App Lock - FAQs

Like all banks, we’re constantly reviewing the controls we use.Going forward, we’re changing the way you unlock your app.

You’ll be asked to authenticate yourself every time you open the app (unless you’ve already authenticated within the last 5 minutes). We previously asked you to authenticate every 90 days, when opening the app or making payment transfers/approvals.

We’ll use biometrics (Face or Touch ID) to verify it’s you, which is the fastest way to unlock your app.

If you don’t have either enabled, we’ll ask for your personal account PIN (or business account PIN if you don’t have a personal account) to unlock the app.

Biometrics (using your fingerprint or face to authenticate yourself) is the fastest and most secure way to unlock your app. It reduces the chance of someone looking over your shoulder and seeing your card PIN.

But remember, you can choose whether you want to use biometrics or PIN to authenticate. And if biometrics doesn’t work, you can use your personal account PIN (or business account PIN if you don’t have a personal account) to unlock the app.

If you don’t have biometrics enabled, we’re currently asking all customers to use their personal account PIN to unlock the app – even if they also have a business account.

However, if you only have a business account, you’ll use the PIN for your business account to unlock the app if you don’t have biometrics enabled.

We know there’s a lot of information for customers to remember when it comes to banking. We don’t want to ask customers to introduce a new code or number to remember.

You can change your card PIN at the ATM of any large bank branch in the UK (e.g. Lloyds, Barclays, HSBC) by selecting "PIN Services”

This will automatically update the app to use the same PIN as your card, including when accessing the app.

If you don’t have biometrics enabled, we’re currently asking all customers to use their personal account PIN to unlock the app.

If you only have a business account, you’ll use the PIN for your business account to unlock the app if you don’t have biometrics enabled.

We appreciate this may not be ideal for all customers, so we’re exploring how we can improve this in the future.