Trusteer Rapport is a free security tool that's often promoted by banks for online banking. While it's marketed as giving you a security boost online, we've heard from plenty of members who've reported problems as a result of running Rapport, and our advice is not to use it.
It's understandable to be security conscious when logging into your online bank. In an age of phishing scam emails and fraudulent websites, there's a very real risk of entering your financial or login details into a fake website by clicking a link on an email.
Trusteer Rapport is a browser extension that can help spot such phishing sites. However, it can also create conflicts with your existing security software and slow down or crash your web browser.
Why we don't rate Trusteer Rapport
We've encountered numerous instances of Trusteer Rapport creating issues for our members who get in touch for help. Most common are conflicts with other security tools on your system - such as your main antivirus program.
The other issue can be browser slowdown or crashes. This has led to incidents such as an error message in Google Chrome, caused by a Rapport glitch.
There was also a high profile problem with Microsoft's Windows 10 Edge browser following the Creators Update. Users were unable to open Edge at all - until removing or reinstalling Trusteer Rapport turned out to be the fix for the issue.
Are you safe without Rapport?
An important point to emphasise is that it isn't Rapport's responsibility to protect your online banking. It's your bank's.
Logging into an online bank involves multiple stages of security checks. These are put there by your bank to ensure that you and only you can access your account or transfer money.
You can log in perfectly safely without running Trusteer Rapport. The only benefit it could give is spotting a potential phishing site that was masquerading as your bank - but plenty of other tools, including most modern browsers, can do this anyway (see below).
Trusteer Rapport claims
Trusteer Rapport is a perfectly legitimate piece of software - there's nothing sinister about it, and it's promoted by plenty of respectable brand names, including major banks. Still, we don't feel the claims on Rapport's website add up.
Claim 1 - you need more security
There is, too, such a thing as 'too much security'. Having multiple security tools running on your computer rarely makes you safer. It's more likely to lead to system conflicts.
Think of it like having two bouncers on your front door - they won't guard your home any better than one bouncer, if they're too busy brawling with each other.
Claim 2 - your antivirus won't help you
Modern antivirus programs frequently have anti-fraud protection, these days. That's particularly the case with paid-for suites from the big names such as Norton, Bitdefender and Kaspersky. These anti-fraud tools are often browser extensions, just like Rapport, which catch out phishing email links.
To choose antivirus software with anti-fraud protection, see our reviews of the best antivirus software.
Even most modern web browsers have built-in phishing scam protection, these days. Google Chrome, for instance, will typically spot a fake site masquerading as a bank. Most modern webmail providers, such as Gmail and Outlook.com, will also flag potential phishing emails.
Claim 3 - Rapport won't slow you down
3) While Rapport is certainly easy to use, we'd refute that claim that it won't slow you down. We've heard too many accounts from members of slow browsing or browser crashes that can be pinpointed to Rapport.
As mentioned above, this can come down to a conflict with your existing security software. It can also be caused by glitches when your browser undergoes an update and Rapport's compatibility is no longer perfect.