Best UK Bank Accounts For International Students

Is Revolut good for investing?

Revolut is a good choice for investors that want to buy and sell major shares and cryptocurrencies. No funds, or smaller cap stocks, but a good entry-level account for most investors.

One of the most commonly asked questions about new banks and fintech is if they are a safe place to keep your money. The answer is generally, yes, if they are regulated by the FCA as funds are protected by the FSCS up to £85,000. But, Revolut, is regulated as an e-money institution and not as a bank so you do not get the FSCS protection.

Revolut says that if they were to go bust, client funds would be paid out of a “safeguarding” account which is a type of ringfenced account where client funds are held.  When funds are in this type of account, Revolut cannot (in theory, at least) lend them out or use them to run the business. This is how banks traditionally made money, they pay you a smaller amount of interest than they receive on the money they lend out and make a profit from the difference (among other things).

For small money transfers, Revolut is safe enough, but as with all currency conversions if you are sending over £10,000 abroad you should be using a currency broker. You’ll get much better rates, more control over when you buy and sell, help with all the AML (anti-money laundering) issues that may come up, and the ability to lock in the currency exchange rate for up to a year in advance (if you think it will move against you).

• Sending a small amount of money abroad? Compare the best money transfer apps

Is Starling Bank good?

For most users, yes. Starling Bank offers fee-free banking, competitive savings rates, and an excellent app. Is Starling going bust? No — despite regulatory fines, it remains stable, FSCS-protected, and growing. It’s one of the strongest digital options for personal and business accounts, as long as you are comfortable with app-based banking and don’t need branches.

Pricing & Interest Rates

Starling Bank has built its reputation on transparent pricing and competitive interest rates. Its Easy Saver account currently pays interest on 12-month terms. It has removed interest on standard current accounts from February 2025, reducing returns for customers holding large balances.

There are no monthly account fees, and Starling does not charge extra for spending abroad, using Mastercard’s exchange rate for foreign card payments and ATM withdrawals. These features make it attractive for both domestic and overseas use.

Products & Features

Starling Bank offers a full range of current and savings accounts, plus business and euro accounts. It has budgeting tools like Spaces for ring-fencing money, Bills Manager for setting aside funds, instant transaction notifications, and strong card controls.

Business customers can connect accounting software through the Starling Marketplace and access free UK payments and integrated spending insights.

There is no Starling Bank credit card yet, but its core products are broad and well integrated, giving users strong day-to-day banking functionality.

App & Website

The Starling Bank app is one of the strongest in UK banking. It has a clean design, reliable performance, and highly rated features like cheque imaging, instant alerts, spending categories, savings goals, and card freezing.

The app and online banking platform are regularly updated, and customer reviews praise their stability and ease of use. Starling Bank login is secure and fast, and you can open or close accounts entirely through the app without needing branches.

But website bank account access is limited.

Safety & Reliability

Starling is a licensed UK bank with full FSCS protection and robust security tools like biometric login, fraud monitoring and instant card controls. It has faced scrutiny, with the FCA fining it £29 million in 2024 for “shockingly lax” anti-money laundering controls, which has raised questions about Starling Bank financial struggles and governance, though it remains solvent and operational.

The bank has since pledged to improve compliance systems. While these failings dented its reputation, Starling Bank is safe overall, and is Starling a UK bank? Yes, it is fully regulated and headquartered in London.

Customer Experience

Customer reviews are generally positive, praising fast account opening, helpful in-app chat support, and the absence of fees. Users say it is intuitive to use day-to-day and Starling Bank abroad works well, with no extra charges for foreign spending or ATM withdrawals.

Cash deposits are possible at Post Office branches using a Starling Bank sort code and account number, which answers common questions like how to pay cash into Starling Bank or how to put cash into Starling Bank.

There are occasional complaints about delays resolving complex fraud or disputes, but these are relatively rare.

Is eToro good for long term investing?

eToro is a great GIA for investing in the long term if you’re interested in buying major US stocks and copying the portfolios of other successful traders. Jeppe Kirk Bonde, for instance, has historically produced market-beating returns for his 30,000 followers, and now has over $100m copying his portfolio (though past performance is no indication of future results). (Disclaimer: eToro is a multi-asset investment platform. The value of your investments may go up or down. Your capital is at risk.).

Pricing: No account fees or commission – great value and a low minimum account size of £10

Market Access: Access to the most popular global markets through a general investment account. There is limited access to smaller cap shares, but you can invest in crypto, which most other traditional investing accounts don’t let you do. Plus the copy trading feature lets you see what other investors hold in their portfolios and what they think about the,m which you can copy manually or automatically.

App & Platform: really easy to use, no complex order types but that’s not really what eToro is about it’s about discovery.

Customer Service: Quick responses from the live chat and email support and if you’re accuont is over $30k you get a personal account manager.

Research & Analysis: eToro have some really good social channels with educational vides, some excellent “how to” courses (which are free so no need to buy a trading course from a Youtuber. But the most unique thing is the social feed where investors chat about what they are investing in.

However, there are some things I believe eToro could improve for long-term investors from the UK.

The main issue is that the accounts are in USD, and you can’t invest through tax-free wrappers, or into a pension, and there’s limited access to bonds and funds.

eToro also used to absorb the stamp duty on UK shares. But now you have to pay the 0.5% UK stamp duty tax when investing in UK companies, so that tax break has gone.

I explain below why these are issues if you’re investing in the long term.

USD Account Balances

With eToro, your account balance has to be in USD. This is part of how it makes money (when it converts your GBP into USD) but it means that if you buy UK shares, then over time your profits can be eroded by differences in the GBP/USD exchange rate.

Granted this can also work in your favour, but you’re not trading FX – you’re investing. And if the exchange rate moves 5% and you have a £100,000 portfolio, that’s £5,000 lost.

No ISA or SIPP

With an ISA you can invest up to £20,000 a year and no pay tax on the profits. Unfortunately, eToro doesn’t have its own ISA. It does have a co-branded eToro ISA in partnership with Moneyfarm. But Moneyfarm is more of a digital-wealth manager, so you may as well just open a separate account with Moneyfarm – it will at least help you resist the temptation to speculate with your long-term investments.

With a SIPP, you’re investing for your pension and, as with an ISA, you don’t pay tax on your profits. But with eToro you can’t invest in a SIPP, so if you’re buying shares and aim to hold them until you retire, your tax bill at the end of it could be unnecessarily high.

No Funds, Corporate Bonds or Small-Caps

eToro is great at giving investors access to popular markets like US stocks, cryptocurrency and commodities, but its market access is pretty limited. You can’t invest in small-cap growth stocks in the UK, for example. And if you’re building a long-term portfolio, it should be diverse so you should add in some corporate bonds (fixed-income investments) and some funds that spread the risk and invest in lots of shares and bonds for you.

This is a shame, because eToro generally does give people what they want. However, it would be better if it focused a bit more on what people need.

On the positive side, eToro does let you invest in bonds through bond ETFs or fixed-income portfolios like YieldGrowth which contains a range of 13 bonds from Vanguard, iShares and SPDR.

What is eToro’s Platform Like to Use?

• Related guide: How to make money on eToro.