Flux rolls out its digital loyalty stamps with Starling in the UK

It builds on earlier Flux integration that sees Starling support item-level digital receipts powered by Flux and supported merchants (to date, this includes all 111 EAT stores in the UK and Bel-Air).

Here’s how the new loyalty functionality works: once you’ve enabled Flux within the Starling app, you simply spend at supported merchants using Starling and any loyalty rewards you earn are automatically displayed in your Starling account alongside a fully item-level digital receipt. After you have accrued enough loyalty to qualify for a free item, Flux will send cash-back to your Starling account on behalf of the Flux retailer.

The idea is to make loyalty stamps digital in the same way as receipts, which not only reduces cumbersome use of paper, but also speeds up the checkout process and makes loyalty something you — as the customer — never have to really think about.

However, what makes Flux interesting is the way it wants to integrate at the banking app level in order to offer a consolidated view of your earned loyalty points across all your bank accounts.

This means in theory that if you earn Flux points with one bank card, they’ll be displayed in and can be redeemed from any other bank cards/accounts that you have also linked Flux to. This small pieces, loosely joined approach is at the very heart of Open Banking and Flux’s longer term strategy as an FCA authorised AISP (Account Information Service Provider).

The fintech startup is already working with Barclays and Monzo, in addition to Starling. More than that, providing consolidated views across payments accounts with enriched data is key to Flux’s strategy for the year.