Thread: My experience with Metro Bank over the last few months

Hello,

It's been a while since this section of the forums was updated, so I thought I'd post my experiences of Metro Bank while using their current account as a main account. I opened my account early this year and made the switch in August by getting all of my direct debits, standing orders and salary switched. I used their in-house switching service.

I had problems from the start. My salary didn't get switched over and some Direct Debits were missed.

I pressed ahead regardless and got my salary paid into my account.

I then proceeded to register my account and debit card at various providers. 70% were fine, however I hit issues with paypal, Tastecard, Zipcar, Capital One, Barclays Cycle Hire, Vanquis and Thames Water. They all still refuse to accept my debit card.

Then there was issues surrounding direct debits. The bank has refused to acknowledge that I have sent in 4 mandates for Capital One, 2 for Vanquis and 2 for GLL (Nuffield Health). Also, O2 couldn't add my bank details and neither could my local council.

Finally, the amount of computer system outages has increased recently. I cannot send payments occasionally and when they are sent, they are not using the Faster Payments Service (yet). I have trouble creating Payees on their online system from time to time.

I persisted for a little while, until it caused me to miss payments on the credit card and I got charged. At this point I'd had enough and decided to switch back to my old bank account.

In summary, the bank isn't ready. Its customer service is quite sloppy and doesn't offer adequate solutions ("Direct Debits can't be refused by us!") They are promising but they are simply not cutting it at the moment. I hope that they improve in the future.

I was considering switching over, but this has put me off a little bit. Did you get a response, or send a complaint - I wonder if this was an individual account problem, or not?

Hello,

After complaining to the address I was given above, I was promised a phone call - it never came. I pursued to switch back to my old bank and a few days later, I received an apology letter that included a £50 credit to my account.

There were also some explanations as to why things had been going wrong: notably, their systems are not recognised by some companies hence their bank and card details fail.

In regards to Direct Debits, there was no answer to my specific problem. Needless to say, upon returning to my prior bank, I haven't had a single problem.

I managed to get my credit card charges refunded by the card companies themselves, but having to send payments in advance to cover payments was highly annoying. As I had missed a council tax payment, I ended up paying £35 per month extra to cover that lost month.

In summary, I thought I'd miss the 8am til 8pm service, but I don't. Coupled with all the other issues, their bank is no different than the main players - they all have issues with different things (my current bank wouldn't change a loan payment date for example!)

I hope this helps you.