News

Royal Bank of Scotland to restrict customers' access to ATMs

August 17, 2011

Totally Money reports that the taxpayer-owned Royal Bank of Scotland has announced it will stop its basic account holder customers from being able to use rival ATMs.

RBS, which incurs a fee each time one of its customers uses another bank’s ATM, will restrict access for the one million people who hold a basic account with the bank. Basic accounts include those that otherwise might not be eligible to hold a bank account and do not include overdraft protection or a checkbook.

Once the change goes into effect, basic account holders will only be able to withdraw money from RBS, NatWest, Tesco or Morrisons ATMs, or at post office branches.

“Although there are still nearly a million people without bank accounts, the banking sector has been working hard to steadily reduce this figure. Short-sighted moves like this will only help to reverse the good work that has been done. People living in rural areas deserted by bank branch closures may not have the option of other ATMs nearby,” said Marie Burton, financial inclusion expert at Consumer Focus.

RBS provides about 8,000 ATMs in the UK and said that its basic account holders will still be able to withdraw cash from 20,000 ATMs around the country.

“It is unsustainable for us to offer free access to other bank ATMs for basic accounts as we face a charge per bank transaction, which needs to be recovered elsewhere," RBS said in a statement.

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