How to Buy Crypto with Starling Bank
Author: Marco Vela - Fact-checked ✓
Summary: While Starling Bank doesn’t offer crypto trading on its own platform, you can easily use your account to buy crypto using a third-party cryptocurrency trading platform.
There are plenty of UK crypto exchanges to choose from, we recommend using eToro as the exchange to work with.
They have most of the popular cryptocurrencies available, are easy to work with, and have fantastic support!
Buy Crypto with eToro
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As mentioned above, just like most UK banks, Starling Bank doesn’t offer cryptocurrency trading directly, as setting up a cryptocurrency exchange is quite complex and comes with regulations and extra requirements for the banks.
There are many crypto trading platforms that you can use for buying bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
Once signed up to an exchange (we’ll be using eToro for our example as it’s a widely trusted and global exchange), you can simply transfer funds from your bank account to the exchange, and trade it for crypto.
Table of Contents
How to buy crypto or bitcoin with Starling Bank
There are only 4 steps involved, let’s get started!
1. Choose a crypto trading platform
As mentioned above, we’ll be using eToro for this guide as they are a widely used exchange and have over 50 cryptocurrencies to choose from. They also have a few really neat features like “Copy Trading”, which enables users to copy the trades of popular investors on the platform.
You can, of course, use any trusted crypto exchange for this, the steps will be very similar for most exchanges.
Let’s get started!
2. Sign up with the trading platform
The first thing to do is to sign up with the platform.
Once you’ve completed the initial sign up process, you’ll have to go through a quick verification process (also known as KYC).
3. Funding your account
Next up is funding your account. When it comes to depositing money to your eToro account, you have the option to use a bank transfer, PayPal, credit/debit card, and more.
4. Buy crypto
Finally, just go to the eToro Markets section, find the cryptocurrency you would like, and buy it.
And that’s it, it’s all pretty straightforward, now you know how to buy bitcoin or most other cryptocurrencies with Starling Bank.
About Starling Bank
Starling Bank, a digital challenger bank, is based in the United Kingdom. It focuses on current account products and business accounts. Starling Bank, a licensed and regulated bank based in London, was founded in January 2014 by Anne Boden, former COO of Allied Irish Banks. It has received more than PS500m in funding since its foundation. In July 2016, the Prudential Regulation Authority granted the company its banking license.
Anne Boden founded Starling in 2014. They raised PS48 million in 2016. Starling received PS75m from Merian Global Investors in February 2019. The company then announced that it had raised PS100m through the Capability and Innovation Fund as grant funding. In March 2017, the company launched beta. Starling launched business accounts in March 2018. Starling opened personal Euro accounts in the UK in February 2019. Starling customers were initially able to convert between their Starling GBP and Euro accounts without fees. However, the bank added a 0.4% conversion fee in September 2019.
Anne Boden, the bank's founder, announced in December 2017 that it would apply for the RBS Remedies Fund.
To offer certain services, the bank has partnered up with other companies. Starling started using TransferWise in March 2017 to process international payments. Starling partnered with the Post Office in November 2018 to enable Starling account holders the ability to deposit or withdraw money at any Post Office branch.
The Times reported in late 2020 that Starling was being considered by larger banks. Starling's CEO denied the claims and said they were aiming for an initial public offering in 2022. Starling announced in March 2021 a PS272m financing round with investors Fidelity and the Qatar Investment Authority.
Starling Bank offers a contactless Debit Mastercard. Starling cards are not currently part of the LINK network as of September 2019.
Starling switched to a vertical design for its cards in July 2018: a card with a navy and teal colour.
Starling announced in March 2021 that their replacement debit cards would be made of 75% recycled rigid PVC plastic.
The bank doesn't have branches in the UK and serves customers primarily via mobile banking apps for iOS and Android. Starling claims it is the first UK bank that supports Apple Pay in-app setup.
Starling's mobile app features include instant notifications about transactions, freezing and unfreezing customers’ cards to prevent unauthorised transaction, categorising transactions to later analysis, creating separate "Goals", where money can be stored separately from a customer’s main balance, as well as in-app chat with customer support representatives.
Customers can also use the bank's 'Settle up' feature to send money directly to their friends.
Starling Bank was awarded the Best British Bank Award in the British Bank Awards four years consecutively - 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021.
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author Marco Vela
A crypto obssessed digital marketer passionate about making a difference in the world. When he's not behind the computer he can be found hiking, camping and relaxing with his dog.