MSE News: Metro Bank to charge for debit card use outside Europe

JPR

Just seen this petition against the charges (for what its worth....)


https://t.co/IypWpN2Z9C

Archi_Bald

What a ridiculous petition.

The originator can't even spell.

glider3560

This is disappointing to say the least. Free transactions abroad was the main reason for switching my main current account to Metro Bank.

Except for the free EU transactions, there is now nothing setting them aside from other current account products. As I'm moving away from London soon, I am questioning whether to move back to my old bank.

SaveTheEuro

Archi_Bald wrote: »

Why would you expect a business to continue to run a service that they cannot financially justify?

That would have made a great marketing slogan when they launched the product.

TurnUpForTheBooks_2

Archi_Bald wrote: »

What promise have they broken? When did they ever promise that their cards would be free forever?

Don't exaggerate using the word "forever". This is a new entrant to the market and they have let down existing customers and right up until a week or two ago I was writing to recommend them for no FOREX charges for someone going to Asia this summer who now may have had a wasted journey to London.

Metrobank have now marketed themselves as dishonestly as the rest.

Why would you expect a business to continue to run a service that they cannot financially justify?

I wouldn't expect anything from a banker other than trouble. They made a deliberate decision to flout the market and to suggest that they could because they were different.

They aren't different. The secret is out.

By the way, their credit card attracts the same charges from the same date.

arbitrabbit

I always knew that the benefit won't last. As someone who has worked in card processing, I always knew that it was too expensive to maintain the feature with so many travel only users piling on to the account (and why not). However, as someone who used his Metro account as his main account, my personal preference would have been that they had introduced a funding criteria for the account (similar to N&P) to cut out the travelers, rather than make it paid for everyone

innovate

Any minimum monthly funding requirement makes no difference to the affordability by the banks, and is only a minor inconvenience for account holders.

ColdIron

I've just come back from Thailand and used my MB card for 3 transactions, 2x£100 and 1x£200 = £400. I was charged 180 baht per transaction by the various ATMs, about £10, but no charge by MB

If I'd used one of my other debit cards I would have had the same ATM charges plus 2.99% and £1.50 per transaction or £10 + £16.50 = £26.50

I know this is MSE but in the great scheme of things it's not a huge amount. I used my Nationwide Select CC for all purchases which gave me greater savings and the CC protection

The best deals I got were for the £500 cash I brought out, better exchange rates than MB or NW with no apparent other charges

The MB card for ATM cash was a nice plus but I'm not going to die in a ditch about it

arbitrabbit

innovate wrote: »

Any minimum monthly funding requirement makes no difference to the affordability by the banks, and is only a minor inconvenience for account holders.

My point was that minimum funding or a fee would have cut out the occasional users who don't use the bank account for anything but travel. On the whole banks don't mind losing money on something as long as they know they can make it elsewhere as the people who use the account as their main account have higher deposits, use overdrafts, take other products like savings accounts and credit cards - so as a whole the bank can justify the benefit.

However, I guess any minimum funding criteria discourages people who want to try the bank before they switch, which is probably why banks don't like it too much.

In any case, as ColdIron put it, I am not going to die in a ditch about this. It is still free in Europe and outside Europe the charge is the cheapest that I could see on the high street and is still better than the likes of Fairfx. Also, Metro's exchange rate is consistently better than my Halifax Clarity card for some strange reason so I will continue to use the account, though I will probably need to make larger ATM withdrawals when I go abroad.

cfw1994

Not really surprised.....this kind of benefit was the reason I opened an account there, but we don't really do anything else with it......still free for Europe, so that is a bonus. Just need to work out if another account is available for cheaper USA funds for my next trip abroad!