UK-based charity Royal Voluntary Service (RVS) selected Mastercard, Starling Bank, and PFS to provide payment cards to NHS volunteer responders during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Starling Bank’s Connected Card has been endorsed by the Royal Voluntary Service as well as by the national disability charity Scope, which campaigns to challenge and change negative attitudes about disability.
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The “Connected card” is a second card issued by Mastercard, that customers can link to their existing accounts and give it to anyone they trust to pay for groceries and other essential items on their behalf.
This “spare debit card” was specifically designed to help personal account customers who are self-isolating during the coronavirus lockdown and are mostly relying on friends, neighbors and community volunteers to get their groceries for them.
Anne Boden, founder and CEO of Starling Bank said: “We know that getting in groceries and other essential items is a challenge for those who are self-isolating during the coronavirus emergency.”
“So we came up with a solution to help our customers pay for supplies bought for them by trusted friends and neighbors without the hassle of transferring money or handling cash,” she added.
Since the launch on 8th April, over 15,500 cards have been ordered by Starling customers with groceries being the lead spending category.
