New RBS Debit Card Design

WillPS

jackjones01 said:

It looks like the credit cards have changed too. 

Strange notch. Natwest Group credit cards look awful, hope they are changed soon.

[Deleted User]

WillPS said:

[Deleted User] said:

Will they actually issue this? I doubt it. At least for now. 

How come? They seem to be bringing the entire brand in-line with Natwest, makes some sense for the debit cards to be included in that.

Hopefully Child's and Drummond's continue to have their own.

They just spent heaps of money on the shed. I don’t see why they’d have done that if this rebrand was in the pipeline. I expect that if the design is changing it’ll be more of a soft launch when the sheds run out. 

Ordered a replacement card in any case. If it’s the new one I may also replace Child’s and Drummond just to test. 

WillPS

[Deleted User] said:

WillPS said:

[Deleted User] said:

Will they actually issue this? I doubt it. At least for now. 

How come? They seem to be bringing the entire brand in-line with Natwest, makes some sense for the debit cards to be included in that.

Hopefully Child's and Drummond's continue to have their own.

They just spent heaps of money on the shed. I don’t see why they’d have done that if this rebrand was in the pipeline. I expect that if the design is changing it’ll be more of a soft launch when the sheds run out. 

Ordered a replacement card in any case. If it’s the new one I may also replace Child’s and Drummond just to test. 

I don't think any of these card designs cost much at all in the scheme of things, and even if they had I'm not sure you can expect rational long term decisions to be made like that. How many branches of RBS in England were done up in 2016-2019? A fair few, and now they're all gone - not just no longer present/up to date; gone, useless investments.

Wilt

WillPS said:

[Deleted User] said:

WillPS said:

[Deleted User] said:

Will they actually issue this? I doubt it. At least for now. 

How come? They seem to be bringing the entire brand in-line with Natwest, makes some sense for the debit cards to be included in that.

Hopefully Child's and Drummond's continue to have their own.

They just spent heaps of money on the shed. I don’t see why they’d have done that if this rebrand was in the pipeline. I expect that if the design is changing it’ll be more of a soft launch when the sheds run out. 

Ordered a replacement card in any case. If it’s the new one I may also replace Child’s and Drummond just to test. 

I don't think any of these card designs cost much at all in the scheme of things, and even if they had I'm not sure you can expect rational long term decisions to be made like that. How many branches of RBS in England were done up in 2016-2019? A fair few, and now they're all gone - not just no longer present/up to date; gone, useless investments.

Yup in MK they had to close an RBS branch just before the pandemic because the building was being demolished, so they closed one of the two NatWest branches nearby to turn it into an RBS. Then closed the new RBS branch last year when it was decided there would be no more English RBS branches.

In large companies it's very common for one hand to not know/care what the other hand is doing, so I can easily see how a project to refresh the RBS cards could happen just before a wider group project to harmonise the brands is kicked off.

[Deleted User]

Replacement card is a shed in Apple Pay so…

Lions_89

gsmh said:

Lions_89 said:

I thought it was a NatWest card. Can’t be long left for RBS as a brand.

The Royal Bank of Scotland will stay around as a brand, but not RBS. They often refer to themselves as 'The Royal Bank' rather than the rather tarnished RBS. They issue banknotes in Scotland and the Scottish association is important in the 'home' country. Clydesdale and Yorkshire banks had almost exactly the same website with only the words Clydesdale and Yorkshire replacing each other, a different colour scheme and a couple of pages where the focus was on Scotland or England, depending on the brand. One was cbonline.co.uk and the other ybonline.co.uk - those sites are actually still active. The core infrastructure can be the same, but with different branding. Lloyds has kept the Bank of Scotland brand even though the online banking also shows Halifax account details and vice versa. The complication would be to run two completely different infrastructures. Not so long ago I wasn't able to service my RBS account in a NatWest branch, in recent years I can. Recently I made a complaint to RBS and it was dealt with, and I was compensated by, NatWest.

Companies often find it useful to retain brands - look at how many brands on the high street are owned by just a few huge companies, yet they've kept the brand names. It can make commercial sense.

NatWest stated this, but I can’t help feeling the long term aim is to let go off RBS. It’s happened a few with other companies.

gsmh

Lions_89 said:

NatWest stated this, but I can’t help feeling the long term aim is to let go off RBS. It’s happened a few with other companies.

It costs very little in the grand scheme of things to keep a brand alive. Make everything else the same (which is what they're doing) but keep the front end as The Royal Bank and NatWest. Politically it would be a very bad idea to get rid of the Royal Bank of Scotland brand and they would lose far more than they would gain. Remember, many of us have Drummonds and Child & Co accounts. That's just branding and it costs them very little to keep those brands going. Even Virgin Money keeps the Clydesdale brand alive, though it's no longer customer facing. It is the parent company and it issues bank notes in Scotland. That alone is very prestigious - think of the advertising. Imagine if companies could pay to advertise on banknotes. They'd pay rather a lot for the privilege!

flaneurs_lobster

WillPS said:

jackjones01 said:

It looks like the credit cards have changed too. 

Strange notch. 

I believe the notch is an orientation aid for those with sight impairment, common on cards now that raised type is becoming rare.

Rawrzy

To be honest I prefer the beach hut, so I'm in no rush to get a new card, lol.

WillPS

flaneurs_lobster said:

WillPS said:

jackjones01 said:

It looks like the credit cards have changed too. 

Strange notch. 

I believe the notch is an orientation aid for those with sight impairment, common on cards now that raised type is becoming rare.

Yes indeed, normally dot patterns are used to differentiate tho, never seen a differently shaped notch (although I can imagine it's much easier to feel the difference).