The Royal Bank of Scotland Reviews 

Shocking and unsympathetic service. Trying to set up a Power Of Attorney jointly with my dad for my mum. But they want the original POA even though my dad has registered this with the Stirling branch. And they won't call their own Stirling branch! They were rude and patronising. The service is so rigid and but suitable for customers. I'm surprised the bank still exists.

Firstly I have to say RBS have pleasant telephone operators, however, for the most part they are inexperienced which leads to frustration. The main culprits for many grievances are the so called subject matter experts who hide themselves away and are uncontactable, but promise a call back, via a third party, which seldom happens. I have had issues with the fraud department, who initially claimed that an unknown party using my details to pay for services wasn’t fraud! And more recently a loan application which had gone missing in the ether, yet no one had any idea of resolving the issue. I ask myself how can I trust this bank with my finances? The price of funding their incompetence has recently been in increased to £21 a month. Additionally, I believe that I will end up paying them interest for the money in my savings account! Shocking customer service. Their AI “Cora” is useless; sends you round in circles! I’m totally dissatisfied with the organisation and as a consequence, after 40 years banking with them, I’m switching banks.

big big thanks for changing my card details for no reason without telling me and without me being able to decline it and forcing me to use biometric approval just to see whatever you changed it to

I applied for an extension to my overdraft 3 weeks ago. I got an email confirmation of the application and 3 weeks later have not received any reply to my application. No phone number to call and Chat Bot Cora is a waste of time.
Total disgrace and very incompetent and very low grade customer service.

Spoke to a R.B.S. agent on their Info' line.
Despite having my Mortgage reference number, account number, my personal details of course on my Home telephone landline number the Witch on the other end of the phone would not supply the mortgage balance details.
I haven't banked with R.B.S for years, changed over to Nat West years ago when R.B.S pretty much went Bust.....
Customer service is Terrible.
Not Happy.
Stay away from this 5hit bank.

Worst bank to bank with ever, take ur cash but can’t help I give u to back which had left me with stress. Week 3 and rbs took 350 out my bank didn’t give me the cash or refund it back, I have been struggling to make my basic needs in they just dont care av waited right up to the Disbute dates they gave still nothing

40 years with an account at this bank, moving now after series of failures. Final issue, used my pre-agreed overdraft limit for the first time in over a decade, only needed it for 1 week. 1 day later they arbitrarily reduced my overdraft limit and have locked my account.
No prior notification in the App but apparently an email was sent - from a noreply address that my computer had put in the Spam folder.
No prior notification in the banking app or its messages.
The email said they knew what I needed better than me so were reducing the overdraft facility cutting it to 1/6 of what was agreed.
Online bot Cora gave the date of the email else I’d never have found it.
Cora also dorect r me to request the limit be changed as a new request - except it won’t let you if you are over your overdraft - which I was as they reduced it to just 1/6 of what it had been.
Had to wait to the next day to call and speak to a person. Lovely person but system is so locked down - they couldn’t change the limit - because I was now over my overdraft.
So until I get paid on Friday I can’t use my account or bank card, any auto payments will fail, may show up on my credit score, and they cannot / will not do anything about it because ‘the computer says no’. On a problem caused by the computer deciding it knew better than me what I needed.
Complaint raised but when a bank hands all decisions to its bits and systems with no way for a human in the loop to address problems that may cause - then that bank has really lost sight of what customers service is.
Sending emails into spam rather than using the secure messaging facility in the App is a poor communication choice.
Not having an escalation route when you unnecessarily lock a customers account is unforgivable.
The timetable for a response probably about 4 days if you raise it as a complaint but it may take longer - don’t care if meantime we have locked your bank account.
RBOS used to be a good bank and real people customer service who could actually get things done. That is no longer the case and it looks like I will have arranged a new main bank and be moving my salary and business elsewhere before they have even got round to sending a complaint response.
Zero Stars - bank elsewhere

Got shifted over from the One Account...apparently I need to call them to request paperless billing...?!

Firstly, I can't update my email address on-screen (I have to "Chat to Cora"...mindless AI crap) and then Cora tells me I have to call to do anything.

If you think I'm sitting on hold just to go paperless then you've lost your collective minds. I'll just keep burning the rainforests...

I have been banking with RBS and it predecessors
( started as Williams Deacons) since 1958. I have never had cause for complaint until very recently but now I am incensed.
I had cause to write a written complaint regarding the refusal of my debit card at a supermarket. I received a reply that i would receive a response within ten days, which in itself I found unacceptable. The ten days elapsed and I received another email of apologies saying that I could now expect a response to my complaint within 20 Days!
Such service(?) is abysmal and unacceptable. I shall now seriously consider moving my accounts to another provider.

Tried to open a business bank account and 6 weeks answering repeated questions and submitted a complaint to RBS I received an email stating sorry for the delay and it will take another 5 weeks to resolve.

The application process is a complete farce not to mention the time wasted on this.

Would not recommend RBS for a business bank account application as has serious process issues so I would recommend to approach other banks first.

Pathetic! Not allowed to set up a new standing order without biometric approval which I can't get for several weeks maybe months. Wasn't made aware of this when switching to rbs from another bank. A huge mistake. No points.

Just received my new 2026 RBS credit card ... old one has expired . RBS is obviously so proud & happy with their new card design that they have'nt even put RBS on it . All personal info is on the rear of the card ... long number + exp. date + short cvc ... so, when photographing this card for on line use everything is visible where before on the old card cvc number & long number were kept on opposite sides ... a good idea for security reasons .... but not any more .... This new 2026 purple card is decididly cheap looking in appearance ... no more embossed lettering .... just Flat Print all the way .... must have cost at least 10p to make . Will have to review my on line use of this design masterpiece !!

Trying to use RBS while travelling is very frustrating constantly blocking my cards and rejecting both debit and credit transactions. Chat bot is useless hold times are very long and frustrating. No facility to tell them you are going abroad anymore chat bot just says ready to use, then cards blocked in every new country even with pin awful customer service.

I cancelled an order under the Distance Selling Regs and asked for a Chargeback for the money paid, because I could not elicit any response from the supplier Celize UK and thus could not return the unwanted goods. I was asked for loads of information relating to the purchase and after a couple of weeks was told that the bank would not return my money because they could not see that the seller had broken any contract!
A bunch of incompetents.

Thanks for keeping me on hold for an hour and doing nothing to help me being scammed. You’ve just lost a customer of over 25 years.

On 2nd Feb/2026, I accepted RBS Credit Card’s offer of £7,808.59 total balance transfers at 0% interest rate for 24 months. RBS (or their AI bot “Punch”?) had agreed, at 0% interest, to re-pay all of my 3 other card debts totalling £7,808.59; but then mistakenly charged me 22% interest on 2 (£2,022.13)of my 3 debt transfers. On 11th May, RBS’s “Punch” agreed to correct the error and make refunds. To date, RBS keeps on overcharging me.

Shocking experience with customer service. They are completely incompetent.

Rbs locked me out of my app 3 times in 7 days, firstly because I had opened a new account with HSBC and transferred some money into it. I had to phone the fraud team who no less than an interrogation took place even to the point of why I had sent this to HSBC and secondly why had I transferred my state pension into HSBC.
I made another transfer two days later and locked out again. I then sent £200 to my wife and guess what locked out again. So after ringing the fraud team at 6.50 pm and going through the security the agent then said he could offer no information except my debit card couild be used and the agent dealing with it had gone home at 5 pm. This bank is ridiculously over zealous and I feel it is because if someone is scammed they dont want to reimburse. The sooner I get away the better its a micky mouse bank .

As an introduction, my Family has banked with William Deacon Bank, then William Glynn Bank before it was taken over By RBS, over 80 years in total.
The other day I attempted to deposit a cheque using the App, after several attempts I managed to get the App to accept the photographs of the front and (Blank) back of the cheque, only to be informed OOPs! there's been a problem. Please take your Cheque to a local Branch or Post Office. Strike1!
RBS no longer have High Street Branches Strike2!
Today while logging into the Banking App using my Biometrics, it occurred to me I had forgotten my Password and should my Biometrics not be recognised I would be locked out of my Account, so I attempted to reset my Password. This immediately Reset the App.
abandoning the attempt proved fruitless. I was directed to Digital banking to find my customer number, which I did, only to be told I would receive a Security code BY POST in the Next six days and if I hadn't received it within seven days to contact them Strike3!
I then attempted to contact the Bank to be greeted by a Female voice which informed me I would be redirected to someone who could help, the someone was an AI system which couldn't help, didn't understand the vast majority of what I said as my problem. In the end I asked how to close my accounts, to which the voice said "You wish to leave us, is this correct" , I replied Yes, to which the voice replied "To transfer funds from your other Bank..." at which point I hung up. Strike4!
The Bank has become worse than useless. It can only be a matter of time before it closes and after my recent experiences that time can't come soon enough!!

Called to unblock my card, staff tried to get me into phone banking, I refused. Asked for the agent to unblock my card she told me how to do it at the bank which is miles away. Shambolic !