Starling Bank

I have numerous accounts with starling, so does my partner and I have recommended them to many of my friends. I have only had great experiences with them until now; today they emailed me to say that they are closing my sole trader account, I have two months to upend my business banking and yet it is their policy to give no explanation, absolutely none as to what I have done and why they are closing my account. I run a legitimate small business and operate completely above board and within the law, I have offered any information that they might require and they are not at all interested and I still have no idea of what I have done wrong. This is a hideously unfair way to treat a loyal customer and I would hugely recommend NOT using Starling bank for your business needs. Absolutely terrible experience

Set up a new business and this bank had great reviews so thought we would use them. never had so much problems with trying to set up a business account. The amount of questions and docs they were asking for was incredible..... less to say we have not gone with this bank. Terrible experience with this bank...... There are so many others available. Not sure how they have won so many awards, but then again having worked in the financial industry know they are all up each others Ar@#

It's uncommon of me to say this about a bank, but Starling really deserves it: I'm really happy I chose to bank with them. No hidden fees, user friendly app and funcionalidades and their customers support is outstanding! I needed them for different reasons, more than one time and they always went far and beyond to solve my issues in a very agile way. If you're looking for a modern bank that really listens to your needs,I highly recommend Starling.

If you value your time as a business owner - DO NOT APPLY for an account with this bank. Absolutely abhorrent and complicated application process all to open a current account. They will literally ask you for every single private document you could possibly have and then tell you sorry we will not open your account. And the communication itself is so messy and unprofessional. The person who’s going to respond to
this review will say “we have guidelines to applying etc etc”, which will be entirely missing the point and goes to show how messy they are. it’s literally just a current account and I have no idea why they think they’re so special. DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME with this bank.

Please listen to the 1 star reviews. My other half paid into my account some money from the sale of our car and Starling flagged this and restricted my account. I can not buy anything or even pay my rent. Even my direct debits will not be paid. Has brought my entire life to a standstill. They demanded to see documents showing the car sale and other private documents. So far I am on Day 5 with no access to my own money while they must be so short staffed it takes them days to reply after they demand documents from you. They have made me feel like a criminal. Will take whatever legal action I can against them. They do not deserve even 1 star. Please avoid this bank at all costs.

Starting a new business - go elsewhere, unless you've got started enough and have "all your documents".
Launched a new limited company, want a bank account so I can put everything through the account, rather than my personal account (insurance and other startup costs).
But no, they want all that "evidence" before opening an account.
Chicken or an egg...... Which comes first? Comes to mind!!
I've heard good things and was using this to test them out as I've been considering moving my other Ltd company over... but this process has put me off!!
Not only does it not explain this fully on your website that you need a long list of things, but when I explained I didn't have it and sent through what I could, your agents continued to send me the same requests, over and over. I eventually got to speak to someone on the phone... even then he still asked me again, have you not got even 1 of those things? I'd already told you no.... Just a total inability to read what's been submitted.
Feels like you've not accurately advertised who you can support!!

To anybody hoping to open a joint account or individual account, read this review first.

Had an absolutely appalling experience with this ‘Which? best rated bank’. Me and my partner are soon to be moving into our first home so wanted to get our finances in order, so we decided to do our research and find a well rated bank for a joint account - we came across Starling who were well rated for customer service. We then went to open individual accounts in order to open a joint account with the hope of making this our permanent bank, however, my partner couldn’t open an individual account as her application was being declined, we then contact Starling on numerous platforms to understand why, to which we received the same answer about not being able to disclose why… so we decided to contact them via phone and talk to an actual person only to be told ‘we do not know why your account application has been declined, on my computer it says your application is fine’. This summed it up for me, so here I am taking my money elsewhere.

Tide bank is better. I don't think Starling bank is good for new start-ups. There were a lot of questions and I get they have to do checks in accordance with the law just like everyone else, but it really was ridiculous. I couldn't get any joy and the overall experience was to no avail with Starling bank. When researching business bank accounts for new businesses, I also saw Starling bank being ranked quite high for business bank accounts for start-ups. Tide bank was straightforward and quick and does not bombard you with questions.

If you are looking for a business bank account for your new company, I recommend Tide bank.