Royal Bank account* that&ave live* at tea For the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) to be able to continue its valiant and valuable work saving lives at sea, it needs to be able to plan ahead when it comes to fundraising. This is even more obvious when you consider that an all-weather Trent class lifeboat costs £1.2 million to build and the smallest inshore lifeboat costs £11,500.

This is where The Royal Bank of Scotland comes in. By supporting the RNLI through its affinity credit card and savings account, the RNLI can be aided in raising the money it requires to build new lifeboats.

For every Lifeboats MasterCard opened, the Royal Bank donates £5 to the RNLI, and it makes a contribution of 25p for every £100 spent on the card. Since the RNLI affinity credit card was launched in 1988, it has raised £800,000 and is well on target to reach the £1 million total by the year 2000.

Our savings account - the Harbour Account - was launched in |uly 1997 and not only has the Royal Bank pledged that it will donate to the RNLI 0.25% of the total balances in all Harbour Accounts on each anniversary of the launch of the account, but if 2,000 accounts are open at the end of two years the Bank promises that its total donation will be at least £50,000.

The Harbour Account is a postal based 30 day notice savings account - with the first class postage paid by the Royal Bank - and by dealing direct rather than using the branch network the Bank can offer competitive rates on the account.

Accounts can be opened with a minimum deposit of £500 and tiered interest rates mean that the greater the balance, the greater the return. Withdrawals can be made by post without any charge as long as 30 days notice is given. However, if immediate access is required there will be a charge of 50p per £100 withdrawn. Interest is paid annually on this account at the end of April. There's even a Harbour Account telephone helpline for customers with any queries they may have about their account.

With the Lifeboats MasterCard, the £10 fee is waived in the first year of opening the account, and if at least £2,400 is spent on the card in a year, the following year's fee will be also be waived. Another excellent incentive is the 2% refund on balances from other store and credit cards which are transferred to the MasterCard.

The card offers up to 56 days interest-free credit and any outstanding balance will be charged at 1.67% per month, equivalent to 23.2% APR variable. Customers can also benefit from the added security of having their photograph and signature laser-etched onto the card..