...That fought and died for, yer wee bit hill and glen.

Oh we all love a bit of a national anthem on a Wednesday, lessens the middle-of-the-week-drudgery somewhat.

Well, the Royal Bank Of Scotland then.

I've had a joint account of this bank for the past year, the new flat needed a joint account to be set up and the standing order created for our rent so along we went and made ourselves known.

The reason for choosing this bank for our joint account was really quite simple, Lorraine (my lovely other half - awwwwwwwww) had been with them for about 2 years with her student bank account and had always found them helpful and keen - a customer who has a good experience always tells 4 others...

Setting up the account:
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First of all we had to get ourselves into the bank and get ourselves all set up, this was, perhaps, the easiest thing I've done in the past 12 months.

In we went, all bright eyed and bushy tailed, feeling grown up and important and ready to set ourselves into a joint contract of love forever - well, not quite but it did feel a little special, I'm just a big softie really.

We'd called the RBS call centre before going down into Camden (where the bank is) to find out what we'd need to take and get all the info we needed quickly and politely (a first for me when it comes to call centres) and so were prepared for the meeting with the bank manager (see - very grown up - I'm meeting bank managers and everything!).

Lorraine just needed her chequebook as she already had an account and I needed 6 months bank statements and a couple of proofs of ID. Easy.

After a short time we were seen - a quick rundown of the accounts was given to us and then we were left alone to decide while my statements and passport were photocopied fro the records.

Made our choice.
Signed a form each.
Waited for the chequebooks, bank ca
rds and paying in books to arrive through the post.

That was all there was to it.

I thought that the bank was great, really friendly staff (for Londoners that is), a really helpful manager and an easygoing attitude to the whole process. Everything was processed quickly and efficiently and we had our JOINT ACCOUNT set up.

Wow.

The service:
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If the RBS have one fault it is that their banks never have enough tellers/cashiers on. As a general rule whichever branch you go into will have 3 desks for normal transactions (cheques up to any value or cash up to £500) and a business cashier. This can lead to some quite hefty queues from time to time, try going down to the Victoria branch on a lunchtime and trying to get served within 20 minutes - just not possible.

That aside, they do seem to look after you. The account we opted for was the Interest Paying Current Account - plain, simple, boring. No charges, no set up costs and a bit of interest from time to time too.

This account is one of those simple ones to understand - pay the cash in, take it out later if you want to - no bother whatsoever.

I was a little worried about giving them my details in the beginning, we've all been subjected to the junk mail attacks from the Bank Of Scotland "A James Bond Visa card - look like a pillock and get into a load of debt!" and I thought it may be the same with RBS (OK, I know I had to give them my details to set an account up, but that was my argument with Lorraine at the time).

Overall:
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I've got to say that the Royal Bank is great, I've had a full year of totally hassle free banking and to set up the account was simplicity itself. Statements always turn up each month, these are very detailed and very easy to read through. Very good call centre (although I've only had to call up the once) and overall I can't fault the whole experi
ence I've had with them.

If you want plain and simple - get to the RBS, they do have other more complicated accounts (I've heard of Royalties but don't know a lot about it) for the more picky member of the public.

Have fun with your cash folks.

Boon ;¬)