Ledger Card vs Starling Bank
Two virtual cards people weigh up side by side. We put Ledger Card and Starling Bank on the same rows so the difference is easy to see.
Ledger Card issues on Visa and Starling Bank on Mastercard; both ask for ID + proof; only Ledger Card takes crypto top-ups.
Ledger Card is the more cost-effective option for everyday spending and travel thanks to its free virtual cards, no monthly fee. Starling Bank is the better fit for power users who need bank-transfer funding and ad spend.
Where they split
| Field | Ledger Card | Starling Bank |
|---|---|---|
| Card network | Visa | Mastercard |
| Card type | Crypto Card | Digital Bank / Neobank |
| KYC | ID + proof | ID + proof |
| Card issuance fee | Free | Free |
| Monthly fee | Free | Free |
| Top-up fee | — | — |
| FX fee | — | 0% (no foreign transaction fee) |
| Crypto funding | Yes (Ledger self-custody) | No |
| AI tool support | ChatGPT / Claude / Midjourney | ChatGPT / Claude / Midjourney |
| Risk level | Low-Medium | Low-Medium |
| Our rating | 8.1 | 9.1 |
| User reviews | 133 | 437 |
| Best for | All-rounder · AI subscriptions | All-rounder · Ad spend |
A green left edge marks the side that holds the advantage on that row, where the data gives one.
The two, compared
- If you wear several hats, Starling Bank is the more flexible of the pair.
- Only Ledger Card takes crypto top-ups in our data — worth knowing before you decide.
- In our scoring, Starling Bank finished ahead of Ledger Card — not by a mile, but enough to tilt a tiebreak.
The short version of the matchup
Run the numbers against your own usage. Ledger Card runs free to create plus no top-up fee per top-up; Starling Bank runs free plus no top-up fee. For one or two subscriptions the first column wins; for bank-transfer funding and ad-platform billing, the second does.
Questions people ask
That depends on what you spend on. Ledger Card scores 8.1/10 against Starling Bank's 9.1/10 in our tests, but the two split on fees, KYC and crypto funding. Read the table above, then match it to the checkouts you actually run.
Ledger Card is the cheaper card to run. Both Ledger Card and Starling Bank issue virtual cards for free.
Ledger Card asks for ID + proof at signup; Starling Bank asks for ID + proof. If a light sign-up is the priority, the one with the lower KYC label is the faster route.
Both show up in 2 of the same test scenarios, including Claude.ai, Hugging Face. They overlap on a good share of checkouts, so the choice between them matters most on those pages. Where one is accepted and the other is not usually comes down to the billing country and 3-D Secure handling.
Where both show up
Ledger Card and Starling Bank both landed in our top picks for 2 checkouts. Grouped by category so you can jump straight to the one you actually pay for:
🤖 AI Tools & Developer Tools 2
Their BIN ranges
Cards issued in 🇪🇺 Europe (EEA) · 🇬🇧 UK — the country guides group every range we track from there.
What our charge log shows
Every count here is a real charge attempt we placed on that range, renewals included, with the gateway response recorded. Weeks tracked is how long the range has been in the programme: