RBS Online banking needs approval with mobile app every time.

confederated

Today I'm finding that the Royal Bank of Scotland online banking requires me to authenticate with the mobile app every single time I try to login. It used to be the case the mobile authentication was only required when using a new browser.

Is anyone else seeing this? If it's a new thing, it's annoying enough for me to move my account elsewhere.

booneruk

Are you clearing cookies or using incognito/private sessions? If so, try not doing that.

Also if you're using a VPN try without that.

confederated

No, I do none of those things, and it has only started happening today. Maybe it's a blip.

Thank you for your suggestions.

friolento

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6682162/rbs-online-banking-needs-approval-with-mobile-app-every-time

I normally use the app, and if I use online banking, it sometimes asks me for approval in the app. Tried it just now - first login I needed to use the app, with biometric approval. Second login went straight through. I used a Chrome browser both times, on same laptop. May be because the two logins were within 2 minutes?

confederated

Interestingly I had a call from RBS fraud department yesterday evening - they wanted to verify a few transactions and had blocked my card in the meantime. All the transactions were genuine and my card was unblocked. This morning I'm not having the app authentication issue. Fingers crossed it was that which caused the problem.

I prefer to use online banking when at home, and digital banking when out and about. I absolutely can't stomach choosing to use online banking then having to log in to digital banking to authorise the online banking session. I might as well have use digital banking in the first place. Any bank that makes this workflow permanent is history for me.

friolento

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82126217#Comment_82126217

it’s quite normal, and very secure, to use an app for 2FA. It protects you from issues like keyloggers, and other fraud attempts. A great improvement, too, over card readers.

confederated

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82126381#Comment_82126381

I'd be happy using an authenticator app, I am not opposed to 2FA, but when I make a decision to use the online banking service on my computer, rather than the mobile app, it's because I don't want to use the digital banking app on my phone. That's my decision. Then I am required to use the app anyway to authenticate. I chose the online service for goodness sake!

Currently it's not requiring me to authenticate with the mobile app so I'm happy with that.

friolento

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82126467#Comment_82126467

Using an authenticator app is slightly more cumbersome, and possibly less secure, than using the company's banking app, as you have to type in a 6 digit number. Unless you have protected login to your authenticator app, anyone with access to your phone can use it, whilst access to your banking app always requires logging in.

confederated

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82126529#Comment_82126529

I use the Aegis authenticator app and it is set to require biometric authorisation to access. I use it for a range of sites. As I've pointed out, my issue isn't with 2FA, it's with forcing me to use the very mobile app I have purposefully chosen not to to use. I'd even prefer a physical keylogger to that shenanigans. It undermines my choice.

flaneurs_lobster

Seems that you view the two methods of accessing your RBS accounts as isolated access methods from which you pick your required one for a particular function.

RBS won't see it like that, they will consider the two access methods as complementary and linked, and will try to use the superior security inherent in the mobile app to enhance the robustness of their web-based access.

No idea if this relationship/use is written into the T&Cs for the app, I suspect that if you object so vehemently to being forced to spend extra seconds confirming your ID on the app then you might have to consider not using it at all.

confederated

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82126612#Comment_82126612

You're right. I have two methods of accessing my account, on my mobile through the app, or on my computer through the web. I, and only I, make the choice of which method I wish to use and I will not be forced to use the method I have deliberately not chosen in order to authenticate to web access. I feel very strongly about this and if it were made mandatory I would indeed switch to another bank. It's all about the UX.