About me:I still read, rate and comment but rarely write on here.
Member since:26.04.2001
Reviews:115
Members who trust:53
Review rated by 48 Ciao members on average: very helpful
This review received a counterstatement by a party concernedRead Comment
~* Introduction *~
If you're a young person NatWest is one of the best banks to go with, unlike all of the other high street banks which require you to be 16 to have a Solo card NatWest give their customers a Solo card from the age of 11. If your not sure what a Solo card please see the various Ciao reviews of it. Basically however it's a debit card that is in many ways like a Switch card, but with a Solo card you can only spend what's in your account…so no getting overdrawn. As you cannot get overdrawn I'm baffled as to why other banks demand that you are 16…
Anyway whether you are a NatWest customer or not you can sign up easily for NatWest online banking which according to a recent Which? survey and a study in .net internet magazine is the best online high street bank. And on top of that natwest.com has the thumbs up from me! Lol.
If you are a non-NatWest customer you must firstly open up an account with them (which can be done online) and then apply for online banking. When you sign up for online banking with NatWest you have to enter in your account number, sort code and address. After giving them your account number, sort code and address you must then wait several days for them to send you a pin number. Once you receive your personal pin number you have to make up a password and a PIN code (Different to the pin number sent through the post. The pin number sent through the post is just needed once to open the account) As soon as you've chose a password and PIN code you can start banking online!
Logging into your account is a long winded process. Firstly you must enter for example the sixth, first and second digits of your PIN code and then you might have to enter the ninth, sixteenth and twelfth for example letters of your password. Long winded and slow but very secure.
Once logged into your account you can immediately see a mini-statement online. You can then see an entire statement online, transfer money, pay your bills, pay standing orders, make third party payments, request a new paying in book/cheque book and view the balance of your credit cards. A lot of the features here are not relevant to me such as credit cards, bill payment and standing orders but I find it very useful to check my balance online and transfer money. Obviously you can be never reliant on online banking…how would you pay cash in? Stuff it through the floppy-disk drive? But online banking will save you time and is very useful.
And to those who think that "they nick ya dosh" online banking is far safer than telephone banking and on natwest.com there are various extra security measures. If your password and PIN are entered wrongly three times for example your online account is frozen, natwest.com also automatically log you out after 5 minutes of inactivity, so if you accidentally leave it open a family member cannot just transfer some funds…
~* Overall *~
Overall I have been very impressed with natwest.com and although I have no experience with any other online banking services I think that natwest.com must be one of the best. So if your one of those people who use cash points just to see how much they got in their account get yourself an online bank account!
A good review of the account you have, but you could also include other information such as rates of interest (for savings as well as loans), the facilities available at your branch? But these things aren't essential info. I have an Egg card which is handled entirely online and also has a very competitive rate of interest (12.9% APR - don't ask what APR means I don't know!)
08.05.2002 01:43
A good review of the account you have, but you could also include other information such as rates of interest (for savings as well as loans), the facilities available at your branch? But these things aren't essential info. I have an Egg card which is handled entirely online and also has a very competitive rate of interest (12.9% APR - don't ask what APR means I don't know!)
03.05.2002 20:05
Good op, wait till you get your mits on a credit card mate :¬) james
30.04.2002 20:52
good op :) ma x.