MSE News: Metro Bank opens its doors today

opinions4u

rb10 wrote: »

Similarly, I doubt very much that most other banks have between 5,000 and 10,000 customers per branch.

I remember when Halifax and Leeds PBS merged, each Halifax staff member served 4 times the number of customers in a day that a Leeds staff member would.

As an example, Halifax has around 20 million customers (source) and around 800 branches (source), which makes an average of 25,000 customers per branch.

Although there is the difficulty in defining a "branch customer". Halifax, as you know, have followed a multi-channel approach that allows you to open and operate an account online, by phone or in branch.

I have many accounts opened in branch, but tend to operate them exclusively online. Am I a branch customer? Probably not.

Before I ended my Halifax career I beleive around 40% of new account openings weren't in branch. I'd guess it's probably higher these days. So a proportion of the 20m customers referred to may never have set foot in a branch. A very rough guide tells me that typical market share for Halifax in new product sales in Yorkshire is around 25%, compared to 12% in London.

However, I'd expect that all their central London branches have significantly more than this.

Not sure. A lot of the London branches are relatively small with a smaller customer base than the northern heartlands. London was identified as a key growth opportunity for the Halifax brand and is where most of the new branch openings were planned for (e.g. Cannon Street, Fenchurch Street, Old Broad Street).

Edit: Actually, I see from the first link that I gave that the ratios for Lloyds TSB give just 8,500 customers per branch - this could be why Lloyds are closing branches but Halifax are still opening new ones (at least, were until the credit crunch).

Another issue is that I believe Lloyds customers carry out significantly fewer branch transactions than Halifax ones. Since the merger with the Leeds, Halifax pursued a policy of aiming to have bigger branches wherever possible. Lloyds appear to be happier with their network operating out of smaller and often older premises.

It is clear that Lloyds and Halifax are very different business models. It will be interesting to see how / if they retain those differences long term.

I suspect the next two years will see Lloyds significantly grow their savings balances and Halifax make even bigger strides in the current account market.

As for Metro Bank? It's brave, but unless its service can match its promises it will fall flat on its face. There are no headline products so it's only differentials are that it's new and has dog biscuits in the safe if you ask for them. It will take more than that to grow the business.

TOP_CAT

Just too confirm that it is correct as two posters have said it isnt,are the new london numbers with 3 in them.
Metro is 0203 402 75 10 this is earls court sw5

chriskross

That's 020 (the London code) 3402 7510 :-)

TOP_CAT

Whatever its 0203 and it was 0207 or 0208 inner and outer london codes.
The three is new buts been in the pipeline for awhile.

chriskross

TOP_CAT wrote: »

Whatever its 0203 and it was 0207 or 0208 inner and outer london codes.
The three is new buts been in the pipeline for awhile.

The code for London (and the only code) is 020. There are not, and never have been, '0203' '0207' or '0208' codes. The previous 0171 and 0181 (which did relate to inner and outer London) were replaced with a single 020 code for the whole of London. The fact that a number (the bit after the '020') may start with '7' or '8' no longer guarantees a number is inner or outer.

The '3' '7' or '8' is now just part of the number. If you liver within the 020 area then you don't need to dial the 020 (just the remaining 8 digits which are the actual number.

LondonPerson

adindas wrote: »

Dear Dr_Cuckoo
your info is very valuable.
Have you tried it to withdraw cash at ATM abroad. How about the exchange rate that you were getting at that time. If it is like NW you should get the Visa whole sale exchange rate at the time of withdrawal.
Here is the link of Visa Whole sale exchange rate
http://corporate.visa.com/pd/consumer_services/consumer_ex_rates.jsp
If you could let us know your finding it will be great. I am about to apply to this BS as we have here one of their branch office. I will definitely also keep you all informed my experience one I have got those card as well as using it for spending abroad.
ADINDAS

For what it's worth I have been using a Nationwide Cirrus card abroad for 5+ years and it always gives me a better rate than the Nationwide Visa debit card when the partner used theirs and we compare notes when we get home. So one will be ahead of Nationwide with their fees when using the Metro Debit Master card for sure.

BTW I had no problems opening my Metro account, the guy was very chatty and we exchanged tips. Possibly more tips than the bank manager might have expected .

LondonPerson

OK here is a comparison on the Visa wholesale rates against the MasterCard ones. Further up on the thread someone posted the VISA web site with the wholesale rates:

http://corporate.visa.com/pd/consumer_services/consumer_ex_rates.jsp

MasterCard also publish theirs:

https://www.mastercard.com/us/personal/en/cardholderservices/currencyconversion/index.html

This is not totally scientific but probably close enough, I took a 14 days series from the 1st September converting £1 to €s and in VISA's case took the bank fee at 0 percent although as we know Nationwide charge 1 percent at the minute and 2 percent latter in the year. I calculated on the 14 day period averaging out [ie. 14 days] MasterCard gives you you a rate that is 0.3 percent worse off than VISA, but as said for current Nationwide they charge 1 percent and 2 percent in the future, MasterCard is ahead using the Metro bank card since I didn't factor these costs in. If I had done that we are looking at a 2.3 percent difference.... which to me seems more like Nationwide costing 2.5 percent more than Metro not to mention the cash levy when you draw out cash of an extra £2 or whatever it is.

As for using the card in the UK this has been fine except in one Morrison's store which didn't like it. I've been testing it to make sure there are no problems with the chip and magnetic strip before traveling with it next month.

Enjoy.

TOP_CAT

Two good posts, London person.

Just too clarify- Outside of any charges,mastercard was 0.3% less than visa in your 14day rate test using the relavent sites.
(I think someone actually found similar results previously.)

As you mentioned better cirrus vs debit card rates in past.

What I did is challenge nationwide on debitcard rate vs the visa corp site rate and they would pay the difference back .

Anyway I have metrodebit now for the future so will look forward too your experiences in europe if you can post it here.
I am travelling come dec.

chriskross

LondonPerson wrote: »

OK here is a comparison on the Visa wholesale rates against the MasterCard ones. Further up on the thread someone posted the VISA web site with the wholesale rates:

http://corporate.visa.com/pd/consumer_services/consumer_ex_rates.jsp

MasterCard also publish theirs:

https://www.mastercard.com/us/personal/en/cardholderservices/currencyconversion/index.html

This is not totally scientific but probably close enough, I took a 14 days series from the 1st September converting £1 to €s and in VISA's case took the bank fee at 0 percent although as we know Nationwide charge 1 percent at the minute and 2 percent latter in the year. I calculated on the 14 day period averaging out [ie. 14 days] MasterCard gives you you a rate that is 0.3 percent worse off than VISA, but as said for current Nationwide they charge 1 percent and 2 percent in the future, MasterCard is ahead using the Metro bank card since I didn't factor these costs in. If I had done that we are looking at a 2.3 percent difference.... which to me seems more like Nationwide costing 2.5 percent more than Metro not to mention the cash levy when you draw out cash of an extra £2 or whatever it is....

Enjoy.

But Nationwide don't currently charge anything within Europe, only 1% outside Europe - or have I misunderstood you?

LondonPerson

Top Cat, yes the 0.3 percent difference was in Visa's direction but that was without the 2 percent charge, which then shifts it to 2.3 percent better for MasterCard over VISA with the 2 percent charge ie. MetroBank over Nationwide come Autumn, trust me I got two Maths degrees but it was a time ago... That excludes the additional £1 Nationwide will levy on the use of ATMs abroad.

No chriskross Nationwide are upping the charge from 0 percent in Europe to 2 percent and from 1 percent else where to 2 percent elsewhere.

http://www.nationwide.co.uk/current_account/foreigntransactions.htm

and

http://www.nationwide.co.uk/current_account/flexaccount-changes.htm

Interesting that they hide the bad news on the second web page you click +

>>
We will introduce a commission charge and a cash withdrawal charge for transactions in currencies other than sterling. These will still be among the lowest in the market and will replace the existing 1% fee for transactions made outside the Visa Europe region.
From 1 November 2010 you will be charged the charges shown in the table below when you use your card anywhere abroad (or make payments in currencies other than sterling). These include all charges that we have to pay to other organisations on your behalf.
Charge Amount Applies to cash withdrawals Applies to card purchases (see note 1) Commission charge for non-UK transactions 2.00% of the transaction amount Non-UK cash withdrawal charge (as well as the commission charge) £1 for each withdrawal (see note 2)
Note 1 - This fee also applies if you use your card to buy goods or services in a currency other than sterling on the internet or over the phone.
Note 2 - If you have a cash card+, you cannot use your card to withdraw cash overseas.

<<

So that's £1 every time you use it in an ATM + 2 percent charge across the whole world, the 1 percent fee for Europe is scrapted. The £80 free European travel insurance is for couples, Which consumer association reckon it's worth £20 for an individual but obviously if you don't need it or won't use it, it doesn't come into the argument of one freebie offsetting another.

November the 1st is the date when I'm in Japan but no worries I have MetroBank. I'll be here complaining if it's doesn't work in their Seven Elevens, Post Offices and Citibanks. Taking my Nationwide card for back up. Whilst travelling I've found you need both VISA and MasterCard Cirrus since you do find some countries where VISA is not so common and MasterCard / Cirrus has saved the day on a number of occasions. I would use the Nationwide Cirrus plus Visa. The former they have scrapped and the latter they have raked charges up on.

I just get a foul taste in my mouth when I think of Nationwide.

BTW I don't regard myself as one of those small number of people who have abused them, they have had loads of money from me at low interest rates that they lend out at higher rates, then us good customers get abused by their paper work and websites by name calling.