Metro Bank Debit Mastercard Offline

Plxply

Hello,

I'm wondering if all Debit Mastercard's that Metro Banks issue are offline? On my account I was given a letter saying that I was approved for a £0 overdraft and when read with a card reader the magnetic strip indicates that it's an offline card. However is this because the computer thought I had an overdraft even though it's £0 or are all cards offline?

giblet10

Plxply wrote: »

Hello,

I'm wondering if all Debit Mastercard's that Metro Banks issue are offline? On my account I was given a letter saying that I was approved for a £0 overdraft and when read with a card reader the magnetic strip indicates that it's an offline card. However is this because the computer thought I had an overdraft even though it's £0 or are all cards offline?

It may depend upon the type of card you have - I have Metro's cash account that gives me a Mastercard Debit Card but that's definitely online only - I got it when my CRA files were shot but I'm off to their Borehamwood office next week to try and upgrade to full offline card which is credit scored, now my files are looking good again (well, Equifax anyway)..hoping they'll throw in a credit card too..!

Plxply

I'm pretty sure all their Debit Mastercards attached to current accounts are offline. I opened the account on my 18th Birthday so I had absolutely no credit history and I'm a full time student with no job, I was quite surprised really but I'm sure that on the magnetic stripe the card's service code is "201".

PaulW922

the offline/online functionality is in the chip, rather than being governed by the card type. As the Metro cash account is not credit scored you would expect it to be an 'always authorise' one.