Picture the scene...

...You have been on a Christmas night out and through ill fortune or your ability to drink like a fish, you have unfortunately lost your purse or wallet.

That's right; no cards, no cash, no phone and the prospect of a very long and cold walk home.

But it doesn't have to be this way thanks to an emergency cash service that offers you card-free withdrawals!

If you are a current account customer with Royal Bank of Scotland, and you find yourself in the unfortunate position described above, you can just pop along to your nearest cash machine and withdraw up to £300!

The "emergency cash" service will be offered to any of you that are NatWest, Ulster Bank, Tesco Personal Finance or RBS account holders when you ring up to report your cards missing or stolen.

It sounds great. How does it work?

• When you call the Bank's Lost and Stolen Helpline to report the loss or theft of your debit card, you will be automatically be asked if you need 'Emergency Cash'.

• If you can from a sentence coherent enough to explain you do, you will be then told you can access up to £300. (This service will be free of charge up until Friday 11th January, after which there will be a fixed fee of £5.)

• Bank staff will try to establish your identity using three stringent security questions. If you get them all right, you will then be issued a new one-off pin number. (Naturally if you can't even remember your own name at this point, we think it is highly unlikely you will get the cash)

• Once the PIN number has been obtained, as an extra security feature you have a three hour window to get your cash t any one of RBSG's 7,000 UK-wide ATMs before the PIN expires. (If you can't find an ATM after 3 hours of searching, then you are definitely in the Christmas spirit)

• Once you have your PIN, you can pop along to any RBSG ATM and then press any of the six blank (numberless) keys on the machine's key pad. The 'Emergency Cash' screen will then be displayed at the ATM and you then simply key-in the PIN number you were given and follow the on-screen instructions to get your cash.

Problem solved and hopefully panic over...now get yourself home you dirty stop out!

Glossing over the reason most of his customers will need to use the service, Paul Geddes, chief executive, consumer banking at Royal Bank of Scotland Group, instead chose to focus on the inconvenience of being stranded without your bank cards, cash, phone etc.

He said: "The new service will provide customers with a lifeline when they have lost their debit card or had it stolen and need urgent access to the funds in their bank account. It's really simple, secure and completely unique, so we think it will be valued by our customers."

And probably by many taxi drivers who might have had the pleasure of going the whole night without having to transport any completely bladdered Christmas party punters home!

On the other hand, we can't knock the service really as it is a very good service if you are sober and have genuinely lost your belongings or had them stolen during the course of your night out.

We are confident it wil be prove to be a popular service during the festive season, but what do you think?

Need the loo? Use your phone!