The Royal Bank of Scotland Reviews 

I had an account with them ever since I was a kid and have pretty much been broke my entire life, never being able to go over a certain amount in my account even though I don't have a hobby, I haven't had a car until recent years and I don't have my own place so I'm not paying rent. I don't make any large purchases or use a credit card and I work 40 hours a week. And somehow I just never had any money and I never knew why. Well I finally switched at the start of the year and literally within 1 week I saw a difference. Now I have more money than I've ever seen in my account and my circumstances haven't changed. Same job, same situation except now I have a bigger car which you'd think would cost me more. Somehow I'm seeing much more of the money I earn in my account. I'm not saying there's hidden fees or they're stealing, because I have no idea what was going on. But to have thousands more now than I ever had with RBS says something to me, especially when I was recommended to switch by someone else who was having the same situation with RBS and never having any money while banking with them.

Royal Bank of scotland is ment to give customers a service bank machine in newbridge not working for five days card machine in broxburn not working for 3 day I phoned to complaint and very difficult to get to complaint and if you get complaint department thay don't fix the problem we're is the service rbs is a waste of time

Impossible to speak with a human, waiting time for a complaint up to 5 days...... waiting time for tech department to contact 2 days, no matter how urgent the issue is. In a foreign country need to transfer money, impossible to do and RBS say can't help you need to wait for a response. So unable to rely upon, in toimes of urgency.

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.
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 don't count as regular income, and have therefore told me I'm not eligible for the "Royal Bank Credit Card", a credit card that I basically have already had for 20 years and pay off in full every month!

i can not log in. they think they are mi5 trying to stop sophisticated spies. somebody should sue them for not managing to get into their online account which can cause all sorts of problems. burks

I wanted to leave a review to recognise two members of staff who helped me during a very stressful account review process.

Sophie was patient, supportive, and took the time to explain things clearly. She treated me with respect and understanding, which made a big difference when I was feeling anxious.

Michael was also helpful in making sure the situation was properly understood and reviewed. I appreciate the time taken to look into everything thoroughly.

Situations like this are never easy, but good staff support really matters — and I’m grateful for the help I received.

Just tried to resolve an issue with Cora the RBS online chat bot. It couldn't understand at all what I was trying to say (a fairly simple issue). Other companies will pass you directly on to a human if requested, but Cora tells you to log in to the Digital Bank to do that. It also said I would need a OTP, even though I was trying to tell them that I have trouble getting a OTP because of poor mobile signal where I live, and RBS will not accept a landline number for an OTP. (I don't know why not, National Savings send me a OTP via my landline).

Cora, the automated chat is a total waste of time, shockingly useless

20 days to get a replacement debit card

I find RBS as a great bank and they do everything I need. Thanks

Have been a loyal customer for over 30 years, now when I need some assistance to recover money from an online purchase which I now know was a scam there has been zero assistance. Followed the retail dispute process and now 2 weeks have gone and still nothing. Tried to email, speak to someone about my dispute and still no progress. We also use RBS for our business banking so seriously thinking of taking our custom elsewhere. When did they become so bad?

I notified my bank that I was going overseas for a prolonged period of time. In branch they showed me how to let them know on the banking app., which I did for a ninety day period. I have used the app., to transfer funds to one of my payees four times whilst overseas on the same trip. Now today 02/10/2026, I tried to open mobile app. using normal procedure of fingerprint. When I clicked the app., got a message asking if I was registered for. mobile banking, which obviously I am, otherwise I would not of been able to do the four transaction transfers that I have. I went through the procedure of logging in, input all the security details requested, then they said they'd send a one time code to my number ending in 180. Hmm🤔, well I have deactivated that number whilst out of the UK because I wouldn't be using the said number or paying the monthly subscription or roaming charges. So now I'm 5,000 miles from the UK with no access to my funds in my bank account. Got the usual Cora machine apologies, which doesn't mean anything, I'm the one 5,000 miles abroad and with no way of accessing funds from my account. WORST BANK I HAVE EVER COME ACROSS. Lesson learnt, never have a bank account with either RBS., or NatWest, same bank and absolutely useless, both of them. I've uprated my * rating to two because all the problems I have stated here, at least on RBS WhatsApp they gave me a phone number to contact for emergencies, which I did and they transferred some funds from my account to one of my payees, who then forwarded it to a foreign bank account so I could access cash and not carry on worrying about how I was going to cope with no access to my online banking, through the mobile app. Also I was not aware that usage of the mobile app., even after years of use, if you change your phone number to a foreign countries network, the app., ceases to let you use it. They did correct this with a ten minute call to the UK and updated to my new foreign number, so that in three normal working days I will be able to use the app., again for my banking. Very stressful being five thousand miles from the UK and not knowing how to get access to my online banking.

Near impossible to get help. The cora service is useless, and following this you get put into a queue but no there is no indication on queue position. Going into branch is a lucky draw, not every staff member can help open new accounts.

I have had the misfortune of being an RBS customer for longer than I care to remember. They still continue to amaze me with their gross incompetence. I wrote a post-dated cheque for over £1000 for the deposit for the installation of a new boiler. The heating engineers unfortunately banked it days before the date written on the cheque. RBS's useless system cashed it anyway, leaving me heavily overdrawn and unable to use my debit card. I am a vulnerable customer and this just beggars belief - or would do, if it weren't RBS.

Having issues with this bank, when i use my card online it always goes to approve transaction so I go to my app, then when I go back to the page im buying from its not gone through, ive had payments seemingly go through but cancelled, I cant use the coop groceries with this card it takes the money out but leaves everything in the basket and no shopping ordered, so i had the runaround phoning the co op
ive thankfully a BOS account so im using that now to pay online,

now my savings account doesnt let me save more than a set amount which is new and I wasn't told about this happening until they moved money out of it.

Very disappointed in the complaints team, I have never had an issue with rbs but I’ve had issues the last two months and 2 complains haven’t been dealt with ones is 50 days old
Been told I will recieve a phone call by Friday
No chance

It seems that RBS are floundering - caught between retaining some semblance of presence on the high street and moving to a virtual bank. The virtual (on-line) effort is sadly lacking in efficiency! The photo deposit for cheques didn't work and the hub has been either very slow (10 days to appear in my account) or hopeless! (Lost my cheque somewhere between depositing at the hub and collected by the post-office and arriving at the bank!) Being of the older generation I do still have a penchant for some degree of high street presence (some business is still done with cheques and often lump sums of cash are needed). What to do?

Cheque scanning feature on the banking app is worse than useless. Move right, move left, move up, move down, on and on and on, today I've given up after two attempts. Last week I eventually managed to capture a cheque but then it couldn't match the writing to the amount I stated it was for. Previous to that it wouldn't allow cheques with asterisks on them - most corporate cheques are covered in asterisks to stop people altering them, absolute waste of time!

'Conversing' online with Cora takes you on a merry-go-round of nonsense. When you 'talk' to their phone bot (Phona?), it doesn't understand you and can't put you through to a human because there aren't any at RBS. I have concluded that even the CEO, Paul Thwaite, is a bot, because it hasn't had the decency to respond to my (polite) request. Most other company CEOs contact you within hours of your communication. Not RBS - they clearly don't care.
My request? Just a debit card RBS failed to replace.
UPDATE
Cora responded in only 19 hours. Now awaiting my new card in 10 days or so.

The machine at your branch in Irvine stole my money i asked to withdraw money from it and it didn't give me it then it yook money from my account as well as a 1.80 fee which it didn't tell me about fraudulent company i want my money back