Have a quick look at the list here:
And don’t forget to report back to let us know how it went!
So, mission failed at the door.
Been told that everything is done online these days. They offered to book me a video appointment with a “senior personal banker” who can talk me through the online form, but it very much sounded like it would just be a step by step walkthrough of the form, so I declined.
I expect this will be heavily person-dependent and someone else might have decided to see me in person. And perhaps if I pushed hard enough they would’ve had to assist me as they’re an RBS branch, after all. I regret declining the offer of an appointment a little but after all it’s just an almost impossible to obtain card design, so not worth the hassle really!
Yet if Bezos rocked up, I wonder if he’d have been turned away at the door.
Unfortunately, to do this you have to be using their biometric authentication so it’s not as useful as it might first appear - I’m not going to be lining up my phone to my face and blinking at it in public, just to check my PIN!
If they had allowed it to use system Face ID, it would be so much better.
Why not do that and then require new devices to be authorised by their own biometric system? That way, it’s a physical check that it really is the account holder on device setup; after that, you can treat the phone as a “trusted device” since it’s already been verified. Further checks using system Face ID can then be sufficient unless the app detects that biometrics have been changed on the device - in which case, it can require another check to compare against RBS biometric data.
The way they are doing it now seems no more secure but way more hassle.
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Tag us for this, @dudesuper1982.
Whilst the list looks fulsome, it seems that many of their updates are features long-held by other banks.
And @Seb‘s observations merely accentuate the gap between them and others. A shame.
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Their biometric authentication system is great at taking disgusting photos of me, which bothers me significantly
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I mean, in a pinch it’d be fine though right? This is only a problem if you forget your PIN, which isn’t something you should be doing between regular transactions…
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It causes me problems too. I’m not confident with how I look and I can’t bear the facial identification system. I won’t use it. If only it could do something similar to Apple’s FaceID where it doesn’t actually show you your face each time you use it.
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They could and should use FaceID
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There’s an obvious reason why they haven’t though, isn’t there…
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Not really? On other platforms they could use Touch ID or equivalent
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The whole point is it’s an additional layer of protection on top of what you use to access the app. If Face ID was ever compromised, a bad actor would be able to access the app but would not be able to proceed further than the proprietary check.
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How would Face ID ever get compromised?
I’d trust Apple’s security over RBS, to be honest.
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If my facial layout via a 3D map scanning of my face with IR, has been stolen to bypass my Face ID, I can assure you the RBS equivalent will also be fooled
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Well, now they have your assurance I expect RBS will get right on it.
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You’d need to pass both, that’s the whole point. It also means in the case of a bad actor registering with their own details (as we have seen in those recent gym theft cases) they would have to register an image of their own face with the bank.
In general the notion that any check is completely secure and unbreakable is dangerous. The Titanic was described as unsinkable throughout its construction and service career…
If Face ID were compromised, I suspect this would not be the vector by which it was achieved.
As above, if the Face ID check passes, all the bank sees is that Face ID happened and was accepted. If the proprietary check fails, they see an image of both the registered face and the authorised face, which no doubt could be used as evidence in any fraud investigation.
Apart from a software bug, the basic fact is that you can register more then one Face ID to a phone.
I have my face registered on both my parents iPhones for instance…
The NatWest/RBS solution would prevent me from making large transactions on their account…
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That isn’t Face ID being compromised though.
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