Starling handles statements entirely in the app, and does it more thoroughly than most banks. From a single screen you pick the period, the file format, and — this is the unusual part — whether you want a standard or a certified statement.
There is also something Starling does that high-street banks generally do not: it lets you go all the way back to the day you opened the account.
No download window to work around
Most banks cap structured downloads at a short window — a month here, six months there — and push everything older into PDF archives you cannot analyse. Starling keeps your full transaction history since the account was opened: you can scroll back to day one, or export a custom range between two dates.
That matters more than it sounds. Recurring charges hide well in a month-by-month view — a dormant subscription, a service billed twice, a quiet price rise — and surface almost immediately once you look at a full year in one pass.
Download your Starling statement
- From the menu, tap Statements and documents.
- Select Statement history.
- Choose the time period you need.
- Select the format — CSV, PDF, or large print PDF.
- Choose between a standard or certified statement.
If you need a physical paper copy, Starling doesn't post one: download the statement in the app and print it yourself.
Standard or certified?
A certified statement is the version to request when an institution needs proof of your finances — a landlord, a mortgage broker, a visa application. It carries a certification mark that identifies it as a true copy issued by the bank, which is exactly what those organisations check for.
For everything else, including reading your own spending, take the standard statement. It contains the same transactions, and it is the one you want alongside the CSV format.
Which format for which job
- CSV — one row per transaction, no layout. It opens directly in a spreadsheet, and in accounting software such as Xero or FreeAgent, with no conversion step in between. This is the format for any kind of analysis.
- PDF — a laid-out document to keep or to hand over. Readable, but not analysable: there is nothing to sort or add up.
- Large print PDF — a genuinely useful accessibility option that most banks don't bother offering. Worth knowing about if small type is a problem for you, or for someone whose finances you help manage.
App-first, and what that means in practice
Starling is a digital bank with no branches, and for personal accounts everything runs through the app — there is no desktop download for your current account. Business account holders get more: a web portal you can sign in to from a computer, view transactions, and download statements straight to the machine you'll work on.
For a personal account, the practical routine is simple: download on the phone you bank with, then share the file to your computer — by email to yourself, or through whatever file sharing you already use. Do it in that order and you avoid the classic dead end of a CSV sitting on a phone with nothing able to open it properly.
What the file contains
Each row carries the date, the description and the amount. That is enough: the description holds the merchant name, which is what allows spending to be categorised and repeat payments to be spotted.
What it does not carry is Starling's own spending categories. Those are calculated for display in the app and are not written into the export, so don't go looking for the column — and don't assume the file is incomplete because it isn't there.
Preparing the file for analysis
ScanCompte reads CSV, not PDF, and accepts up to 100 rows and 1 MB per upload. Since Starling puts no ceiling on the date range, the temptation is to export everything at once — resist it. Pick one or two months at download time rather than trimming a huge file afterwards. Two months is already enough for anything that repeats to repeat.
Once the file is uploaded, your spending is grouped by category and recurring payments are listed separately — which is where the subscriptions you stopped noticing reappear, along with the fees you never added up. Among other app-first banks, the process is close at Monzo and at Wise.
