Making the most of your holiday money – Starling Bank

Making a holiday budget

Divide your holiday money into spending categories, for example accommodation, shopping and taxis.

Holiday budget: Six days in Mallorca

If you don’t already have travel insurance, you may want to budget for that. It’s also a good idea to have a buffer of money for emergencies and the unplanned.

Packing for your trip

To avoid dipping into your holiday money for things you’ve forgotten to pack – a phone charger, an adaptor, sunglasses – write a list of what you’ll need before you start packing.

As you’re getting ready, you may want to set up a virtual card for your holiday Space. That way, your holiday transactions can be kept separate from your main balance. Virtual cards exist in the Starling app and in your digital wallet, rather than as physical cards.

Holiday currency exchange

Whenever you pay with your card abroad, or withdraw cash, Starling won’t charge you extra fees. And Starling passes on Mastercard’s real exchange rate, so that you don’t go paying over the odds.

Giving yourself a daily spend cap

It’s helpful to have a rough daily spend target, to stay within your holiday budget. For example, £15 for lunch, £30 for dinner and something for hiring a sunbed might mean a daily budget of about £50.

That said, do build in some flexibility. You’ll probably have a day or two where you have a picnic and spend less on lunch, and an evening where you go somewhere special for dinner. But having a daily figure can act as a guide.

Tracking your spending

With the Starling app, you can easily track your holiday spending as you go along. Every time you spend from your Starling account, the app automatically categorises the transaction, for example as ‘Eating Out’ or ‘Holidays’.

You can also re-categorise transactions, for example from ‘Shopping’ to ‘Gifts’, to make your Spending Insights even more personal.