoid nasty surprises, such as a direct debit bouncing if you didn’t realise that insufficient funds were available.

3. Personal Spending Insights

For Michael, his favourite feature is Spending Insights. “I like the breakdown of spend by merchant,” he says.

The Spending Insights feature automatically calculates the percentage of your outgoings each day and each month at different merchants, say at Tesco or Boots. It also categorises outgoings, for example into Eating Out, Transport or Bills and Services. Seeing where, when and how you’re spending helps make budgeting fast and easy.

“Each element of the app has a nice clear interface. It’s not overly complicated… that’s what I like the most about it” says Russell.

More handy features

Sometimes, small things can make a big difference. For example, Jan likes seeing her card details in the Starling app. “One feature I use all the time is the screen that shows me my card details. If I’m trying to make a transaction online, I don’t have to go and find my handbag or my purse, I can just open my phone and see all the details - it’s brilliant.”

Jan also finds our mobile cheque deposit feature helpful. “I’ve been looking after my mum this year and helping with shopping and she often pays me back by cheque. I haven’t wanted to go into town, so being able to photograph cheques and submit them through the app has made life so much easier.”

For cheques under £1,000, Starling customers can simply log into the app, select Add money, choose Cheque deposit, and send a clear photo of the cheque. Then let our team do the rest - no need to travel to a bank branch or post office.

Article updated: 6 July 2022.

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