NatWest Reviews 7,961

I’m writing this as part of processing the experience. Years ago, I invested almost all my savings into an online investment platform after conducting thorough research and monitoring it closely.

Problems arose during the withdrawal stage. Minor delays turned into extended restrictions, and support responses did not provide clarity. Months of uncertainty followed.

After trying various avenues, I learned about 𝘃͟𝗲͟𝗿͟𝗶͟ 𝘁͟𝗿͟𝗮͟𝗶͟𝗹͟ 𝗶͟𝗻͟𝘁͟𝗲͟𝗹͟. Their communication was realistic and transparent. With time and persistence, my funds were recovered. The experience permanently changed my perspective on digital investments.

I've had a few issues depositing cheques via the app lately,I constantly get error messages about camera out of focus ( 200MP Camera that takes great photos ) or the phone is not directly above the cheque or. something else..the app is not fit for purpose .
I've contacted Customer support who suggested I visit my nearest branch which is only a hours drive away when I said that was too far they said they would get a complaints handler to contact me, that was 14 days ago and no contact since , the cheque was paid into a different bank account on the same phone without issue.
I had another cheque to pay in today and faced the same issues so I have switched my account to First direct , the switch was quick and easy and I was able to deposit the cheque with the First Direct app in a few minutes.
Good riddance NotWest and your dreadful app and lack of customer service.

Stay Away from this bank!

This is how their awful customer service works..

I chat to an AI Bot tell them my problem
I get a autoreply to say someone will respond 'within 1 hour'
I get a notification on my app
The notification tells me to speak to an AI bot to see the message
The message isn't helpful then I reply
REPEAT

This bank used to be good for customer service

Deceitful. I had a Sainsbury's credit card which NatWest took over. I cleared the Sainsbury's card and was assured twice over the phone by their customer services that after the takeover date any balance transfer minimum payments would be the customary 1%. It was a challenging financial period for me so the 1% was important. They then charged me 2.25% and refused to go to the stated 1%. Now just waiting until I can pay them off and will never use NatWest ever again.

Arrogant self serving organisation
Demise cannot come soon enough
Managers are truly clueless

I am sure that my view is shared by many.
I’ve just tried to contact a branch of the bank and find that it is no longer possible to actually speak to anyone but an automated system

I bought something at the end of November and have been trying to return it for a refund since the middle of December.

By January I'd had enough so I got NatWest involved to do a charge back. Frankly, they've been as bad if not worse than Debehams, the retailer I bought from in the first place.

You have to make the request via the app, including the items, the price, the amount you're charging back, and typing out the whole ridiculous ordeal.

Then they email you a few days later and ask you to type it all out again and send them evidence of all the communication with you trying to resolve the issue with the retailer.

I sent them this, and a week later they said I'd already had a refund. The refund was for the lights, which I had already explained I had been refunded for, and was not the item I was disputing, or even the amount I was charging back for. I not only explained this in my own message to them, as requested, it was also very clearly what happened from all the emails I sent between myself and Debenhams.

Then they asked me to send all the evidence. All the evidence I'd already sent them.

Then they said I needed to show that I had asked to return the item and provide proof. Proof I already sent them in all the emails between me and the retailer, where I had asked 6 or 7 separate times to return the item.

Funnily enough there is no phone number to speak to anyone about this either. They tell you to call the number on the back of your bank card. Then you speak to a member of another team that has no idea what you're on about because it's not their job or their department and they have no access to the case or what's going on or any way to put you through to the actual people you need to talk to.

Then that person says they'll get someone to call you back from the right department, and they either don't do so, or they do so, once, without any warning, a week and a half after they were meant to call you, and they leave a message which is so poor quality and mumbled I couldn't make out a word they were saying. The message could have been from a drunken stranger or my long lost uncle for all I could make out.

I'm self employed. At this point, I've probably wasted well over £300 in unpaid time when I should have been working but I was actually fart ar*ing around with a bunch of complete morons to get my 35 f*ing quid back for a sh*tty effing xmas tree. FML and F Debenahms and NatWest too. And F Christmas while I'm at it as well.

Pathetic people waste of time don’t want to do their jobs just shows how the country is a mess absolute dog shit

Sadly there are 2 occasions where experience was a absolute joke.
I have accounts with natwest both personal and business as well as my wife. For years we were very happy with them until now.
First was application for another business account. Not only it felt like I have to begg for it, questions I was asked upon application make me feel that I'm already committing crime or fraud. I have gone to another bank which with few reasonable questions, opened account within a week. After this I have explained my dissatisfaction to natwest and asked them to cancel application and removal of all my data I have shared with them in order to apply. No apologise, nothing. Just cancelled and not even let me know if data was deleted
2nd situation was online business verification. We got to the point I was restricted from account and had to ring them to help me to unblock my account because questions they asked required solicitor or a law literate person to understand. I was unable to pay people for the work. Business banking with closed lines on Saturday and Sunday? They have set up purpose phone line to help people with questions they asking themselves proof that most people can't do it themselves.
Honestly considering moving banks
Such a disappointment Natwest.

I switched my current account for an incentive of £200.00 and each time I made contact I was assured switch had taken place and incentive will be recieved within 28 days when in actual fact they had failed to actually, switch my account and instead an account opened. When I tried to transfer my own monies back to previous account, not only did they try to restrict my transfer, I had to allow camera to take my picture each and every time in order to proceed and was repetively provided incorrect aacount related information. This has to be "THE WORST" bank ever, wasted hours and hours of my time processing and phone calls with customer services constantly providing incorrect and misinformation. I'm relieved to have revertedback to my previous Santander account. The incentive was merely a deception & to cheat you to have you transfer over. HIGHLY ADVICE" DONT WASTE EVEN A SECOND OF YOUR TIME, NOT WORTH IT.

Any links you click through emails are also monitored and data stored

I think the Sainsburys credit card transferred to NATWEST will have to be closed pretty soon aswell, its not worth the stress.

I am one of the migrants from Sainsburys and am now the proud owner of a Natwest credit card which is supposed to be contactless but on even small transactions I have to chip and pin. This morning I tried to buy an item online for the princely sum of £1.49 and not only did they decline the transaction - they froze my card! Hello? I've reverted to my Amex card and only use the Sainsburys one where AMEX is not accepted. And so much faffing around on the website AND the app simultaneously. For god's sake Natwest get your act together and stop being paranoid

All I needed was replacement card that I never received. Tried the cora "help" and they come back within 3 hours in the middle of the night - suppose I should have stayed up for hours waiting. No push notifications received. Then there's an error with Cora. Then online there is "system issues" to order a new card. Whatsapp can't help. Telephone options get you through to the wrong people. Just rubbish and frankly will be moving my business to an online bank as they know how to do customer service.

Trying to open a Business Banking account is like trying to have a conversation with children. It can only be done online and it takes forever because after answering the stuff you would expect they continually delay the process by sending through an inane query week by week. I had to laugh at their latest logo ‘Tomorrow Begins Today’.

Joke of a company.

Recently applied to open a community bank account for our voluntary litter picking group and because my mum has an account with Natwest and I gave Lasting Power of Attorney over her account I thought it would make applying easier. Wrong.

They strung me along asking various ridiculous questions such as what my business is (they knew it was a voluntary community account so there is no company type), how much revenue would it generate including profit (it is a not for profit as they knew so no profit), how many transactions (no idea), what exactly would we spend any money on (not their business what we spend money provided by other businesses who offer cash and we wouldn't tell them each time we buy litterpickers or vi vis jackets, the council that provided the grant we were given (it was a well known national company).

We couldn't complete this application and we have now gone to HSBC which we are still in the process of our application.

I should never have suggested trying Natwest as they previously completely messed up sorting out the Lasting Power of Attorney for my mum's account and they ended up paying out compensation of around £150 for their incompetence.

Avoid Natwest and go elsewhere.

I thought

Tried to log in from desktop. The system is asking if I want to authenticate my identity, BUT not telling me how. So I ask Cara and NONE of my questions provide an answer so my reply was FORGET IT. Been with them for 40 years. Service was terrible when they had branches in my area but they have now been closed, one by one. WHY can't I rate them ZERO?

NatWest demonstrated a complete lack of competence, professionalism, and basic respect throughout my mortgage switch and remortgage.
I was repeatedly given incorrect and contradictory information, subjected to unnecessarily long delays, cancelled appointments at last minute notice, and dealt with by staff who neither understood their own processes nor appeared to care about the financial consequences of their failures. The tone throughout was dismissive and obstructive.
NatWest’s actions directly caused thousands of pounds in avoidable financial loss.
There was no accountability, no ownership, and no meaningful attempt to put things right.
I have since moved my mortgage elsewhere. The contrast in competence and customer care is stark.
This is not a lender I would ever trust again, and I would strongly advise others to look elsewhere if you don't want to be left seriously out of pocket through their sheer incompetence.

AVOID!!!!!!!!!
Shockingly diabolical banking service.
No communication
Unable to access any banking information.
Ridiculous barriers,
Incorrect information.
Unhelpful staff
I've been with them 4 years for a mortgage and I counting down the days to leave.
I have yet to access any of my information due to constant barriers.
They cant even add my mobile number to my account or send me a secure activation code online or via my phone. It has to come in the post in 3-5 working days. Are you joking me !!!!!
I'm so angry and frustrated!!
New management is required and massive review of the service. Its clearly reflected and evidenced on your customer reviews. Start listening Natwest otherwise you won't last much longer .

If zero was an option I would take it.

Abysmal experience with my short time with them.
Opened a casual small account just to begin tallying some direct debits.
Had some issues where I needed to get bank details.

Requested to see the manager, got flat ignored.
Wrote a letter, got flat ignored again.
The tellers were nice enough, But higher management are OBVIOUSLY so busy in their 1980's decor branch that how dare I come in and request 10 minutes of their time.

Foolish me.

Called the helpline, had to wrestle an early 2000's automated voiceline to get through to an actual human, who also yet again. Had a snake tounge and sent not a single one of the documents they promised.

Overall a snotty, lazy, pre-historic, miserable, little bank incompetant on every single front.

There is many switch bonuses going on right now, so guess im going to get paid to leave :)

Why did Nat West have to buy Sainsburys credit card business and ruin what was an excellent bank.
I have a new Nat West Sainsburys credit card which is constantly declined for on line transactions despite plenty of credit limit available and me paying my card in full monthly.
7 weeks ago I raised a complaint received a complaint reference and have constantly chased for help / responses only to receive another automated email advising my complaint would be forwarded to the person dealing with it. I have even called into the local Nat West Bank and they can't understand why transactions are being declined.
I have now had a parking fine as they declined the payment and didn't even tell me, my gym. Membership has been declined 8 times so now thats cancelled. I have never experienced such appalling lack of service.
My last call a week ago I was advised by a very helpful agent who couldn't understand why on line payments were declined and was going to escalate as a matter of urgency to a supervisor, todate i haven't heard a thing.
Well done Nat West for buying a successful business and ruining it so quickly, be interesting to see how many Sainsburys customers have stop using the card.