The challenger bank is pushing the envelope, using traditional tactics.
Announced today, Starling Bank is promoting its referral scheme by offering cashback on online purchases made by its customers on Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
New sign ups to the Starling Bank current account between 1 November and 12 November will be eligible for a 10 per cent cashback using their debit card online, up to £25. They must have used a promotional code during the sign up, and upload at least £50 in funds to their account before Black Friday on 24 November.
Existing users can also benefit from the cashback offer, as long as they are able to refer at least one new customer to the digital bank or have already successfully referred five new customers prior to the sign up period.
In all cases, all users included in the criteria must have topped up their Starling accounts with the £50 requirement in order to be considered ‘active’.
This is a relatively new endeavour for the digital banking sector, utilising a tried and tested method for expansion by offering a monetary incentive for referrals.
However the move has been seen by some as reductive, throwing Starling in with incumbent banks that users have switched away from as they enter the mobile-only era.
“This sort of marketing is indicative of legacy thinking,” said one user on a digital banking forum. “There’s nothing new nor imaginative here. It’s basically a company throwing money at trying to shape user behaviour, i.e. get people to use their Starling cards.”
Others who have already attempted the referral scheme have complained of bugs in the banking app’s UX, unable to receive the 10 per cent cashback reward until Starling Bank fixes the issue.
Starling Bank has yet to respond to the criticism from its users on its own forum or elsewhere. AltFi has contacted the bank for comment.
