Can't get RBS to CLOSE my account

I had less than 20 pounds left in a savings account at Royal Bank of Scotland when we left in 2020. I have tried to close the account by phone, but as I don't have the passwords any longer, they say they cannot. But then say to use online banking. Which I cannot actually log into. I have written twice to the bank manager at the branch (Byres Road, Glasgow) asking that they please close this account, provided copies of my passport in the letter, and have received no reply. I wrote to a central address given on their web page as the contact for closing savings accounts. No response.  Once again, I've gotten an email from RBS that my statement is available online.  As I have not got the passwords, I can't review it. I also can't get any of that information by phoning them.

Every year when I file my IRS taxes I'm having to include a Schedule B form because I technically still have an overseas bank account. I have no idea what to do next - they won't close it, they won't even respond to my letters. Ideas on how to get them to shut the damned thing?  I have asked for a bank check/cashier's check sent to the address they do have on file for me here in the USA (which is correct).  I've suggested that if they can't do that if they could please transfer the remaining 20 pounds to a local charity. Or set it on fire. I no longer care, I just want the damned account closed so I don't have to keep reporting a Schedule B to the IRS every freaking year!

Presumably the forgotten digital banking details reset doesn’t work?
Have you tried asking to speak to tech support as opposed to the savings account people?

Failing that I would lodge a complaint,  it will then be passed up at least a level.

Good luck!

Because I don't use a smartphone, I can't use their apps.

Previously, to access the account, I would insert my debit card into a small device they sent to me that would generate a security code. I would then have to enter both my banking password (which is long forgotten) and the security code.  I have neither the debit card nor the code-generating device.

I checked my records again, and actually there is less than 50 pence in the account. I just spoke to their "help" on twitter and they are saying that the balance has to be zero before they will close it, and want me to provide my US banking info so that they can transfer the funds. Which will cost me more in incoming bank fees (by quite a lot) than 50 pence!

I have written to the branch twice. I have written to their account closure address. I have had NO response from either entity.

I would happily transfer the "less than 50 pence" to a charity, if I had the applicable bank numbers to provide to RBS. I just want it shut.

Since neither the branch nor the account closure department has responded, do you have an idea to whom I would address the complaint?

What a pain in the neck.

https://www.rbs.co.uk/support-centre/how-to-complain/complaints-contacts.html

I just staggered onto Twitter, and managed to connect with them again. They also insist they can't close the account while there is ANY money in it. So they sent me info on how to re-register for online banking and told me to transfer the funds out and then it could be closed. I got all the way to the last step and clicked "enter" and it came back with "the system is unavailable at this time". So sorry.

I also learned from the subsequent Twitter agent that because this is the only account I have with RBS, I CANNOT close it online. It has to be done via letter or in person. So I have recopied the letter I sent last year, which was a variation of the one from the prior year. In this one I listed the bank info of a charity that I found online and have asked that any funds remaining in the account be transferred to that entity. The Twitter agent assures me that this can be done, and then the account will be closed.

Considering phone banking told me I could only close the account via online banking, and the website says it can be done by letter (three sent so far), and none of that has panned out, I am willing to try one more time via letter. I will probably also simultaneously send a complaint to their "Customer Relations" manager in Birmingham.

Seriously, this has become a real pain in the ars*.   

I also asked if they could confirm the balance for me, and they said they couldn't unless I was able to log into online banking.

Of freaking course.


[EDIT:   I was finally able to get into online banking. There's 36 pence in the account. AND there is no way to transfer funds out of that type of account in online banking or to close the account online. Big "NO YOU CAN'T FROM THIS TYPE OF ACCOUNT" banner lights up on the page when I try to transfer the 35p.  A somewhat snarky letter is going out to RBS Customer Service in Birmingham in the morning. I don't expect to hear anything from them, either. But it's due diligence.]

You are going to love this. The RBS group have been in the papers for a while...for closing customers bank accounts when they didn't want them closed.

This article from May 2020
https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/saving/article-8326065/Bank-customers-insist-theyre-victims-Kafkaesque-injustice.html

https://inews.co.uk/inews-lifestyle/money/saving-and-banking/natwest-robbed-me-account-closures-dog-one-of-britains-biggest-banks-uk-2-1064776

The Royal Bank of Scotland is "state owned" (as stated in the links) as they ran out of money and the then government decided to bail them out with billions of taxpayers money, that has still not been repaid.
October 2018
https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/royal-bank-of-scotland-bailout-10-years-and-counting/

The RBS group changed their name in July 2020 to the Nat West Group.
https://www.rbs.com/rbs/about/update-on-parent-name.html

Yeah, I had been reading that. It didn't make it any easier to have to deal with their customer service people.

Because I had written to them asking to have the account closed last year, I had it in my mind that it had been done as I'd heard absolutely nothing from them, not even the annual statement. So I filed my income taxes - without a Schedule B stating I had control over a foreign bank account.

Several days later I received an email notice that my annual statement from RBS was available online, that I could access in their online banking system. The account had not been closed.

Which meant I had to phone the IRS to ask what to do. Since it's before the tax filing deadline I'm not in any trouble, but I had to file an amended tax return with Schedule B attached. Which means manual processing and a paper check. And which will delay my refund by anywhere from four to six months. It's s sizable refund. FOR 36 PENCE WITH RBS.

Thanks SO much RBS. (May it burn down!) 

With only 36p in the account I can see why you hate bothering with Schedule B to check the box that states you have a foreign account. I assume you must have no other interest to report, and presumably no FBAR to file.

yep

Schedule B is solely for 36 pence. That I cannot access. The frustration is less with "Schedule B" than the repeated phone calls and letters requesting the account be closed to absolutely no response that is the most irritating.

FINALLY. I received an emailed response (at 01:43 local time here)  to my inquiry about the complaint I had made in March about not being able to get my account closed.  They attached a PDF letter that indicated they had closed the account on March 22 and sent a letter to me by post to notify me. None has arrived, so ....  As long as I have a letter from them stating the account is closed, I only have to file the Schedule B for a foreign bank account one more time (to cover Jan - March of this year).  That took WAY more effort than it should have. 

I also subsequently got a text (01:43 local time here) purportedly from NatWest referencing a complaint number that is not mine, a conversation we'd just [not] had, and containing an access code I didn't request while addressing me as someone else. [Covid does impact intellectual functioning.....]

"Hello Ms Ovidne, it's Roby [######] from NatWest. The PIN to access the access the email I have sent you regarding PHO-0372631323 is ...."

Well done Nan, finally got shot of that account!

That phone call is going to be a phishing attempt so you are wise to ignore and block the number.

Yeah, it's no big deal with texts.  I use CallCentric and a more-or-less traditional landline (costs me about $5 a month) since I've had the same number since the 1990s and it's handy to just keep it. (Was nice for the daughter to be able to have her friends call at local US rates when we were in the UK and for her to do the same on that phone.) Mostly it just collects voicemail for me. I think I made two phone calls in March....  So whomever can send all the texts they want, but all I eventually will get is an email from CallCentric relaying the message and the originating number. I can't click any links or anything (there were none in that text anyway). If I wanted to respond to the text I can do so through CallCentric via my desktop.

I actually do assume it's someone at NatWest, though, who just blundered, since the message with the letter attached as a PDF and the strange text arrived at exactly the same time. They seem to do a lot of that - blundering. (NatWest owns RBS?)