Royal Bank of Scotland Internet Banking www.rbsdigital.co.uk Review

Overall Rating

Very simple and clearly laid out and easy to use.
Speed
Uptime
All accounts (Current, ISA, Savings, Credit Card) in same format.
Ability to rename account names to more friendly names.
Easy to remember login.

Why does it show cancelled DDs and Standing orders for so long?
Doesn't allow you to do everything (e.g. no ordering of new card PIN, no downgrade of account...etc)
Always seems to be more screens than strictly necessary.

RBS is a pretty good on-line banking tool. It gives clear info, is nearly always fully up to date. I like the fact I get all my accounts in this one tool. I log in and use it a lot.

Uptime is very impressive - I've never not been able to log in and occasionally I see messages saying it'll be down from midnight Sunday until 4am Monday for maintenance - suits me I won't need it then!

Speed is also very good - always quick to log on and navigate.

Login is good and easy - a meaningful login id rather than an impossible to remember 10 digit random number like some groups. They're recently moved to a new login technology using a code generator calculator style piece of equipment but thankfully haven't made it mandatory (as I wouldn't be able to access website from work then unless I carried it with me). But it's there for the security minded.

While on the subject of security: it takes 1 username (which cannot be auto remembered by IE at least) and random digits from a passcode plus random letters from a password to logon (all of which you type rather than choose from a drop down like some websites, so technically I suppose it could be keylogged). It also tells you when you last logged on so that's useful, however there is no previous login history in the site. It also logs out after 10 mins (though you can disable this if you want). All in all the security suits me and it strikes a good balance between useability and feeling secure. More paranoid people may want some of the missing features I've suggested, but less compute literate my want less features.

There are a few niggles (e.g. showing old Direct Debits even if cancelled over a year ago) and some things that could be done better: 3 login screens seems excessive and that is a theme running though out the site. E.g. clicking on Standing Orders screen takes you to a very bare screen allowing you to choose whether to add a new Standing order, or vew current ones - why? There is a direct link to either screen but it all seems like it could be in one screen with a list of current Standing Orders with a "New Standing Order" button at the top?.

I would also say in general it could be improved a little to give a more complete banking experience - For example I've no idea of interest rates I'm getting/paying and have to go searching on a different site to see this (though this may be more reflective of RBS' poor rates so may be intentional. There's also been a few things I can't do on the site (recently I decided to downgrade from the premium service as I didn't think I was getting anywhere the value for what I was paying) but unsurprisingly they only allow you to upgrade. I also couldn't order a new PIN for my debit card (and can't change it). I would like to be able to contact an account manager for anything not on the site but the only contact details on the site are for IT support only (though there are other links to branches contact details). Finally there also have a new Bill Management Service which looks pretty useful (seems to be a cross bank initiative linked up to (mostly utility) companies at the mo and allows you to see upcoming and outstanding bills...etc). Again this is not integrated into the main site. Just feels to me like a little extra work could give a more complete experience.

They also used to have a slightly useful tool to predict you balance in X days/months/weeks time based on Direct Debits and Standing Orders but they took that away a while back for no real reason as far as I can see. Not a big loose but I used it occasionally.

Always login in with Internet Explorer so no idea how it works on other web browsers.