Royal Bank of Scotland > Reviews > UPDATED For students it could NOT be worse.

Author's product rating:   

Staff courtesy
Promptness of service
Efficiency of service
Competitiveness of charges/rates

Advantages:	large overdraft, phone banking, credit card
Disadvantages:	charges can be steep, unhelpfull .

Recommend to potential buyers:

no

Full review

When I wrote this opinion the Royal bank were being nice to me but this has since changed. During the summer I was unable to get a job due to the massive unemployment and redundancies were I live, also my gran was diagnosed with cancer and died, this made job hunting a very low priority.

I phoned the bank and explained by situation and was told that since I had not used by card or cheques they would not charge me anything (as I was over my overdraft.) and they would take the amount I was overdrawn over my three loan installments. This conversation led me into a false sense of security.
Today I contacted them to inform then when I was getting my loan in, and was told that unless i paid ALL of my overdraft back when I got my loan they are going to default.
I asked how I was supposed to live and I was told they did not care, I have to give them my money.

As everyone knows there is no way a student can give up their loan. So I contacted Barclays and they are willing to transfer my account. Best of all I get to keep my overdraft.

The Royal Bank has recently became one of the worse banks to be with, they have increased their charges I bounced cheque now costs £30. The staff are vert unhelpful and simply do not care.

Anyone considering going to them are making a mistake.

I opened a student account with the Royal Bank of Scotland in 1998. At the time they were offering the best package with up to £2000 free overdraft, no other bank could match it. They did not give away free money or gifts to entice but i signed up anyway.
I have had financial problems (what student doesnot) and they have always been extremely helpful and on a number of occasions reduced charges increased my overdraft etc. If you go over your overdraft just phone and explain and they will normally increase your overdraft and arrange to take it back over your grant payments.
I very handy feature is that you can pay cash in to any branch before 3pm and they will pay any thing that has came through that day and if they dont they will refund any charges.
The charges tend to me steep so it best to try not to bounce to many cheques.
They give you a highline card which has £100 cheque guarantee and switch. Their credit card comes along with the student deal with a limit of £500, mine was doubled after a year of paying it every month.
The staff are normally helpful but on occasions are useless. The internet banking and phone banking service is very handy.
Barclay Bank now offers a similar overdraft but it is not interest free.
The royal Bank is not the best and not the worst and dont worry if things go wrong with your account it will be transferred to the personal account service who are very helpful and can do what they like with your account a lot of the time i wish i could keep my account with them!