RBS Current Account

 RBS offer a selection of accounts from a basic everyday account to make life easier to paid monthly reward accounts.

Their Basic Account offers the following features:

• 24-hour telephone banking and online banking.   
• Emergency money available from ATMs if you forget or lose your card.
• Access to your account at any time with 24 hour call centres, using the mobile app, online banking or by visiting one of 600 branches.
• Apple Pay, a secure way to pay using your Royal Bank of Scotland debit or credit card and Apple device.
• An arranged overdraft with a ten pound buffer.

 Rewards and Offers

1. 3% cashback on household bills

RBS also offer a reward account. It’s worth noting that this account is not available to customers in England and Wales but as NatWest is part of the RBS group they offer the same account to English and Welsh residents.

There are no monthly payments for this account, which makes it a great option for those who are unable to meet the high minimum payment requests of some other accounts. There is, however, a charge per month of £3.

The rewards you can earn on this account are similar to the Santander 123 account in that you can earn cashback on your household bills. As this account is a cheaper option than the Santander account, it’s a great choice for those who pay a lot of household bills out of one account and would like to see some return on that. Although, in order to see any profit on this, you would need to spend over £100 on bills per month in household bills.

The scheme is quite simple, you can automatically earn 3% on seven kinds of household bills, including council tax. As soon as you reach £5 in rewards you can exchange it for £5, which you can convert to money and transfer in to your current account or even use towards your RBS credit card balance.

RBS state that there will be no limits to the rewards you can earn and on average customers can earn around £120 per year in rewards.

2. You are also able to exchange the rewards for gift cards or codes to spend at selected UK retailers or donate to one of four charities.

You can earn your ‘rewards’ on the following bills when you pay by Direct Debit from your Reward Bank Account; council tax, mobile, landline, TV package, gas, electricity and broadband.

However, they don’t allow you to earn rewards on payments to organisations such as insurance providers, repairs or home maintenance.

Other Useful Information

• If you go overdrawn without having an arranged overdraft (or if you go over your agreed limit), then you may be charged an unarranged overdraft Usage Fee of £6 per day if you go past the £10 buffer and an unpaid Transaction Fee of £6 for each transaction not paid.
• It’s worth noting that no interest is paid on either of these accounts for in-credit balances.

Overall the basic bank account is a very good option for those who want a standard bank account.

The Reward Account is a great account for cashback and with no minimum monthly pay-in, it is a cheaper option than other current accounts. The £3 a month charge would be covered by your rewards if you take full advantage of the offer.