Anecdotally - Natwest Group are very tight at checking eligibility at the point of application, but once you’re in that’s basically it - I’ve never heard of someone being downgraded for not paying in enough (unlike Barclays).
I was surprised to learn so much Ulster Bank stuff is managed separtely from Natwest and RBS. My wife was able to update her name for both her Natwest and RBS accounts** at a nearby Natwest, but they said they weren’t able to do anything on Ulster accounts - and Cora suggests we need to send a copy of the marriage certificate off to her home branch to get it done.
** they did take a bit of persuasion to give it a try as they didn’t recognise the fancy card, and then they wanted to know how to get one…
Thanks - that’s helpful. We can deffo meet the criteria in terms of salary, and will continue to be able to do so, it’s just that she may not want to ask her employer to pay the money into the account, and would rather transfer in, but I will see fancies transferring it temporarily if they might not check once we upgraded.
Be sure to raise a formal complaint, my mum did to Barclays my brothers account when he died, a year later they still hadn’t stopped payments going out of the account
There’s so much of Ulster managed separately from NatWest/RBS because they have a completely separate IT centre. Therefore, it’s my understanding that they have to replicate the functionality, hence the account range isn’t quite identical.
I can’t remember if I’ve asked this before, but are they the same with savings please? I.e. they don’t downgrade when it drops? Tbh their site says to ‘join’ premier
‘ To join Premier you’ll need one or more of the following:
at least £100k sole income or £120k joint income paid into your NatWest account,
or a minimum of £100k savings or investments held with us,
Not a premier customer, but all I can say is I’ve never heard of someone being downgraded and I know a couple of people personally who have Premier and don’t maintain those requirements. One got it because he (briefly, like for 2 months!) had 2 mortgages, which together took him just over the minimum level.
Debanked, yes - downgraded, no.
YMMV and I would cordially invite anyone with experience (directly or anecdotally) to the contrary to chime in.
Nobody I’ve known personally, but I have seen anecdotal evidence that Natwest have debanked people with and without Premier status. In almost every case it’s been because they have CASSed out mutliple times in a short period, but I have also seen it happen because of repeated applications and also application fraud.
I’m not saying they might debank you for not meeting the criteria.
When I log into my RBS online accounts using my Windows Laptop, I go through 3 layers of security, recently it has started asking for a verification code which it sends to my android phone but instead of just sending a 6 digit text It sends it to my android RBS phone app which involves just one security number to access and this allows me full access to my online banking from my phone, am I correct in thinking this stupid or is there something I’m missing.
I guess the logic would be if there is authorised phone access then they can be confident enough it is you trying to log in on web. If someone else was logging in to your account online they wouldn’t have your phone to get the code regardless of how it was sent to the phone. Sending it via the app would arguably be more secure as it prevents you being a victim of SIM cloning. Same reason Google allows you to complete 2FA by confirming in the YouTube app on your phone.
That does sound right @Norm54 my only thought here is that as many frauds were commited using teamviewer and browsers in the past they added in the need to also authenticate via a phone. I think having to use the app to get your 2FA rather than just a text is more secure as well as it might help against sim swap attacks
I’ve just set up my phone from scratch, and had forgotten how much friction there is when logging in to the RBS app.
Dig out my customer number; input three characters from my password (which is always fun when it’s a random string generated by a password manager - and leaving the app to check it takes you back to the start of the signup process) and three digits from my pin; choose and confirm a 6-digit passcode; enter the 6-digit passcode which I’ve just set; choose to use biometrics instead of my passcode (which, bizarrely, they tell me is the ‘most popular’ option); then opt out of marketing in the app.
I appreciate that there’s a fine line to be trodden between keeping customers’ money secure and making the app easy to access; but in comparison to other banks, RBS always feel like they’re on the wrong side of it.
Signing back into Ulster on my new phone the other week was torturous. Went to close my account and they told me I had to visit a branch. I’m on a different landmass so had to CASS to escape.
On the contrary, I find the Natwest Group ‘new device’ process to be one of the most frictionless - it’s been a while now since I’ve done it but I’ve never had an issue getting in. Inputting an arbitrary length passkey after setting it for the first time is a pretty sensible thing to do IMHO.
No providing ID, no need to handshake from a previously set up device, no separate card reader + PIN, no waiting for codes in the post…
Using a generated password is probably the wrong approach with any provider who asks for certain characters as part of a log in process. Better to use an actual briefly memorable one (even if you have your password manager remember it).