Sometimes the smallest enhancement to my banking app brings a disproportionate smile to my face.
As you would expect I’m a massive fan of the consumer benefits of the Bacs Direct Debit Guarantee and would always choose to make my regular payments by Direct Debit safe in the knowledge that I am protected should something go wrong with my payment.
However, there are occasions where I might choose to make a recurring card payment by giving my card details to a company and allowing them to make a Continuous Payment Authority (CPA) payment against my card.
The sort of payments I might use a Continuous Payment Authority rather than a Direct Debit for are Amazon and Netflix.
There are many differences between a Bacs Direct Debit and a Continuous Payment Authority – two of the most obvious ones are the lack of a consumer guarantee and keeping tracks on what recurring payment CPA’s I have against each of my cards.
Whilst no bank or building society can unilaterally introduce a card based consumer guarantee akin to the Bacs Direct Debit Guarantee, it is perfectly possible for a bank or building society to make it easy for a customer to find out what recurring payments I have against my debit or credit card.
Today I noticed that Starling Bank have done just that!
The ability to see a list of recurring card payments within my app may be a small enhancement but being able to easily keep track of what services I am paying for before the money is taken from my account brings a disproportionate smile to my face.
I’ve got three listed recurring card based payments on my Starling account, one for an iCloud subscription, one for my daughters mobile phone (maybe she ought to pay for her own phone?) and one for social media online ads (maybe this ought to be a company not personal expense?)
It is often said that we ought to regularly review our Direct Debit mandates but when did you last review what card based recurring payments (Continuous Payment Authority) you had set up against your debit and credit cards?
If you have got recurring payments set up for services that you no longer use or want then you might be able to save yourself some money each month by cancelling the underlying contract with a company.
Thanks for this ‘small’ enhancement Starling Bank!