Starling Bank has launched a dual currency debit card which allows customers to pay for purchases in either pounds or euros.
The app-only lender also said its business euro account went live today, which is available to the 77,000 small firms who use the bank.
Starling said the new account makes it easier for firms to pay overseas suppliers, reduce currency exchange costs, or receive euro payments as a self-employed contractor.
The bank added the euro account is open to both new and existing Starling business customers.
‘Long overdue card’
Firms will be charged a flat fee of £2 per month to use the new account and transfers into it will be made at the prevailing exchange rate, plus a 0.4 per cent fee of the transaction value. It adds there will be no fees for euro-to-euro transactions.
Starling Bank founder and chief executive Anne Boden (pictured) said: “A single card that can buy things in both euros and pounds is long overdue and something that we know our customers will value both in their personal and business lives.”
In February, the challenger bank was awarded £100m from the Banking Competition Remedies, funded by Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), aimed at boosting lending to small businesses. The move is part of European Union conditions attached to the £45bn Government bailout of RBS at the height of the financial crisis more than a decade ago.
