Bank of Scotland Reviews 

Livingston, went to visit to get cash to pay workmen in house. SHUT!!!!!!!!! No advanced warning despite being in shopping centre weekly - no details on hoarding where nearest Bank of Scotland is - probably because it is about 50 miles away!!!!!!!!!!
2 Branches of Bank of Scotland closed in Livingston.
Time to change to Royal Bank of Scotland - they were open and asked if I could get cash - but only to limit on Bank Card - now trying to up my limit - what a job!!!!!
Despicable service to it loyal customers!!!!!!!
No staff at Branch to discuss.

I have a Bank of Scotland (B of S) credit card.
I lost the card so using the number printed on the back of my monthly statement called to report card lost.
Answering machine asked a few questions about me then asked reason for my call. I said 'lost card'. The voice then asked for card number which I gave.
Then asked me for security code from the back of my card!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I wonder how much B of S paid to have a telephone answering machine that asks a question that can not be answered?
This is the second time I've brought this issue to B of S but nothing has been done to rectify this issue.
If B of S replies to this posting please explain why you are still using a system that does not work?

Waited for 45 minutes online to resolve a declined card with no response.....tried the phone service and after completing the security details was told the line was now closed and promptly hung up on me! Terrible customer service! Perhaps the Bank of Scotland should invest in some paper cups and string as it would be an improvement on their current systems.

Worse than Usless can’t ever speak to someone other than that DAMN AI rubbish! I am sick of it I am moving banks lloyds group is the pits!!!!

What has happened to thd bank of Scotland service? It is utterly diabolical. I use telephone banking and I phoned to set up a bank transfer. I was kept waiting for almost 30 min and the phone was answered by some man I could barely understand that sounded like he was outside. He took all the details and then said he would now have to pass me to a different dept as he could not do it. I explained I had waited half an hour to speak to him and asked how long this would take and he then cut me off. Really shocking service, I am just disgusted with them. Time to look at moving to a different bank after 41 years.

tried a bank switch from nationwide to bank of scotland,received my new account number & sort code,waited & waited for my debit card to arrive,finally told my account was declined!! no explanation(apparently they don't have to) but why give me a account number & sort code in the 1st place?,the switch (thankfully) never happened staying with nationwide who are great at communication,only wanted to switch for the £150 bonus,better the devil you know.!

The Bank of Scotland virtual Agent is absolutely rubbish, where has customers service gone? No idea how I am going to sort my account as they have also recently closed down our local branch. Been with this bank for over 30 years but will definitely be looking at banks now which have good reviews for customer service as Bank of Scotland is so bad now.

The Bank of Scotland imposed a £3600 limit on transfers from our current account without telling us.
My wife has upcoming surgery next week and we had to transfer £12,000 from this account to cover the cost.
The web link to how you could manage this limit didn't work (forbidden 403) using Chrome although we did eventually found that the web page did work on Edge.
The help desk person said he to do this for us, but before he did he cleverley passed us on to the IT help desk.
I don't know why my browser did what it did did but I didn't want to go down the road of clearing my cache to try and sort it.
The problem was not one of IT but how we were treated as loyal customers by imposing this restriction on our account and not initially helping us,
This left us both stressed thinking that the surgery wouldn't take place.
We were informed later that we did receive an email telling us to check a PDF in our online archives regarding the new limit - so they are covered.
Why not just send the PDF in an email to start with, this would at least better ensure that you read it!
All I want to do now, is withdraw all the money we have in accounts with BOS and put it under the bed!
BOS have closed our local branch in Dingwall, and this morning we might as well been talking to an AI chat bot.

I would change banks, but what good would that do, as you'll get treated in a similar manner by all of them.
We've been on the phone for over an hour & 20 minutes trying to raise a complaint.
At the moment the phone is just beeping at me.

Apparently we have been awarded £40 for our inconvenience.

Poor customer service...
Wait 20 minutes to get through...
Why don't they just offer a customer call back service like Amazon do/

Preet: I went to argyle street branch today and met with preet she is so helpful and supportive she helped me to set up online banking and applied for personal loan thank you so much preet.

It was bad enough being interrogated when withdrawing money, even separating me from my wife to see if we gave the same answers.
They’re basically working for the government to bring in a cashless society, which we hate.
Now they’ve closed our branch. Nearest branch 35 minutes drive and we’re both disabled!
I’ve been with them since 1978. I despise them now.

Preet
I visited in branch today and met with preet she is very supportive and friendly she gave me excellent customer service.

⭐ 1 star — Absolutely appalling customer service

I have banked with Bank of Scotland for years. I have my current account with them, my children have savings accounts with them, and I have always kept the accounts mainly because it is convenient having everything together. I have never been particularly impressed with them, but until now I have had no reason to go out of my way to complain.

That has changed.

My son has just turned 12 and has had a Bank of Scotland account since he was very young. I recently decided to open a Smart Start account for him, including the linked savings account and Visa debit card, so that he could start managing his own spending.

Opening the account online was straightforward. Then came the ID verification.

The app asked us to complete the facial verification, where you have to position your face inside an oval. We spent 30–45 minutes trying to get it to recognise my son’s face. It simply wouldn’t work. The ridiculous part was that it would repeatedly take a picture of me, but wouldn’t recognise him.

Fine. The app specifically said that if digital verification didn’t work, I could take his passport into a branch.

So that’s exactly what I did.

I went into the branch with his passport, only to be told that they couldn’t accept it because my 12-year-old son had to be physically present, despite the fact that I am his parent and legal guardian.

Annoying, but fine. We have three children, I work full time and our lives are ridiculously busy, but we made the time and went back to the branch yesterday with my son.

The staff took his passport, scanned it, took his account details and told me everything was sorted. I specifically asked before leaving:

“So that’s everything sorted now? It will all be working?”

I was told yes. I was even told it was an instant process and that we could go to an ATM, use his card and change his PIN.

Great.

Except it wasn’t sorted.

We had already received his card and PIN the previous week and were literally just waiting for the ID verification to be completed. I left it 24 hours and tried transferring some money into his new account.

Error. Please call us. We can’t complete this transaction.

I then went to an ATM. His card accepted the PIN, but when I tried to check the balance, it simply spat the card back out. I tried again and went into Card Management to change the PIN — it spat the card back out again.

So I called Bank of Scotland.

I waited approximately 25 minutes just to get through.

Then I was passed between three different people/departments, having to explain the entire situation from scratch each time. Eventually I was put through to the fraud team.

Why on earth is my 12-year-old son’s account being referred to the fraud team when we’ve followed the verification process, taken his passport into a branch as instructed and had branch staff tell us everything was sorted?

Apparently, there had been an error in the branch. They had taken and scanned everything but hadn’t completed the necessary updates.

So essentially, I had wasted my time going into the branch, my son had wasted his time going into the branch, the problem still wasn’t fixed, and then I spent over an hour and a half on the phone being passed around departments.

And the timing couldn’t be worse.

My son is going away tomorrow, Friday to Monday, with a friend from school. He needs his bank card to pay for things while he’s away. A lot of places at his destination are cashless, and obviously neither me nor his dad will be there with him.

I have absolutely no idea whether his card will actually work or whether this will be resolved in time.

The whole experience has been an absolute shambles from start to finish.

The app’s verification doesn’t work.
The branch gives incorrect information.
The branch makes an error and doesn’t complete the process.
The phone service involves ridiculous waiting times and being passed from department to department.
And nobody seems to actually take ownership of fixing the problem.

This is a 12-year-old child who has banked with you for years. We aren’t asking for anything complicated. We are simply trying to get the debit card you issued him to actually work.

Bank of Scotland should be embarrassed by this level of service.

After years of banking with them, I am now seriously considering moving my accounts and my children’s accounts elsewhere.

Absolutely shocking.

Preet, Argyle Street branch, was very helpful and patient when answering my questions and helping me with advice.
Thank you Preet for your time and support.

Just wanted a quick transaction, but turned out to be a lengthy process, that said ,I understood they were protecting my security..
The staff member, Fraser, however was very helpful and he made the process easier

I have a Visa card from these people announced with a great fanfare in June to replace my Mastercard and which has been active for the last couple of months or so.

When it arrived I tried to update Paypal where I use my credit card to pay but wasn't able to and the Bank of Scotland wanted me to contact me on a old landline that I haven't had for 8 years.

So I contacted them the person I talked to was very helpful but couldn't help me it appeared that the system didn't hold a birthdate for me!! I've had a Credit card with them since I was 18 in 1992 and am sure I had to prove my date of birth then. But somewhere along the line they lost it!!

So I had to go to a branch of Halifax, part of the same group, to get a birthdate put in and to change my telephone number to my current mobile which I'm sure they have but not in their system as my primary and only contact number. This was done but I was not happy that the assistant doing so who seemed to like wandering off with my documentation and credit card without explanation. Most places tell you why they are taking a card or piece of documentation away from your sight. And really I didn't feel welcome more like I was a chore not a person.

Anyway today I tried to use paypal and it asked me to link my card for easier payment I agreed and then the Bank of Scotland wanted me to confirm this by ringing the same 8 year old telephone number. I'll trying ringing them instead but customer loyalty has in my case been tested to the extreme by what can only be said to be incompetence. I do my bit and they do nothing.

I've never had this trouble with Nationwide or Barclays time for a new provider bit of a shame after 44 years but there we go.

This is out of my frustration how so difficult to deal with the bank, they are not competent enough on what to do with bereavement.
My dad went to the bank and ask for the bereavement, and at that time
Since he has issues with the language so he can’t go through the phone call to the bereavement team which as advised will be in the bank. And they advised to go back to any branch once I am there to help him translate but when we went to Gyle Branch, the woman wasn’t even sure about it, at that time she said that we can’t do it with her because we don’t have the physical copy of the death certificate, coz I only have it on my phone, and she advised that we have to do it online with the paper copy so we went home and I did it online, and I follow the steps, attached the funeral invoice, funeral letter and the death certificate which it is just attached form my phone, and I had the copy of the email response that they receive the registration with the reference number, then few days after which is on the 3rd of Sept I received another email that they have received the registration and the documents and they have to check it, so now I want to get an update so I called them and gave the refence number and the guy said they can’t see the death certificate, and my name is not in their system, which is so strange because I provided my details, and it did not say that my dad should be the one to register. Now we have to do it again with my dad on the phone and register his name but my dad is working so we have to find a suitable date for him, this is so frustrated because we don’t know why nobody knows what’s going on and wasted our time and effort and providing us different advices. We are dealing with death and grieving and this is even adding so much stress to deal with the bank which is very appalling how can these people working and very unhelpful and incompetent.

Over one hour being sent around different, incompetent and unprofessional, people.

Waste of time trying to do business with this Bank that does not treat customers with the same respect that they expect from customers

If you want a good bank then go then this is not it. Absolutely horrible support, I've been scammed and when I reached out to support they kept asking me if I was financially stable and if I had any health issues. They we're just asking me the same things over and over so the case didnt get anywhere. They also disregarded most of my responses and when I wanted to make a complaint they were just ignoring the request, leaving me with no choice but to escalate this

I was on a solo holiday in LA and tried to top up my phone credit with EE. I needed to add my new credit and debit cards to my top up account. When I did so, however, both cards were rejected. This is despite having used both cards for most transactions during the previous five days of my trip. I was thinking 'oh well, I'm not going to be able to make any calls now,' when I received a text message from Bank of Scotland to tell me that they were going to cancel my credit card unless I replied to the text! I tried to reply - but I had run out of credit on my phone, and so the reply text would not send! Bank of Scotland CANCELLED MY CREDIT CARD WHILE I WAS ABROAD. Not only that, but I was also unable to use my debit card! I LITERALLY HAD NO ACCESS TO MY OWN MONEY WHILE I WAS ABROAD! I had only forty dollars in cash to see me through two days of meals, a concert I had booked, and my flights home. I tried to contact Bank of Scotland for help, but all the helplines were telephone numbers! And I couldn't call them because I had no credit on my phone. I managed with great difficulty to get onto the messaging service, but this was atrocious. The bot kept me hanging for over an hour, awaiting a human who might be able to help me reinstate my cards, but I had to leave the chat before anyone could be connected to me. I kept trying this service as it was the only thing available to me, and I kept being met with a bot that told me a human would contact me at some point. A human did actually come onto the chat - while I was asleep. I never actually got to chat with a person. I managed to get through the next two days of my holiday and get home without using my debit or credit cards. As soon as I got to Heathrow, I was able to call Bank of Scotland with my Dad's phone (that I had taken with me to record some videos). The credit card was reinstated and debit card apparently hadn't been cancelled - and yet I had been unable to use it (I had tried making purchases and it was rejected each time). I think Bank of Scotland treated me abominably. How could they cause a customer to be stranded abroad with no access to money? I have type 1 diabetes, and not only was I drastically limited in the food available to me, I might have been in a situation where I needed to buy sugar tablets in order to deal with a life threatening hypoglycaemic episode. So, not only might they have ruined a holiday, stranded me abroad, but they might have caused my death! I can no longer trust this company with my safety. I believe I suffered mental distress and I could have suffered physically, and even died because of this irresponsible company. I have never been treated so badly by anyone, let alone my bank, who I should be able to trust. If I could give minus five stars I would. One star implies there is something right. There is nothing right about this ridiculous company who would cut off a solo female disabled traveller and be unavailable to help. What an absolute disgrace.

I would strongly advise people to think twice before opening an account with Bank of Scotland, especially if you travel abroad.

The fees and charges for using your own money overseas are absolutely ridiculous. What should be a straightforward transaction becomes unnecessarily expensive because of the excessive foreign transaction and exchange charges.

It is incredibly frustrating to work hard for your money, keep it in your bank account, and then be charged so much simply for accessing and spending it abroad.

This has made life unnecessarily difficult and stressful. I feel that customers should be given much clearer and fairer charges rather than being hit with unexpected fees.

Never open an account with this bank if you expect to use your money abroad. Very disappointing experience.