Starling Bank releases virtual cards, updates Spending Insights

By Gloria Methri

UK-based challenger bank Starling Bank has introduced virtual cards for Personal Current Account holders and updated its Spending Insights. The new features add to the bank’s money management tools, designed to help people track their spending and provide greater visibility of their budgets.

A virtual card is linked to a Saving Space in the Starling app, instead of the main account balance. Like physical cards, they have a unique card number, expiry date, and CVV.

Customers can have up to five virtual cards at any one time and customise each by colour, free of charge. To help customers with visual impairments to differentiate the cards, each card also has a unique shape in the top-right corner.

Each virtual card is assigned to a dedicated Space in the Starling app that can be personalised to give customers a spending limit. When the budget space is used up, the card will decline any payment. Spaces can be topped up at any time through one-off, weekly, or monthly transfers.

Customers can use their virtual cards for all sorts of payments, depending on how they want to organise their personal finances. The cards also make it easier to manage subscriptions straight from a Space. By setting up a ‘Subscriptions’ Space, customers will be able to see all their payments for streaming platforms, magazines, apps, and organisations in one place.

Helen Bierton, Chief Banking Officer at Starling Bank said, “Our customers asked for virtual cards and we have delivered. Virtual cards allow people to completely compartmentalise their personal finances for better control of their spending, making it easier to stick to budgets.”

“We are constantly thinking of how we can help our customers manage their money better. We have been busy building these new features, as well as our new Budget Planner, to help us continue this mission,” she added.