Starling Bank adds free virtual cards and deeper spending analysis

Competing with the virtual card offerings of Monzo and Revolut.

Neobank Starling is introducing virtual cards for its customers free of charge, which will let users better track and control their spending.

The cards will be linked with a customer’s Saving Space in the Starling app, essentially a segregated pot of money, and then the unique card number, expiry date and CVV can be used to sign up for, say, 'Subscriptions', helping to isolate that expenditure.

“Our customers asked for virtual cards and we’ve delivered,” said Helen Bierton, Starling’s chief banking officer, who was named Woman Of The Year 2022 at the AltFi Awards last week.

“Virtual cards allow people to completely compartmentalise their personal finances for better control of their spending, making it easier to stick to budgets.” 

Starling’s virtual cards come in five different colours, and can also be added to mobile wallets like Apple Pay and Google Pay for use on the high street.

The cards bring Starling on par with the offerings of Monzo and Revolut, who have both offered permanent and temporary cards for the purpose of controlling online spending for a few years (albeit as a paid feature in the case of Monzo).

As well as the new cards, Starling is also expanding its spending insights by now providing analytics for Savings Spaces, when insights were previously only available for a user’s main account.

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