UK-based Starling Bank has launched virtual cards and updated its ‘Spending Insights’ to help people track their spending and provide more visibility on their budgets. A virtual card works just like a normal debit card for payments, but it’s linked to a Saving Space in the Starling app, instead of the main account balance.

Like physical cards, virtual cards have a unique card number, expiry date and CVV. Starling customers can have up to five virtual cards at any one time and can choose a different colour for each one, free of charge. To help customers with visual impairments differentiate the cards, each colour also has a unique shape, such as a circle or triangle, in the top-right corner of the card.

Improved budgeting Each virtual card is assigned to a dedicated Space in the Starling app that can be personalised to give customers more control over their budget. Payments can be made directly from a Space, such as a daily bus fare from a ‘travel’ Space or food from a ‘groceries’ Space, rather than coming out from the customer’s primary account. When the budget is used up, the virtual card will decline instead of dipping into the customer’s main balance.

Spaces can be topped up any time through one-off, weekly, or monthly transfers. Subscriptions management Customers can use their virtual card for all sorts of payments, depending on how they want to organise their personal finances. In addition to Starling’s Bills Manager feature which is used to pay for direct debits and standing orders from a particular Space, virtual cards can make it easier to manage subscriptions straight from a Space.

By setting up a ‘Subscriptions’ Space and virtual card, customers will be able to see all their payments for streaming platforms, magazines, apps, and organisations in one place. This can make it easier to review or cancel. The bank’s officials stated that their customers asked for virtual cards and they delivered.

Virtual cards allow people to completely compartmentalise their personal finances for better control of their spending, making it easier to stick to budgets. To set up a virtual card: Head to Spaces in the app, and either create a new Space or choose an existing one; Tap ‘Manage Space’, and then ‘Create a virtual card’; Follow the on-screen instructions to set up a virtual card; Starling Bank intends to roll out virtual cards to Business Current Account users in 2023; Supercharged Spending Insights. Starling’s Spending Insights tool has been redesigned to give customers even more clarity over their finances.

Customers can now analyse their spending from specific Spaces, gain extra insights from custom date ranges, and benefit from interactive graphs to understand their spending patterns inside out. .