Ah, thanks for correcting!
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NatWest and Ulster share a banking licence.
RBS has its own.
One reason why the RBS thread may have been busier could also be to do with the fact that RBS used to be the name of the group.
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Interesting stuff guys. I assumed they shared a license as, as an RBS customer I even received correspondence saying “NatWest” (presumably by mistake)
I suppose having a different banking license doesn’t stop customer service or lending criteria etc being aligned though?
It is a distinction though. As if you had loads of money and liked the app you could use both for a bit of FSCS protection which wouldnt be an option for HSBC and First Direct for instance 
By the same token, I’ve received messages for my NatWest branded credit card by SMS from “RoyalBankScot”.
I have accounts with both to get double the allowance of the Digital Regular Saver accounts. I don’t use either bank’s services heavily, but just about everything seems roughly the same between the brands. Occasionally there’s a small word difference in the interfaces.
Oh, and perhaps I feel a bit more regal when my push notifications are from “Royal Bank”.
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Latest app update finally got rid of the “new” badge on my payments tab.
Still no new layout for me.
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For anyone with NatWest Premier.
Do you find that you fully utilise their product offering?
E.g concierge, discounts, insurance and breakdown, lounge pass etc.
I used to have RBS Premier Black and the only thing I really liked was the Home Insurance and breakdown.
My mum has this and says shes never once bothered to use any of it - she used to work there for a good number of years, unsurprisingly it is also my oldest (but dormat) bank account.
I did have a nice friendly chat with the premier manager to begin with, but other than that the only thing I get out of it is £10 a month reward (before fees) for cycling money into savings via direct debits. Same applies for the RBS version.
The concierge is actually pretty good.
I know it’s run by ten group or whatever it’s called (used to be able to get it on Revolut Metal).
Got me a table at a restaurant for wife’s birthday when they didn’t have any availability.
Also the 25% off theatre tickets is good.
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Had COVID-19 not happened, would Bó have kept going and gotten more customers, or was it not gonna be a thing either way?
I don’t think Bo would have gone far tbf. It’s a coating of NatWest.
Look at Zing, epic fail.
It needs to be new, not an attachment attempt.
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Smile is a surprising survivor though. (It was genuinely very different to Co-op and pretty much anyone other than FD when it started but the two have become more aligned over the years.)
Took it on holiday in 2020. SE Asia.
It was a bit finicky with certain internet connections. Less reliable than Monzo at the time.
I forgot I actually asked NatWest on twitter about this and out of interest this was the reply:
"Hi hope you are keeping well
We are different banks so your NatWest account would be separate to that of RBS however much of it would all be the same as RBS.
But again completely separate to that of RBS"
Does make you wonder how/whether they combine lending criteria etc despite on paper being “completely separate”
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With their regular saver. Do you keep the rate once you’ve maxed it out? It doesn’t mature so to speak?
Correct. You can keep £5000 in the account and continue to earn 6% on it.
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Quite like that. Comparing it to the first direct one which matures. Bit more longevity.
£1800 a year in plus any round ups or rewards?
I’m thinking of using a NatWest card for “small change” purchases to top up the RS whilst a credit card gets cashback on anything larger.
Yep. It’s been adding about a fiver a day since I turned on 5x roundups as well. Shouldn’t take too long.
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So £1.80 would result in an additional £1 going in?
I will add the £150 as a baseline