Royal Bank of Scotland Reviews 

WORST BANK OF SCOTLAND AND THE UK
Switched my account to get the 'perk' for the £200 switch - and boy do they make you work for it.... No account details provided for my new account, my bank card arrives - and no sort code or account number are printed onto it. I try to access my account online but I need my sort and account number. Contacted 'customer service' - awful chat function took me over an hour to get somebody to tell me I had to go to a bank branch. Travelled 22 miles to get there only to be told I then couldn't access my account in branch as I needed my account and sort code. Called their contact centre who finally agreed to send me a letter outlining my account details - waited 10 days for it to arrive. This allowed me to start paying into the account... I tried to access my online account but again needed a customer number - eventually another 10 day wait for my customer number to arrive by post.
Once in my account I made one payment transfer only to then be locked out - and my account disabled. Again back to contacting 'customer service' only to be told I needed to contact their fraud centre. Called and placed in a queue for nearly 4 hours! Finally somebody answered and directed me to attend a RBS branch and take with me the physical copies of the ID I had used to create my account initially. Still not got access to my account and now there's over £12k sat in there 'locked' absolutely awful service and will be leaving immediately once i get my money out.

Closed my account for no reason and forced to remove my funds from their bank. Froze my transactions without ability to reactivate. stay away

Royal Bank Of Useless!

Switched banks to RBS. Great you would think! Supplied a cash point card, supplied PIN number no problem, but failed to supply me with the most important thing! Bank Account Number & Sort Code (which is not on the cash point card), 10 Days later I still didn't know this. How can I use a bank account without this basic information, the card reader which finally arrived so I could find this information out myself came far to late. RBS was more interested in getting me to agree to an hour long phone call with them "as a welcome to RBS" Really! (I cancelled that). Why switch someones account & not provide them straight away with an account number? My advice, if you have 10 days of your life to waste & can put your life on hold, switch to RBS, if not avoid them. Cant wait to switch away from them to be honest, just wonder what issues that may hold in store for me? Lets wait & see.

Dear Reader,
If you are reading this it is almost certainly for one of two reasons:
1) You are considering moving banks and are wondering what people think of RBS.
2) You are an RBS customer, are having a horrible time and wondering if it’s just you.

If you are here for #1 then DO NOT PICK RBS UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES.
If it’s #2 then it’s definitely not just you; RBS is terrible for many people and getting worse almost daily.

I have to confess at this point I’ve been an RBS customer for about 10 years longer than I should have; they have been in a gradual decline in terms of customer service for years, but in the past 18 months or so I’ve noticed this taking a decidedly downward turn. Really, it’s gone from an increasingly steep slope into a mine shaft, and I am finally bailing out. I would have left by now except I’m having problems extracting data (statements) before I close it all and run away screaming for years of therapy.

If you want to see how terrible they are you can start with their website. The way I test out a website is to set myself simple tasks and see if I can complete them. Try it yourself. Go to the RBS website and try to find the telephone number for Direct Banking. Time yourself. Go on…have a go. No cheating now – no Internet search engines – only the search tools on the website. Then look for their complaints form; if you can find it within 5 minutes from within the site then fair play – you are better than I and might have a future locating a living dodo, the yeti or the Loch Ness monster. Aw go on then, use an Internet search engine if you think it’ll help. [snigger]

And I haven’t even got onto their Digital Banking service yet. [deep breath]
Everything within RBS online is VERY secure if by ‘secure’ you mean an acceptable level of security on the way in that is then repeated in multiple places once you’re inside. It’s like going through airport security, wandering into a Duty Free shop then being strip-searched because you want to buy a large Toblerone as a gift (and that wasn’t a euphemism for anything by the way). Then searched again when you want to buy a sandwich. Specifically, if you are out and about and want to pay someone new from the app you cannot do it unless you happen to be carrying one of their annoying card readers with you. Who does that? So it means you have to wait until you’re home.

If you want to download statements you can do that if, and I mean IF, the system is actually working. If you enjoy online gambling or games of chance in general then you’ll love the RBS Digital statement feature where you never know if you can download what you require or not. For that matter it also applies to the service in general which recently has been offline on a Saturday or Sunday morning of all times.

Other fun stuff: Your ‘daily payment allowance’ isn’t actually daily in the sense that weekends and holidays are excluded. And there were you thinking this was all being done by computers….tut tut. In reality there’s a sad person behind the curtain being forced to pull the levers Monday to Friday in return for the promise of one day being released back into the real world. There is also a cheque pay-in tool within the app which, again, is really a Wheel of Fortune game in disguise: Will it work or won’t it? (Plot spoiler – It mostly doesn’t).

Actually, now I think about it, I’ve no idea how I’m going to survive without all this excitement once I’ve finally managed to locate the exit. I knew I should have brought more breadcrumbs….

Why do banks advertise as 24 hour banking when they are not?
Made a transfer on Saturday and attempted to make a second one on Sunday and again Monday.
Refused as up to daily limit and not reset till 6.30 pm Monday.
This does not sound like 24/7 banking to me.
Poor service.

I have recently left RBS due to the branch closing in our local town. The switch to nationwide went smoothly and i received £200 for my trouble. However i still have savings in RBS and wanted to transfer them or move them into another higher interest account. Turns out i have to have a current account with RBS to do this. The advisor came back huffing and puffing saying i would have to draw the money out of the account by cash. Baring in mind its over 40 K. I told her 2 that there was no branch in the Wigan area anyway to do this. I have been with the bank for over 20 years and this is the service you get. When you also have over 40k invested with them as well.

Worst bank ever. Fraud team randomly stops payment for service, despite asking me if I wanted to make the payment, so I didn't realise...one frustrated contractor awaiting funds to buy materials to start job, 3 men getting paid for doing nothing thanks to this so-called bank. I phone to ask why, fraud teams asks wo my broadband supplier is as a way to verify me, I gave correct answer they said I was wrong, I asked to speak to her superior because I knew it was right...she was rude, impatient, raised her voice and said my whole account was now blocked! I could not speak to anyone and had to take I.D. to branch 10 miles away, on a bus when I should have been sleeping as I was night shift. Had to wait an hour in the bank til they sorted their mistake, no apology or ownership of mistake. Home on bus then straight back to work with no sleep. Of course I complained, of course they handily 'lost' the recording which allowed them to deny my claims.
Needlessly say I changed banks and have been a happy santander customer for years now, no issues.
Absolutely do not recommend RBS

Excellent customer service today from Grace at Clearspend. She sorted my admin problem very quickly.
Thanks

I work offshore where there is no mobile networks so you can see my frustration when Clearspend insists on insists on sending me a code to access my account via my phone number.
They are not the only ones a lot of big companies do it they assume that the whole population has a permanent mobile signal.
The bizarre thing is it that to get as far as login in indicates that i have an internet connection and so you would have thought why don't they send the code via the internet, email, twitter, whatsapp, etc
So here i sit not able to get access to my own money!

I call Clearspend on a Sunday, I spend 5 minutes on your automated phone system entering data and then I’m told you’re closed. Why take my information for no reason?

I then call back on Monday, enter all the information again and then the first question is ‘what’s your card number?’ When I get through to a person. Im then put on hold for 30 minutes to discuss my credit limit and ordering new cards. I have to hang up to take a phone call.

Is your system designed to lose customers?

ClearSpend credit card online archive only goes back 12 months. If you require older (up to 7 years is normal) you have to phone up and they then take 5 working days to email them to you.
Awful service...