Starling Bank updates money management feature amid cost of living crisis

Amid a cost of living crisis, where every penny counts, Starling Bank is rolling out an updated money management feature so its customers can get a better grasp of where their money is being spent.

The challenger bank is rolling out 36 new spending categories, which will give its customers access to monthly spending data within each category.

These include “Garden”, “Takeaway” and “Wedding”, as well as a new category search function within its app.

“As the cost of living rises, it’s more important than ever to have total visibility of your finances,” Starling said in a blog post, announcing the changes.

The new categories are available to Starling personal and joint accounts users, and follow suggestions from its customers.

Starling already has several existing categories including “Family” and “Eating Out”.

The challenger bank says new categories, which are particularly useful for keeping to a budget are “Essential Spend”, “Rent” and “Mortgage”.

Within Starling’s Spending tab of the app, the bank helps customers better understand where their money is going by calculating the total percentage spent per category per month. 

Users can also personalise their choice of spending categories, in a further update.

Helen Bierton, chief banking officer at Starling, said: “Knowledge is power when it comes to meeting your financial goals and we hope that by offering customers even more insight into their spending patterns, they’ll have more control of their personal and household budgets in order to adapt a little easier to the cost of living crisis.”