Bank
A Bank is a facility that allows players to deposit, store and withdraw their items. It is usually a standalone building, but is sometimes only a chest, or even a non-player character. A Bank Deposit Box allows players to deposit any items in their inventory, but not withdraw items from their bank.
Banks are often popular locations for trading as players are right beside where they can keep most of their money and items. Banks are indicated on the world map with a dollar (
) icon.
In each bank, a stand holds leaflets which players may take to learn about how a bank works and how to use it. This was released with the Advisors and Objectives update. There are currently 74 banks, deposit boxes and other banking facilities throughout RuneScape.
Development History
The RuneScape bank was added on 23 January 2001. Before May 2001, banks in RuneScape were only able to store coins. The use of pack mules, or separate accounts made solely to carry items, was common to hold additional items since space was limited. In RuneScape Classic, users had much less space. Before RuneScape Classic was made members-only, free users had one bank page, while members had four (upgraded from two pages).
The banks in RuneScape were originally called the Bank of Varrock (they were all branches of the main bank in Varrock), but the name was changed to the Bank of RuneScape.
With the Bank Update and Item Lending update on 14 July 2008, the bank interface was improved to include tabs to organise items, a search function to find any item by name, and a counter to show the available bank space<ref name="Lending">Jagex. "Bank Update and Item Lending". 14 July 2008. RuneScape News. *</ref>. It also added the ability to repeatedly withdraw/deposit the number of items last entered using Deposit-x or Withdraw-x (After the update, banking transactions became slower as item withdrawals and deposits take a slightly longer time to complete).
On 29 July 2008, the Item Lending update introduced the Withdraw-All but one option for withdrawals from the bank<ref>Jagex. "Item Lending Update". 29 July 2008. RuneScape News. *</ref>. With this, players are able to leave one place-holder item in the bank, so that the positioning of the item is not disrupted if the player accidentally withdraws all items. The update also increased the speed of the scroll bar on the bank interface, which has helped to combat the lag after the previous change. It is unknown whether Jagex is aware of the lag in withdrawals and deposits, or whether this slight delay will be fixed in the future.
On 3 March 2009, the deposit-all feature was introduced<ref name="depositall">Mod Fetzki. "Deposit-all feature and more". 3 March 2009. RuneScape News. *</ref>. Players can dump all items from their inventory, items worn, and items carried by their Beasts of Burden.
10 additional bank spaces were added on 12 April 2010 but were not announced in the news post for the Dungeoneering skill on its initial posting.
On 9 November 2010, the bank system was updated to let players "equip weapons and armour, eat food, fill essence pouches, drink antipoison and energy potions, and much more" without actually having to close the bank interface.
On 6 December 2011 30 free bank spaces were added for members along with the new money pouch and toolbelt.
On 10 May 2012 with the release of bonfires, 10 free bank spaces were added for people who registered their email address.
On 28 August 2012 bank boosters were added to Solomon's general store. The bank boosters boost bank space by 50. There are 5 bank boosters available to buy, so a total of 250 bank spaces can be purchased.
Addition of the Grand Exchange
After the introduction of the Grand Exchange (on 26 November 2007<ref>Jagex. "The Grand Exchange". 26 November 2007. RuneScape News. *</ref>) banks ceased to be popular centers of trading. Now, most transactions take place within the Grand Exchange.
When the Grand Exchange was released, players could select the *Collect Banker* option and the banker would notify players that they did not have a Grand Exchange account. This got new players thinking that the Grand Exchange was for members only.
When the Grand Exchange was added and Varrock bank was moved, some people got stuck inside the Varrock bank, many fixed this bug by simply teleporting out of there while some without required runes or sufficient Magic level had to get a moderator to teleport them out of the bank; This was similar when people got stuck inside the Edgeville bank.
Bankers
- Bankers: Allow players to access their Banked items, Grand Exchange collection box, Item Lending return box, and to change PIN settings. Present in nearly every bank (behind a bank booth), including the Grand Exchange (behind a desk). Used to be found at the Wilderness Volcano (before the PvP Wilderness update), as well as in the Fist of Guthix caves (standing with a huge sack). Identifiable by their grey suits, or by a huge sack on their backs (to represent the banked items that they have stored).
- Other bankers: There are other races of bankers, such as Ghost banker, Gnome banker, Elven banker, Dwarven banker, etc. They are similar to human bankers, but are from a different race.
- Grand Exchange clerks: Allows players to access the Grand Exchange, the collection box, buy/sell history, and item sets. Found only in the Grand Exchange (behind a desk). These are the only NPCs that allow you to open item sets. They are easily distinguishable from bankers by their blue uniforms.
Bank locations
There are many banks scattered throughout RuneScape, and may be located in the World Map with the dollar () icon.
Some banking services charge commission. It may be a percentage of what's being deposited, or coins; An example of this is Beefy Bill, who will store players' cowhides and/or raw beef for 10 percent commission. It is to be recognised that not having multiples of 10 cowhides/raw beef banked at a time will result in the commission costing more than 10 percent.
Several banks have inaccessible areas, such as stairs, doors, fences, and basements. It is unclear what is actually in some of these areas.
Bank facilities
There are also other facilities that provide banking services to players in RuneScape. These facilities are similar to banks, but have limitations in their features.
Bank Deposit Boxes
Bank Deposit Boxes allow players to deposit items into the bank; however, players cannot withdraw items. They are available in most banks and in other key locations such as in Port Khazard. The deposit boxes are cylindrical in shape (in the banks). Beefy Bill now replaces the deposit boxes at the Gnomecopter Tours, and can bank flour, cowhides, and raw beef to your bank. However, he charges 10% commission. Bank deposit boxes do not require to type in a bank pin to use them. A common bank deposit is the in the dungeoneering resource dungeon in falador mining area. A number of random events feature a deposit box of some kind.
Bank chests
Bank chests allow all transactions similar to a normal banker. Items from the Grand Exchange cannot be collected from these chests except when using the chest in the Gamers' grotto. They vary in colour, and are available in places such as in the Lumbridge Castle cellar (during and after the Recipe for Disaster quest), Al Kharid Duel Arena, etc.
Transactions
There has been spoken about bank-to-bank trading in this behind the scenes article, but it apparently was not added, maybe because of the near uselessness of it.
When you try to open your bank account while you have lost connection, upon logging in you will see a blank bank screen.
Deposits
Players can deposit ("bank") their items in two different ways:
- Using the bank - Players can click on the bank booth (or the banker) to talk to the banker for access to their bank account.
- Alternatively, the bank booth can be right-clicked, and the "Use quickly" option chosen to skip the conversation and access their bank account.
- Or, the banker can be right-clicked, and the "Bank" option chosen to skip the conversation and access their bank account.
- Using a Bank Deposit Box - Players can click on these and deposit items without the need to enter their bank PIN, even if they have only just logged in.
When a player has access to their bank, they can deposit items from their inventory. Players can deposit 1, 5, 10, a custom amount (n), "All", or "X" items in one menu. The "X" option allows a player to specify the quantity of items to be deposited, and lock in the custom amount (n) until another "X" amount selected . This feature is useful for players depositing the same number of items repeatedly, such as during Runecrafting and Fletching.
Some banks charge commission for using their services. The Dwarven Ferryman and Beefy Bill are examples of this.
Withdrawals
Players can withdraw their items by either using a bank booth or talking to a banker. The bank account access procedure is similar to the deposit process. Once players have access to their bank account, they can then withdraw the required items. Similar to the deposit process, the player has several options for withdrawals:
- Withdraw-1
- Withdraw-5
- Withdraw-10
- Withdraw-n - Withdraws n items, where n is a custom amount based on the amount entered in the last "Withdraw-X" transaction.
- Withdraw-X - Withdraws X number of items. The "X" option allows a player to specify the quantity of items to be withdrawn, and lock in the custom amount (n) for subsequent transactions.
- Withdraw-All - Withdraws all items stored in the bank.
- Withdraw-All but one - Withdraws all items (except one). This is useful for storing "placeholder" items, as not to disrupt the positioning of the item. If you withdraw all but one of an item that you only have one of, you get the message "You only have one of this item, so withdrawing all but one does nothing."
Collection
Players who are buying or selling items on the Grand Exchange can use the Grand Exchange Collection Box to receive their money they earned or the item they bought.
The collection box is used to collect any cash or items from Grand Exchange trades that have been completed or partially completed. To open the collection box, the "Collect" option is used on the bank booth or the banker. The Collection Box interface shows any completed trade in green. Players with on-going trades (i.e. large quantities or items which are difficult to buy/sell) can also collect their items (or coins) as the trade goes through bit-by-bit.
With the Item Lending update, players may now collect cash or items from wandering bankers such as those from the Fist of Guthix minigame.
When the Grand Exchange was first released, there was a rare glitch where players could right click "collect" in a bank and show the Grand Exchange screen, so players could buy and sell items in any bank across RuneScape. This glitch was rare, and it is unknown why only certain accounts had it. This has been fixed.
Features
Stacks
Most items stored in the bank are stackable, even if the item does not stack in the inventory. When there are multiple items stored, a number appears to the left of the item indicating the number of items. This number is truncated if it is larger than a hundred thousand (rounded down to the nearest thousand, and symbolised with a "K", meaning kilo or thousand), and if it is larger than ten million (rounded down to the nearest million, and symbolised with an "M" meaning mega, or million).
Tabs
Players have an option to organise their bank items in up to eight separate tabs. The tabbed feature was introduced by Jagex on 14 July 2008<ref name="Lending"></ref>, as players found it hard to organise items within the bank. With this feature, items with similar characteristics, such as items used in the Farming skill can be stored in one tab, while Fishing items stored in another. For members, it is recommended to make at least a "Quest" tab, a "Tool" tab and an "Armour & Weapons" tab, as there are lots of items that fall within these 3 categories.
New tabs are created by dragging and dropping items to the "+" icon, creating a new tab. The symbol used for the tab will be the first item stored within the tab, and this symbol changes if the first item stored is changed. The "All" tab (labelled with the infinity symbol) shows all the items in that tab in addition to each of the other tabs, separated by a dividing line.
To remove a bank tab, the tab may be right-clicked and the 'Collapse tab' option selected. In addition, the tab will also be removed if all items within the tab is emptied, or moved into the other tabs.
Swap/Insert toggle
The Swap/Insert toggle button is used to toggle between swapping and inserting items. This feature is used to rearrange items within the bank, and within individual tabs.
With the "Swap" option, the item (A) will be swapped when another item (B) is dragged and dropped onto the item. This replaces the positions of A and B without moving any other items. Meanwhile, with the "Insert" option, the item (B) will be inserted in between items (before item A), moving all other items "forward".
Search
The Search button is used for finding items in the bank. As more and more items are added into the bank, finding a particular item can be hard for some players. With the Search function, the item name (or part of it) can be entered into the Search field, and all other items will be filtered out, leaving items matching the name entered into the Search field. This provides easy access to rarely used items that need to be found quickly.
Note/Item toggle
The Note/Item toggle button is used to toggle withdrawals between noted form, or item in the original form. Most items within the bank can be withdrawn in noted form. This allows large amounts of unstackable items (such as ores and logs) to be withdrawn or traded without taking up a large amount of inventory space. To withdraw the items as notes, players have to click the "Note/Item" toggle button at the bottom of the bank interface. Clicking on this button again (i.e. toggle) allows the player to withdraw items in their original form.
Items in note form cannot be wielded, equipped, or used in most skills. However, they greatly improve trading large amounts of unstackable items. Players can also cast Low Level Alchemy and High Level Alchemy spells on the notes to convert the items into coins.
In RuneScape Classic, notes did not exist, but instead players would trade in bulk using certificates, which could only be made for certain items. Certificates were made by bringing the desired items to the "certer" NPCs, instead of simply withdrawing from the bank in certificate form. Every certificate was equivalent to five regular items.
Dump backpack
With the Deposit-all feature and more update on 3 March 2009, the Dump backpack button was introduced<ref name="depositall"></ref>. This allows players to quickly dump all the items in their inventory.
Dump worn items
With the "Deposit-all feature and more" update on 3 March 2009, the Dump worn items button was introduced<ref name="depositall"></ref>. This allowed players to deposit the items they are wearing into their bank.
Dump money pouch contents
With the release of the Barrows Graphical overhaul on 4 January 2012 came with a new option to deposit Money Pouch contents. This was tweaked later in the patch notes for 12 January 2012 when the button was moved farther from the bank inventory button. This was because of issues with players accidentally depositing other belongings.
Dump beast of burdens
With the release of Summoning skill, the Beasts of burden are able to carry items for the player. These beasts have inventory spaces, similar to a player's inventory. To dump items carried by these beast, the Dump BoB button at the bottom of the bank interface is used. Pressing this button will deposit these items into the bank.
Bank PIN
The use of a 4-digit Bank PIN (Personal Identification Number) adds a significant extra layer of security to an account. It is optional, but recommended. Nonetheless, a fair number of players do not do so due to the inconvenience of entering a pin every time they log in to use their bank. Players may use the button located at the bottom of the bank interface to set up a PIN, or to cancel it.
When the PIN is active, players must enter the four-digit number the first time they use the bank, or the Grand Exchange, after logging in. They need not enter it again for as long as they remain logged in.
This means that even if a hacker is able to log in with someone else's username and password, the most they will be able to steal is any wielded items and whatever is in the inventory. They will not be able to access the contents of the bank, the money pouch, or any cash or items on the Grand Exchange without knowing the PIN. However, it is essential that the PIN is hard to guess, as the 4-digit PIN may be known if it is based on common numbers, such as birth dates or numbers within the RuneScape username.
A hidden update was made to the bank so that when you put in your bank PIN, it now says "Thanks!" for a second before you see your items.
After an update on February 15 2011, the bank pin will no longer have a delay randomizing the numbers after clicking on a digit, making it slightly faster to get into your bank.
Equipment Stats screen
Following the Bank Op and Equip Screen Update update, players can view the equip screen without leaving the bank interface, by clicking the Equipment icon in the top right corner of the bank screen. Here, players can view item stats and change equipment in the same way as the out of bank Equipment Stats screen.
Bank space
| Account state | Available bank space |
|---|---|
| Free to play without an email address registered to it | 78 |
| Free to play account with an email address registered to it | 88 |
| Pay to play account | 556 |
| Pay to play account with 1 bank booster from Solomon's general store purchased | 606 |
| Pay to play account with 2 bank boosters from Solomon's general store purchased | 656 |
| Pay to play account with 3 bank boosters from Solomon's general store purchased | 706 |
| Pay to play account with 4 bank boosters from Solomon's general store purchased | 756 |
| Pay to play account with a maximum of 5 bank boosters from Solomon's general store purchased | 806 |
All players have a limit on how many kinds of items they can hold in their bank. Non-members used to have 68 spaces for item storage but after an update on [please update], each non-member has 78 spaces, and that is increased to 88 on 10 May 2012, provided that they have registered an e-mail address, otherwise the limit is still 78 items. Members have 468 additional spaces for storage, giving a maximum of 556 spaces for storage. After buying all the bank boosters from Solomon's general store, the maximum becomes 806 spaces.
Players can stack up to 2,147,483,647 (231 minus 1) items of the same type (this includes money, since each coin is considered an individual item), as long as at least one item of that type is already in the bank account.
The large number of different items will rapidly fill up bank space. This requires players to consider carefully what items they really want to keep in their bank. Reducing the number of different but similar items (food, armour, weapons, arrows, runes, bows,etc.) helps to keep the bank tidy.
Even for members, a significantly larger bank space does not mean there is enough space for all kinds of items. In addition to managing the types of items that they keep in the bank, members often need to take measures to organise the items in order to reduce search time. Bank tabs have helped this problem significantly by giving players the option of organising their items in an easy way without all the hassle. The search function also reduces significant time spent searching for rarely used items within the bank.
Bank space tends to clutter up rapidly, as re-depositing a single item after closing the previous bank screen causes the item to be stored in an entirely different location. To avoid this, players can keep multiple items in the bank. For example, a player might keep two rune scimitars in the bank, so that taking one of them out will not affect its bank position. Of course, this does necessitate buying doubles of everything, and can be very costly for expensive items. Additionally, players may only have one of certain items (such as quest items).
Members also have the option of storing some kinds of items outside the bank in order to save up bank space. For example, the Costume room of player-owned houses can store certain armour sets, capes and holiday outfits (many of which can be reclaimed from Diango in any case), the bookcases (also in player-owned houses) can store quest-related books, and Tool Leprechauns help to store farming equipment (including compost and supercompost). A lesser-known method is to simply offer items at the Grand Exchange for high prices as a member, and immediately abort the offer, which provides the player with up to six items they can attain back easily from any bank booth or banker in RuneScape. Players using Ava's devices should consider using their ammo slot as storage for the appropriate type of arrow. The tool belt reduces the requirements for a significant number of items and can free up the corresponding bank spaces, as does the Dwarven army axe, and to some extent Barbarian skills.
Strategically using up certain items, or exchanging them for cash frees up spaces. At the same time, regular sale of unwanted but valuable monster drops, Squeal prizes, skilling products and Kingdoms rewards can also help free up spaces.
Some items can be stored efficiently - packing armour sets reduced them to a single slot, strange rocks can be kept in the pouch, and charged items that do not pool charges should only be fully charged, empty (if rechargeable) and one in current use - for example Glories could take 5 slots, fully charged, 3, 2, 1 and empty; careful planning will ensure there is a at worst stack of full and a stack of empty and one in-between (if this is not being worn it can, at a pinch, be drained before storing). Slayer gems only cost 1 coin, so if space is tight they can be dropped, and re-bought when time comes to re-stock on slayer rings - in extremis any part charged ring can be dumped.
The Wise Old Man in Draynor will advise on which F2P quest items can safely be disposed of.
NOTE: If a player's membership has expired, some F2P items may take up space on his/her member bank space. Therefore he/she will be able to take F2P items out, but not replace them (however he/she can deposit and withdraw member items, provided he/she has enough member space). When F2P items are taken out, they are taken out from member bank space. He/she must clear out his/her bank until the F2P bank spaces are under the limit. Member's items are placed into a different category, and do not take up F2P bank space.
The maximum number of items the bank could hold would be 1,194,000,907,732 (1,730,871,819,482 with Solomon Store upgrades). Should this happen, a player would need to have 2,147,483,647 of every item in their "full" bank account.
When withdrawing from a bank, the player can use the shortcuts "k" and "m". For example, if you want to withdraw "1,000,000" coins, you may simply type "1m".