I had an activation code by SMS within 48 hours fairly recently at Ulster.
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It’s insane. But most people never do it.
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When someone does actually decide to bother opening a new account, though, it’s a major opportunity to impress them!
This separate Digital Banking card may have something to do with the Visa and Mastercard debit card switch, and is possibly being sent in cases where a Mastercard debit card hasn’t been issued but a customer also has no Visa card? All the old internet banking stuff was obviously set up on Visa systems, so it could be that, and there may have been a delay in sending out your Mastercard - causing this to be issued as a fallback. Otherwise, I’ve only seen these kinds of cards for business users who don’t/can’t have debit cards but need to log in to online banking.
It reminds me a bit of when some banks used to issue separate ATM and debit cards.
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There is a link to “enable card reader” in the security page of internet banking. You have to use that once and then everything should work.
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Well my mastercard arrived today and it works (including using the nationwide card reader as the only thing i now havent received is the rbs card reader).
Still not sure of why i received the digital banking card but as i say it works. I did receive everythinf else by text or email to enable me to set up the banking app and o line access straight adter applying.
Having to use a card reader to approve transactions over £1000 is a bit of an inconvenience but i do get the positive effect it must have on fraud.
As an aside i like the visual picture on the RBS card but so many different pins, passcodes, customer numbers just makes it a bit urrrgh for me personally. Just need to patiently wait for the £175 switching bonus and then ill be off somewhere else as i cant see myself wanting to use this account much due to the friction (even doing a transfer from the monzo app using open banking to transfer across from RBS required a card reader authentication code) so cant imagine trying to do that when out and about!!!
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You don’t have to if you enable biometric authentication in the RBS app (which you will be able to do about a week after installing and activating the app).
As @N26throwaway says, all of this (except for the authentication card, which I suspect was produced due to a delay in you having a debit card produced because of the manual nature of your application and, possibly, because Child & Co has only just switched to Mastercard so it may be precautionary in case of Mastercard-issuing delays or issues in the early stages) was standard back in the old days of circa 5 to 10 years - loosely speaking, the “pre-fintech age”! Back when I applied, the “old form” was just the standard application, because it was so long ago, and all of this stuff did happen.
Notifications for things like your mobile number “being changed” are just RBS setting up a customer profile and attaching your mobile number to it manually - which, once processed, automatically triggers a change notification notification text.
The idea of “activating” the card reader is also, actually, a good idea as it allows you to use basic functions of internet banking while you wait for the card reader to arrive - so it’s quite useful, in fact. Barclays are similar with security delays on setup.
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Just spotted the biometrics authorisation setting in the app but yes it wont let me enable at the moment. That is definitely a much easier experience than relying on a card reader.
I should point out i got a standard RBS card (not the Child & co branded one another user mentioned).
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Applied online via the rbs website for a switch to the rbs select account woth a beach hut branded card.
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What’s your sort code, out of interest?
16-24-06
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That is just a standard RBS England sort code (all Scottish sort codes are in the 80s), so to be expected. You only get a special branded card at Child & Co, Drummonds or Holt’s Military Banking as they are unique brands with their own sort codes.
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When RBS count “days” they really, generally speaking, mean “overnight runs of their batch processing” - and it doesn’t run on a weekend or, possibly, a Friday night.
Sometimes it also doesn’t run due to software updates or other issues, so processes are delayed.
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It should be fully activated with no restrictions once you have used the “enable card reader” function with any card reader.
That function really just switches it to the mode where the system expects you to have a card reader, rather than the restricted mode.
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I’ve got a drawer with at least 10 in it. Just had a look at them and it looks like the battery has run out in the oldest ones.
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Feel free to disregard this but genuinely interested into why you’ve gone down the card
Reader route, which I presume wasn’t intentional.
I’ve had a NatWest account for a while but haven’t had to use a card reader for some time.
I appreciate this is a RBS thread but I thought they used the same systems even if they were branded differently.
I switched a spare account to Nat West a couple of years ago for the bonus and they also insisted on sending me a card reader.
In fact, when it arrived, it produced invalid codes and they had to send me a completely new debit card.
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Interesting.
It’s possible things have long changed (been with the same banking group for some time) but good luck with your account.
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Nice
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Just opened my RBS account and definitely like it.
I do actually like their whole “outdoors” theme for their imagery as I find it quite relaxing (e.g. their cards, email, shown below).
There are some features that currently aren’t working but I assume that is because I only just opened the account. The only thing that does seem to be an issue is adding the card to Google Pay as I’m apparently meant to be able to do this before I get the physical card, but every time I try, it says I have a Wi-Fi issue.
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