Anyone with Metro Credit Card

lindabea

This is not specifically related to the credit card itself, but more about its details as presented on the online banking. That's why I decided to put this thread in this forum rather than credit cards.

 The problem is this - when I sign into my online banking and select the credit card account, there are four boxes that appear across the top.  The first is 'CURRENT BALANCE' the next is 'AVAILABLE CREDIT'  It's the figure shown in the available credit that I noticed something odd-  for some reason, since beginning of June, (at least that's when I first noticed it), the figure described as available credit is shown as the total amount spent ie the same as current balance.  I'm sure that this used to be, as it's name implies, the remaining balance after deducting the total spent from the credit limit.  ie if I spend £20 and my credit limit is £500, then available credit should be £480.  But what's being shown as available credit is -£20.00.  

I contacted Metro, and they are telling me that this is and FCA ruling; apparently banks are now not allowed to show available credit.  However, the Metro app still shows the available credit as a balance remaining to spend.  In any case, it's still wrong by calling it available credit, as it would appear that one has exceeded the credit limit. It's also a contradiction - how can the online banking shows it differently from the app?  Has anyone else noticed this anomaly?  Interested to hear your comments.  

Archi_Bald

You might get a better answer on the Credit Cards forum, but here goes mine: I think the Metro person you talked to was confusing matters with current accounts, where regulations state that banks are no longer allowed to include any any agreed overdraft in the available balance. Looking at my Nationwide and my Barclays credit card, they both show the credit limit, and available credit. The available credit is the credit limit minus anything already spent. I would contact Metro again, and if they decline again to get their error corrected, I would raise a complaint, or vote with my feet and close the card.

lindabea

Thank you for your reply.  You confirmed my suspicions that there may be an error with their computer systems.  I still would be interested to hear from other people with a Metro CC to see if they're getting the same error on their online banking display.

Roger.Wilco

Yes - I agree - "Available Credit" is currently calculated incorrectly on the METRO Web-banking site. My "Available Credit" is actually "Current Balance" + "Pending Transactions".

My advice would be - go see your local bank manager at your local METRO branch. At the beginning of the year when I was having to deal with a very challenging situation - the local METRO branch manager was the only person from my banks at the time that gave me the time-of-day and was actually very helpful to boot.

Website errors are not only the domain of METRO - I have recently endured trying to explain to HSBC a change in behavior in their website which is not user friendly and in my opinion makes standing orders less secure by removing the ability to verify. For HSBC my odyssey took me though, phone support, the fraud/security team, complaints team and then someone who "will communicate with the platforms team" ... but "it was a feature not a bug".

I don't think any bank allows a user to directly contact the web-development team or create feature requests - I wished they did have some feature/issue ticket system like software companies do.