Metro Bank

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Discussion

TotalControl

Original Poster:

8,017 posts

197 months

Thursday 20th February 2014
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Anyone have a personal account with them? Maybe a business account also?

Living in Watford and working in Borehamwood, there's a branch in Borehamwood off the high street so is fairly easy to get to.

I'm thinking of opening an account with them as they look like a decent enough bank who are open 7 days.

It will mainly be a second account for myself to save some money into for future use but really hope that they are good with other service, hence the interest in their business accounts.

My own personal banking is currently with First Direct who are flawless to be honest.

randlemarcus

13,507 posts

230 months

Thursday 20th February 2014
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I have a current and a savings account with them, and have had for a couple of years now.

To be honest, the demands I make of a bank are fairly low, i.e. take in money from salary, and pay out via DD and Internet Banking. They have been utterly fabulous at doing those simple tasks smile

Where they have excelled is when the debit card stopped working in Morrisons - next trip down to London, popped in to the branch in Tottenham Court Road, and they made me a shiny new one on the spot. As I understand it, they are also trialling NFC from your smartphone, which will be nice.

So, full marks from me, as long as those marks are for doing nothing complex. I know that sounds like damning with faint praise, but Santander managed to censored that up in most ways possible.

gingerpaul

2,929 posts

242 months

Thursday 20th February 2014
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I've had an account with them for 6 months and have found them pretty good so far. Long opening hours, open 7 days a week and you can call your own branch. The people working there are all trying quite hard to impress at the moment and make you feel at home. Silly things like having a nice clean customer toilet and being able to print new cards on the spot are actually really useful.

SGirl

7,918 posts

260 months

Thursday 20th February 2014
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I've had several business accounts with them for almost a year now.

The very first point of contact was a bit so-so - kept me waiting for ages, then when I'd completed all the forms they told me there was no business advisor available to issue all the necessary stuff, so I had to go back. "But it's okay, it'll only take a few minutes to do." So I went back a week later, only to be told that we'd have to go through the whole rigmarole again, took a couple of hours this time. And then my card didn't work, but I didn't find this out until the first time I tried to use it, a fortnight later.

But this is where the service improved. They assigned me a manager at my branch who could deal with any problems or queries, and he couriered out a new card to me. Since then, any general enquiries can be handled by their call centre or by staff at the branch, and any specifics can be handled by my account manager. And since all the teething troubles, they've been pretty good on the whole.

It's worth bearing in mind that their debit cards can't be used at petrol stations abroad (I don't know if they've changed that now, might be worth checking though), but other than that I'd say they're good. They're open 7 days a week, they have lollipops for the kids and dog biscuits for the dogs (if you take your dogs to the bank - they're very dog-friendly and don't mind if you take them in) and they give away boxes of pens at the drop of a hat. wink They're always happy to give you a tour of your branch, the loos are clean and the staff are always very helpful and friendly.

I don't think I'd move my personal accounts to them because I really like First Direct, but for business Metro Bank is certainly no worse than the big four, and in many areas it's actually much better.

TotalControl

Original Poster:

8,017 posts

197 months

Thursday 20th February 2014
quotequote all
Interesting to note the above in regards to both types of accounts.

I may also want to open up a children's account to manage for both of my boys as Santander are epically crapalicious in any form of customer service or feedback.

rich12

3,461 posts

153 months

Thursday 20th February 2014
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Have they got a banking app yet?

randlemarcus

13,507 posts

230 months

Thursday 20th February 2014
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They have a perfectly functional webpage that works just fine, on all my devices.

SGirl

7,918 posts

260 months

Friday 21st February 2014
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TotalControl said:
Interesting to note the above in regards to both types of accounts.

I may also want to open up a children's account to manage for both of my boys as Santander are epically crapalicious in any form of customer service or feedback.
Their interest on accounts for children isn't bad. I can't remember what it is off the top of my head, but I know it wasn't bad because I opened an account for my son there!

Fake7

717 posts

198 months

Friday 21st February 2014
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I'm probably going to open an account when they open their branch in Brighton, just because they do free cashpoint withdrawals abroad.

BUT - they have just announced that this will stop next month outside of Europe.

TotalControl

Original Poster:

8,017 posts

197 months

Tuesday 20th May 2014
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Anyone else have any experience of this lot?

AJB88

12,269 posts

170 months

Thursday 3rd July 2014
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I've had a secondary account with CO-OP (Was Britannia when I opened) for a few years now decided to close it the other day simply because I didn't really need it, was walking through the shopping centre and came across Metro (Have read about them online before) so thought why not might aswell see what they are about.

within 30 minutes I had a current account set up, online banking logged in and a card in my hand! served by a delightful girl and the experience was good. Plan on using this second account (main banking is done with Barclays)basically to tuck some money away for a rainy day down the pub.

Anyway today decided to transfer a few quid from my Barclays account to the new account and then go use it in the local shop (W.H Smith) to buy a few drinks, Card was declined twice frown

Checked the balance and the money is there, so just tweeted Metro and they are looking into it for me now.

I was excited about the lack of charges in Europe but if I cant even use it in a big high street retailer than what chance have I got in europe.

AJB88

12,269 posts

170 months

Monday 1st September 2014
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Just to update really, been using this as a secondary account.

Money transfers from Barclays to Metro can take 2-12 hours.

Have used my card in UK and Abroad now without any issues and without any charges (Used in Europe)

RichS

351 posts

213 months

Wednesday 3rd September 2014
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AJB88 said:
Just to update really, been using this as a secondary account.

Money transfers from Barclays to Metro can take 2-12 hours.

Have used my card in UK and Abroad now without any issues and without any charges (Used in Europe)
Any further issues with WH Smith? Am royally hacked off with HSBC and am seriously thinking of changing accounts.

AJB88

12,269 posts

170 months

Wednesday 3rd September 2014
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Nope..

The issue there was the fact that the money takes between 2-12 hours to show in the account.. I sent the money over as a test and then tried to use it 5-10 mins later.

So used to Barclays instantly showing up etc