Move over Barclays! (Royal Bank of Scotland Student Banking)

Member Name: Zahooga

Product:	Royal Bank of Scotland Student Banking
Date:	06/07/00 (31 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Understanding staff, helpful, useful facilities and discounts, free internet banking

Disadvantages: Coverage in England is limited to major towns, although they have just bought Natwest!

I've banked with the Royal right through my four years at University, and cannot find any fault with them. As madmac noted, the staff are helpful, and in the very rare event that they make a mistake, they go the extra mile to rectify it.

Although they don't offer freebies in the way that Barclays do, they are much more understanding about overdrafts etc - I know a lot of friends who previously banked with Barclays and then had problems when Barclays refused to increase their overdraft limits.

In place of freebies, RBOS do offer Royalties, their all in banking package. Student royalties offers discounts off books, holidays, cd's etc etc, as well as handy things like free credit card loss protection, a free keyfob which if you lose your keys helps them get returned to you, and much more - see my report on free internet banking!

Direct banking, their 24 hour free phone banking is also great - instant cash transfers mean that if you're out on the town and near the overdraft limit, you're only a phone call away from the next beer!

Their £100 cheque guarantee card is great, plus you can use anyone of 22,000 cashline machines in the UK free of charge - the Royal were the first bank to offer this.

I've just moved onto their graduate account which again is a market leader - and the understanding of student finance extends past graduation. As the Royal Bank's slogan says, "We know where you're coming from, you know where we are" - never a truer word said!

Summary: