The Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc Reviews 412

I recently applied to switch to a current account with Royal Bank of Scotland and found the experience extremely frustrating and, at times, quite distressing.

The identity verification process, which appears to be powered by a third-party provider (Mitek), repeatedly failed with messages saying my face was “too blurry,” despite trying multiple times in different lighting and environments over several days. When systems fail like this repeatedly, it can make a genuine applicant feel as though they are being treated with suspicion.

Eventually, the system marked the verification as successful. However, the application still did not proceed properly, and I received no clear explanation as to why.

What made this worse is that the system flags risk, but the bank decides what to do with that flag. At no point did anyone from the bank reach out to offer assistance or check if I was having difficulties. The entire process felt fully automated, with no human support at all.

I also submitted highly sensitive personal documents, including my passport and driving licence, along with completing a liveness check. While these were accepted, I have received no information about how this data is stored, how long it will be retained, or whether it will be securely deleted following the unsuccessful application. This lack of transparency regarding personal data is concerning. I want all the ID's removed asap

I attempted through several emails to contact the bank during the process, but did not receive any meaningful response.

Having now seen the experiences of many other customers, I can only say I am genuinely relieved that my application did not go through. What initially felt like a frustrating experience now feels like a fortunate escape. If this is the standard of service, then I am glad I did not switch.

Wow! Just been told my insurance policy is no good! All that money for nothing! They advisor said as it its a war we are left ro fend for ourselves. No war has been declared, its america doing there usual smoke screen to cover things! Well done RBS utter useless c@nts

The Royal Bank are favouring new customers whilst ripping off existing loyal customers.
Their website currently lists 7 different credit cards, one of which is simply called the "Royal Bank Credit Card".
It lists the benefits of no annual fee and no foreign currency transaction fees.
I have the same "Royal Bank Credit Card" which I have had since 2006 and have to pay foreign currency transaction fees, and in fact had to pay a total of £108.36 of these fees last year.
When I queried why I was being charged these fees when it was exactly the same card, I was told that mine's was a "legacy" card and therefore had to pay the fees.
In other words, if you're a new customer with no history of ever having banked with RBS you can benefit from no currency fees, but if you'e a loyal customer (I've had a current account with RBS for 46 years), you're not eligible and they can gladly rip you off.
I asked if I could switch from my "Royal Bank Credit Card" which charges these fees to the "Royal Bank Credit Card" which doesn't charge them, and was told it was simply not possible.
Strangely enough, they have not informed their existing credit card holders about this.
My circumstances recently changed and I have retired with a small company pension but most of my income comes from interest earned from bonds and ISAs which RBS says doesn't count as regular income, and have therefore told me that I'm not eligible for the latest "Royal Bank Credit Card", a credit card that I basically have already had for 20 years and pay off in full every month!

No surprise at all that RBS has such a dismal reputation. I am a vulnerable customer and, in response to my problem, they sent me a generic - and misleading and incorrect - email. When I complained to their CEO about this, their response was equally incorrect. They obviously hadn't bothered to read my email. And not for the first time. They seem to take some kind of perverse pleasure in upsetting their vulnerable customers.

My account had a suspicious withdrawal on it so I froze my card and was told that ine would be ordered for me. That was 2 weeks ago. I called today and got some new start that can't explain what was going on with my account. Mmm very professional. This so called bank is a complete joke and I do not trust them. Please save yourself a headache and stay away

After 24 years with RBS my account was closed, no reason given as I was told they don’t need to give a reason, account closed on 11th by text within 30 seconds digital banking disabled, card not usable for apple pay, everything I had set up to my account, every direct debit all contacting me for new payment method all after a text message, funds went into the account instantly the 18th but I can’t access so it’s a id check and a 60 day wait for the remaining funds, staff at the nearest branch were uneasy dealing with me, all in all after 24 years I realised they are perhaps the worst bank around, nothing straightforward all to keep hold of your money longer than they should, absolute disgrace of a bank in every aspect including Cora the dumbest bot there has ever been which sums up RBS perfectly, incompetent, uncaring, deceitful in every regard I was initially told the money would be returned within 14 days and reissued to my new account, an hour later I was informed that the payment had been encashed, back to rbs I went as this wasn’t supposed to happen, shocking in every aspect, I can’t warn people enough stay away from this bank they are terrible in every single aspect. Find an alternative to banking keep away from Rob Bemuse Steal (RBS), -100 stars

I have banked with the rbs for years. My husband and I got scammed out of £700 and the RBS have just wiped there hands of it. I’m totally disgusted at the way they have dealt with our problem. They said it was another parties problem. They are wonderful at pushing the problem on the other party. Talk about back and forth. Will be looking for a new bank. Thank you RBS for nothing.

joined this bank a few months ago and will be leaving very shortly - had to travel to find a branch to start with - tried to deposit £3,000 and was asked where i got it? then was told need to provide proof of funds - i then asked what i could deposit and was told 'i cant answer that' then i asked - 'well if i went to another branch and tried to deposit £1000 could i' - again was told i cant answer that by teller - in the same branch right after trying to deposit via teller i went to machine and deposited £1000 - absolute joke - they use the excuse of fraud but in reality they are trying to close the few remaining branches and not deal in cash - as i said i will be looking for other bank

Where do I start? Firstly if I could have awarded zero stars I would have. I can't go fully into my issue as it is so convoluted and would be a hugely long winded response. But what I will say is it feels as though RBS put as many barriers in the way to prevent you from dealing with any situation. What I will say is that the RBS online platform is utterly useless, the app is utterly useless, Their AI Cora is, well, useless and reaching RBS by phone to deal with any situation is impossible. I will pay off my credit card and never go back. Who is running this joint?

I have been a customer of RBS for 35 years.
My vehical was stolen with phone, cards amongst other things.
The new answer phone for stolen cards resulted in terrible anguish and the card was unable to be reported stolen for 45 mins.
I've attempted to online bank, change my telephone number to a landlines as I've no mobile phone and 6 days on still have no access to my money or my account. Again after much time trying to bamboozle the phonebot into letting me speak to a human, I endured 2 members of unemapathetic staff who were rude, one a manager, and whose solution to changing my phone number ( despite ive telephone banking set up) involved( in my circumstances ) to lose a day or two pay, travel 400 miles to present my passport to a branch. My nearest branch due to closures is 100 mile round trip), my passport a 150 mile round trip as i work away.im switching as its the only way to access my money for less than around £600 that their solution involved ( no vehical..public transport).

Business review team blocked access to my business account for three days , after 20 years with the bank , no changes had to be made within my review . it has also now blocked me from receiving statements now ,
Customer service advisor called me earlier to deal with my complaint , only to accuse me of non compliance , as they had sent numerous emails , which looked like ( RBS advert emails ) we do get a lot .
So I can only say this is the way to loose a customer , I will now be looking for a new business and personal bank . that does look after people.

Getting to chat to a real person is like getting blood out of a stone
The chat bot has to be the most useless of any site I've had the misfortune of using
They don't have people available to live chat at any time of the day

I got a letter out of the blue saying welcome to your account, I thought it must be a scam as I've never had any dealing with this place thankfully.

A few days later I got another letter with a number on it. I went on the site hoping to speak to someone and get it flagged and just ended up incredibly annoyed with the chat bot going round and round in circles

Anyway I then got a 3rd letter this time with a debit card so clearly someone has set up an account in my name with my details so this was now more urgent I tried again to find a person on live chat, email, social media and there is nothing, I don't want to talk on the phone as I don't have the details they need such as the account number, password etc as I DID NOT SET UP THE ACCOUNT. The chat bot doesn't even understand that simple line of text

I thought right I'll sign up using the app with the card details I now and talk to someone through the account and I then hit another wall as the mobile used to register was not mine (fancy that) so I had to wait another week for them to send me a blasted activation code in the post and now that has come its refusing to let me sign up for mobile banking, I just want to close the f'in account with them

They really do make everything as hard as possible and we should have let them go bust instead of bailing them out all those years ago. Absolute scumbag company

Worst bank in the uk , their customer service is useless and full of incompetent staff who do not understand banking policy’s or their own system . It’s time this bank closed down and gave the tax payers its money back and set its self into the archives and history ! Complaint after complaint when I had a fraud activity on my credit card , this bank allowed the fraud to continue even after telling them and raising a complaint only for their managers to close the case! No longer a trusted brand ! FCA had rule in our favour because the managers are incompetent in their professional duties . Accountability laws required so the consumer can sue their incompetence managers personally .

Been with RBS for about ten years - looking for another bank. They keep sending me letters to complete "my business profile" - no matter how many times I complete it there's always something wrong and I go back to the start - it took them a year to sort last time and now I'm having to recomplete all over again.

Banked with them since 2011 and always been a bit frustrated with their charges for transferring larger quantities of money (care home fees) and awful interest rates but out of the blue, got a letter saying my bank account was closing (apparently because I have no mortgage anymore) it was NOT part of the switch system so I would have to do it all myself which I did. Telephone support was pathetic from RBS, massive wait times and then when you finally get through, they tell you to go to another department. Proper pain dealing with incompetent staff but once switched manually went with First Direct and it's SO much better with fees, interest rates and the staff are really effective and efficient. Most of what I needed to do was achieved with an AI chatbot, no waiting or calling and 100% results. On the rare occasions I needed to talk to a human, THEY called me :-)
I only stayed for all these years with RBS because I was apathetic and thought switching was really hard.......it wasn't, just slow. Just switch and eventually this lot will get taken over and maybe improved with new management

there has been 2 fraudulent transactions on my credit card. The first was refunded reasonably quickly. there were notified of the 2nd yone during the pending stage and have been contacted over the past 10 days. the amount of fobbing me off has now become unacceptable. I want to change banks , who should i go to?

The worst ban in the uk !! Customer service is just third world terrible

Been with RBS all my banking life. I was unhappy when they merged with NatWest and when we lost our physical RBS banks. Like everything it's all about online. I've now had enough and thinking of moving banks after over 25 years with them after the last issue.

Got a new phone so needed to set up my online banking on it. I followed their instructions and you get to a webpage that asks you to either use face recognition or voice recognition. That's fine but I got a screen with no options or tabs to press with a 4 minute countdown done this twice there's no longer instructions. Their cora is pointless asks you the same questions over and over. I tried to book a in bank appointment I tried everything they just want you to do everything on line. I have a disability and it's why I keep giving up on trying to set up my online banking as I can't see my accounts at this time I've got into money troubles. I can't believe how shocking it is these days no fave to face decent service or care.
Absolutely fed up.

Worst bank I’ve ever had the displeasure of dealing with. Should have switched to Monzo years ago

As RBS have closed all their high street branches I called into a Nat West branch in Nottingham. I was due to leave the UK for several months and I'm gifting a sizeable amount of money to my daughter to help with a home purchase and wanted to be sure all was set up and would go well in my absence. I wanted to do this in one transaction but the amount exceeds my online banking daily limit. I was told that if I used the RBS banking app, no limits applied and the transfer would not attract a fee. I downloaded the app secure in the knowledge that all would be well when the day came to transfer funds. I'm now in the USA and, by chance, just set up a small transfer for a birthday gift. Luckily, it alerted me to 'daily limits' that applied to different types of accounts and transfers, none of which were sufficient to enable the transfer I will require. Been trying to obtain a phone number for RBS customer services - not easy. And every number I've tried thus far fails to connect. The online chat service 'Cora' is next to useless as you go around in ever decreasing circles trying to get it to understand the nature of your enquiry. Then when it finally concedes the matter requires human intervention, I'm informed I may have to wait 2 hours. Utterly rank customer service when you need it. I've banked with RBS for nearly 50 years so it's unlikely I'll move banks but I'm sorely tempted.