Using Metro Bank Account abroad - feedback...
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proeleche
Posts: 137 Forumite
Dear All,
Please see the letter I recently handed into Metro Bank regarding my experince with them this month. Sorry in advance for the length.
COMPLAINT: ****
I would like to complain about my recent experience with my Metro Bank current account whilst I was abroad in Hong Kong and Thailand.
I would like to start off by saying that I was impressed and pleased with the ease at which I was able to open an account in your Fulham Broadway branch; so much so that I recommended that my mother did the same. Due to the excellent deal on using the account abroad, I wanted to try it out before I moved my day to day banking to Metro Bank. I was confident that if I ever encountered any problems, they would be dealt with quickly and efficiently – I could not have been more wrong.
I experienced a terrible level of service: on several occasions I was told calls would be returned, and they subsequently were not; I was given incorrect information by advisors – specifically that Metro Bank had experienced problems with individuals using their cards in Thailand and Egypt, and that the bank had been receiving two requests for every payment. However, having gone through both ‘pending’ and ‘posted’ transactions with several Metro Bank advisors, at no point do I recall any advisor informing me that the same transaction was pending twice – funds would disappear a second time once they had been officially posted and debited from the account. Thus, it is clear to me that the Metro Bank’s card systems are seriously flawed in some way as ‘pending’ transactions are not removed when they are eventually ‘posted.’ Furthermore, why did no advisor or representative inform me of these supposed problems with individuals in Egypt or Thailand (not the advisor in the branch when I opened the account, or any of the 3 advisors I spoke to on Friday 4th March)? In addition, I would just like to add that occasions when I used my card in Hong Kong were also duplicated, so to say that this problem only occurred to customers in Thailand or Egypt was also an incorrect statement to make.
I think the easiest way to show my dissatisfaction, is to go through the events of each day that I encountered problems with Metro Bank:
FRIDAY 4th MARCH
· On taking my mother out to a restaurant in Bangkok for her birthday, my card was declined in this busy restaurant on two occasions (which was extremely embarrassing). Luckily, my mother was able to settle the bill. I immediately panicked and thought my card had been cloned, and my funds stolen. I immediately went to ATM machines to see if I could withdraw any money and I was unable to – I knew something was wrong.
· I made my way back to my hotel so I could check my account online, having to pay the hotels extortionate fees in order to access the internet. On viewing my account, my available balance was much less than it should have been.
· I called Metro Bank using my mobile phone, started to explain the situation to an advisor and was cut off. I called again and the operator promised to call back – they did not.
· I called Metro Bank again after several minutes, as I considered this to be an urgent situation – I was in a foreign country and my money was missing. When I finally had the full attention of a Metro Bank advisor, he listed the transactions on my account which were ‘pending.’ I immediately disputed a transaction for roughly £100 for my hotel in Hong Kong ( I had seen from my online statement that this had been already been debited from my balance, and posted to my online statement). The advisor in question went on to tell me that this would have to be investigated as the Bank could not just refund disputed transactions; he advised that I should not expect to receive my money back ‘in the next few days.’ I also informed the advisor that my mother’s account was missing around £100. He said that he would e-mail the relevant department and get back to me with any updates; I asked him if he had my number and he said he had – he never called me back at any point in the future.
· After the information the Metro Bank advisor had given me, I decided the easiest solution would be to call the hotel in Hong Kong and inform them that they appeared to have charged myself and my mother twice – we didn’t have weeks for Metro Bank to ‘investigate’ the disappearance of our money. The hotel in Hong Kong said it was impossible and that they had not charged me twice - this was a very expensive call.
SATURDAY 5th MARCH
· I transferred an additional £100 to my Metro Bank current account and withdrew this from the cash machine outside my hotel in Bangkok, so I could settle my (rather substantial) bill.
· I would also like to state at this point that it was taking longer than 2 hours for faster payments from my HSBC current account to be credited to my Metro Bank current account. I realise that not much can be done about this, but it was very inconvenient.
· On my arrival in Phuket, I had to withdraw additional funds from my HSBC current account, due to the unreliability on Metro Banks acceptance of faster payments.
MONDAY 7th MARCH
· After an entire weekend in Phuket, I had received no communication from Metro Bank regarding my (or my mother’s) account. Upon checking, Metro Bank online, the screen informed me that I had an available balance of approximately minus £300 – I knew this was incorrect and something was seriously wrong : all that had happened on my account –as far as I knew - was that I had transferred in £100 and then withdrawn it.
· Due to Metro Banks unreliability, and the substantial call charges I had already received (from calling Metro Bank from my mobile, and from calling Hong Kong after the information Metro Bank had given me), I decided that it would be best for me to text a friend in the UK with all the relevant information, and get them to contact Metro Bank, so that Metro Bank would actually contact me and give me an explanation as to what was happening. At this point, I would like to add that there was no point in me transferring any additional funds to my Metro Bank current account, as they would merely have been swallowed by a £300 overdraft which I knew was not mine, or connected to my actions in any way whatsoever.
· I am happy to say that Metro Bank called me straight away after my friend had contacted them. Once again, the advisor went through all of my ‘pending’ transactions, and I identified all the ones that I knew had been debited and posted to my online account statement – this was basically every occasion I had used my card, but not all. At this point, it had to be clear to the advisor that I was not merely trying to get Metro Bank to refund occasions when I had actually used my card – almost every transaction was duplicated. In addition, my mother was having exactly the same problems – her card transactions had been posted and deducted from her account, but were still being classed as ‘pending’ transactions, so everything we were spending was effectively being spent twice.
· The advisor was very helpful. She said she would look into our issues and contact the relevant department within the bank so they could manually cancel off the duplicated transactions. She said she would call us back that evening to give us an update on what was happening, and to her credit, she did call back but we were unable to answer the call at that time. At this point, I would like to state that my mother and I were going on a trip to a local town which had been organised by our hotel – I had 2 Thai Baht in cash (approximately £1), and access to no other funds except for my credit card.
TUESDAY 8th MARCH
· As we had unfortunately missed the call from Shazeem the previous evening, I was keen to find out how things were going along. I checked my Metro Bank current account online once again, and instead of having an available balance of minus £300, this had changed to an available balance of approximately minus £150 – so I knew something had happened, but things still were not correct on either account
· Once again, I text my friend in the UK to call Metro Bank and ask them to call me. At this point I discovered that your call centres are not in actual fact 24 hours per day , but from 8.00am-8.00pm, so he left a message on my behalf asking for someone to call me back. The advisor did call me back and said that she had notified the relevant department, but she had to give them at least 24 hours before she could chase them up and I would have to wait another couple of hours. After some time, the advisor did call me back and told me that all the duplicated transactions had been cancelled off, she went on to tell me that I had an available balance of roughly £13 – once again, I knew this was incorrect; I was still missing about £100 and so was my mother.
· Shazeem, my mother, and myself were all confused as to which transactions were ‘pending’ and which transactions had been correctly posted. I agreed with the advisor that I needed to view the online statement at the same time as she was, and she stated that she would call me again in an hour. So once again, I had to pay internet fees at my hotel so I could access my statement. Upon reviewing my statement, all the posted transactions were correct and I knew for a fact that I had not used my card on any other occasion – no transactions should have been ‘pending.’
· Shazeem called me back, and I questioned how there could be any pending transactions on my account as all the times I had used my card were now displayed on my online statement. Whilst I was on the phone, The advisor said that my available balance had suddenly increased by approximately £100: the cash withdrawal outside my hotel in Bangkok had been posted on my account, but had still been showing as ‘pending’ until it was manually cancelled by the relevant department within Metro Bank. The advisor then spoke to my mother and everything appeared to be in order. The advisor informed me at this point that there had been problems with the bank receiving two requests for payments in Thailand and Egypt.
· At this point, I though the safest thing to do was to withdraw all my funds from my Metro Bank current account, so I did not encounter any further problems.
As I hope you can see, several days of my holiday were ruined by the actions Metro Bank: the rejection of my card in the restaurant and ATMs; promised calls not being returned; several days without any contact or information; considerable call and internet charges; the stress and inconvenience of being in a foreign country without money. As well as all of this, my main complaint is: how could it have taken Metro Bank so long (5 days) to rectify this issue of ‘pending’ and ‘debited’ transactions, if it was a commonly reported problem as the last advisor had suggested? I cannot tell you how bitterly disappointed I am in Metro Bank.
I believe it is reasonable to expect to have the following costs reimbursed as I would not have incurred these expenses if my Metro Bank current account had worked in the way it was supposed to; if it had worked the way any other bank account would have worked. I would request that Metro Bank:
· Reimburses the mobile phone charges I received from calling them on Friday 4th March;
· Reimburses the internet charges from my hotel In Bangkok;
· Reimburses the cost of the telephone call to Hong Kong after Metro Bank basically lead me to believe that I had been charged twice, and not to expect my money back ‘within the next few days’;
· Reimburses the cost of me having to withdraw money from my HSBC current account;
· Reimburses the internet charge from my hotel in Phuket.
In addition, I think it is only fair that Metro Bank should compensate both me and my mother for the considerable inconvenience and distress that we have experienced, not to mention all the time we spent worrying, and trying to sort this situation out. I truly feel that several days of my holiday were ruined.
I look forward to your response.
Yours faithfully,
I spoke with the head of operations in the Fulham Broadway branch, and he stated that he would ensure it went all the way to the top, so that these issues can be rectified. He is calling me back at the start of next week, so I will let you know what explanations I am given.
In the meantime, I would treat the Metro Bank current account with caution if you are planning on using abroad...
Please see the letter I recently handed into Metro Bank regarding my experince with them this month. Sorry in advance for the length.
COMPLAINT: ****
I would like to complain about my recent experience with my Metro Bank current account whilst I was abroad in Hong Kong and Thailand.
I would like to start off by saying that I was impressed and pleased with the ease at which I was able to open an account in your Fulham Broadway branch; so much so that I recommended that my mother did the same. Due to the excellent deal on using the account abroad, I wanted to try it out before I moved my day to day banking to Metro Bank. I was confident that if I ever encountered any problems, they would be dealt with quickly and efficiently – I could not have been more wrong.
I experienced a terrible level of service: on several occasions I was told calls would be returned, and they subsequently were not; I was given incorrect information by advisors – specifically that Metro Bank had experienced problems with individuals using their cards in Thailand and Egypt, and that the bank had been receiving two requests for every payment. However, having gone through both ‘pending’ and ‘posted’ transactions with several Metro Bank advisors, at no point do I recall any advisor informing me that the same transaction was pending twice – funds would disappear a second time once they had been officially posted and debited from the account. Thus, it is clear to me that the Metro Bank’s card systems are seriously flawed in some way as ‘pending’ transactions are not removed when they are eventually ‘posted.’ Furthermore, why did no advisor or representative inform me of these supposed problems with individuals in Egypt or Thailand (not the advisor in the branch when I opened the account, or any of the 3 advisors I spoke to on Friday 4th March)? In addition, I would just like to add that occasions when I used my card in Hong Kong were also duplicated, so to say that this problem only occurred to customers in Thailand or Egypt was also an incorrect statement to make.
I think the easiest way to show my dissatisfaction, is to go through the events of each day that I encountered problems with Metro Bank:
FRIDAY 4th MARCH
· On taking my mother out to a restaurant in Bangkok for her birthday, my card was declined in this busy restaurant on two occasions (which was extremely embarrassing). Luckily, my mother was able to settle the bill. I immediately panicked and thought my card had been cloned, and my funds stolen. I immediately went to ATM machines to see if I could withdraw any money and I was unable to – I knew something was wrong.
· I made my way back to my hotel so I could check my account online, having to pay the hotels extortionate fees in order to access the internet. On viewing my account, my available balance was much less than it should have been.
· I called Metro Bank using my mobile phone, started to explain the situation to an advisor and was cut off. I called again and the operator promised to call back – they did not.
· I called Metro Bank again after several minutes, as I considered this to be an urgent situation – I was in a foreign country and my money was missing. When I finally had the full attention of a Metro Bank advisor, he listed the transactions on my account which were ‘pending.’ I immediately disputed a transaction for roughly £100 for my hotel in Hong Kong ( I had seen from my online statement that this had been already been debited from my balance, and posted to my online statement). The advisor in question went on to tell me that this would have to be investigated as the Bank could not just refund disputed transactions; he advised that I should not expect to receive my money back ‘in the next few days.’ I also informed the advisor that my mother’s account was missing around £100. He said that he would e-mail the relevant department and get back to me with any updates; I asked him if he had my number and he said he had – he never called me back at any point in the future.
· After the information the Metro Bank advisor had given me, I decided the easiest solution would be to call the hotel in Hong Kong and inform them that they appeared to have charged myself and my mother twice – we didn’t have weeks for Metro Bank to ‘investigate’ the disappearance of our money. The hotel in Hong Kong said it was impossible and that they had not charged me twice - this was a very expensive call.
SATURDAY 5th MARCH
· I transferred an additional £100 to my Metro Bank current account and withdrew this from the cash machine outside my hotel in Bangkok, so I could settle my (rather substantial) bill.
· I would also like to state at this point that it was taking longer than 2 hours for faster payments from my HSBC current account to be credited to my Metro Bank current account. I realise that not much can be done about this, but it was very inconvenient.
· On my arrival in Phuket, I had to withdraw additional funds from my HSBC current account, due to the unreliability on Metro Banks acceptance of faster payments.
MONDAY 7th MARCH
· After an entire weekend in Phuket, I had received no communication from Metro Bank regarding my (or my mother’s) account. Upon checking, Metro Bank online, the screen informed me that I had an available balance of approximately minus £300 – I knew this was incorrect and something was seriously wrong : all that had happened on my account –as far as I knew - was that I had transferred in £100 and then withdrawn it.
· Due to Metro Banks unreliability, and the substantial call charges I had already received (from calling Metro Bank from my mobile, and from calling Hong Kong after the information Metro Bank had given me), I decided that it would be best for me to text a friend in the UK with all the relevant information, and get them to contact Metro Bank, so that Metro Bank would actually contact me and give me an explanation as to what was happening. At this point, I would like to add that there was no point in me transferring any additional funds to my Metro Bank current account, as they would merely have been swallowed by a £300 overdraft which I knew was not mine, or connected to my actions in any way whatsoever.
· I am happy to say that Metro Bank called me straight away after my friend had contacted them. Once again, the advisor went through all of my ‘pending’ transactions, and I identified all the ones that I knew had been debited and posted to my online account statement – this was basically every occasion I had used my card, but not all. At this point, it had to be clear to the advisor that I was not merely trying to get Metro Bank to refund occasions when I had actually used my card – almost every transaction was duplicated. In addition, my mother was having exactly the same problems – her card transactions had been posted and deducted from her account, but were still being classed as ‘pending’ transactions, so everything we were spending was effectively being spent twice.
· The advisor was very helpful. She said she would look into our issues and contact the relevant department within the bank so they could manually cancel off the duplicated transactions. She said she would call us back that evening to give us an update on what was happening, and to her credit, she did call back but we were unable to answer the call at that time. At this point, I would like to state that my mother and I were going on a trip to a local town which had been organised by our hotel – I had 2 Thai Baht in cash (approximately £1), and access to no other funds except for my credit card.
TUESDAY 8th MARCH
· As we had unfortunately missed the call from Shazeem the previous evening, I was keen to find out how things were going along. I checked my Metro Bank current account online once again, and instead of having an available balance of minus £300, this had changed to an available balance of approximately minus £150 – so I knew something had happened, but things still were not correct on either account
· Once again, I text my friend in the UK to call Metro Bank and ask them to call me. At this point I discovered that your call centres are not in actual fact 24 hours per day , but from 8.00am-8.00pm, so he left a message on my behalf asking for someone to call me back. The advisor did call me back and said that she had notified the relevant department, but she had to give them at least 24 hours before she could chase them up and I would have to wait another couple of hours. After some time, the advisor did call me back and told me that all the duplicated transactions had been cancelled off, she went on to tell me that I had an available balance of roughly £13 – once again, I knew this was incorrect; I was still missing about £100 and so was my mother.
· Shazeem, my mother, and myself were all confused as to which transactions were ‘pending’ and which transactions had been correctly posted. I agreed with the advisor that I needed to view the online statement at the same time as she was, and she stated that she would call me again in an hour. So once again, I had to pay internet fees at my hotel so I could access my statement. Upon reviewing my statement, all the posted transactions were correct and I knew for a fact that I had not used my card on any other occasion – no transactions should have been ‘pending.’
· Shazeem called me back, and I questioned how there could be any pending transactions on my account as all the times I had used my card were now displayed on my online statement. Whilst I was on the phone, The advisor said that my available balance had suddenly increased by approximately £100: the cash withdrawal outside my hotel in Bangkok had been posted on my account, but had still been showing as ‘pending’ until it was manually cancelled by the relevant department within Metro Bank. The advisor then spoke to my mother and everything appeared to be in order. The advisor informed me at this point that there had been problems with the bank receiving two requests for payments in Thailand and Egypt.
· At this point, I though the safest thing to do was to withdraw all my funds from my Metro Bank current account, so I did not encounter any further problems.
As I hope you can see, several days of my holiday were ruined by the actions Metro Bank: the rejection of my card in the restaurant and ATMs; promised calls not being returned; several days without any contact or information; considerable call and internet charges; the stress and inconvenience of being in a foreign country without money. As well as all of this, my main complaint is: how could it have taken Metro Bank so long (5 days) to rectify this issue of ‘pending’ and ‘debited’ transactions, if it was a commonly reported problem as the last advisor had suggested? I cannot tell you how bitterly disappointed I am in Metro Bank.
I believe it is reasonable to expect to have the following costs reimbursed as I would not have incurred these expenses if my Metro Bank current account had worked in the way it was supposed to; if it had worked the way any other bank account would have worked. I would request that Metro Bank:
· Reimburses the mobile phone charges I received from calling them on Friday 4th March;
· Reimburses the internet charges from my hotel In Bangkok;
· Reimburses the cost of the telephone call to Hong Kong after Metro Bank basically lead me to believe that I had been charged twice, and not to expect my money back ‘within the next few days’;
· Reimburses the cost of me having to withdraw money from my HSBC current account;
· Reimburses the internet charge from my hotel in Phuket.
In addition, I think it is only fair that Metro Bank should compensate both me and my mother for the considerable inconvenience and distress that we have experienced, not to mention all the time we spent worrying, and trying to sort this situation out. I truly feel that several days of my holiday were ruined.
I look forward to your response.
Yours faithfully,
I spoke with the head of operations in the Fulham Broadway branch, and he stated that he would ensure it went all the way to the top, so that these issues can be rectified. He is calling me back at the start of next week, so I will let you know what explanations I am given.
In the meantime, I would treat the Metro Bank current account with caution if you are planning on using abroad...
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Comments
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What my guess is, when you used your card in HK, that transaction had reserved some "pending" balance in your account. So when you used again in BKK, it rejected, because you had "no" enough available balance in your account. That kind of situation DID happen. Two solutions, leave "enough" money in your account for your trip. Bring two cards or more, used another one when one not working. Almost forget, there is last one solution, don't go travelling, stay at home!0
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johnmoney05 wrote: »What my guess is, when you used your card in HK, that transaction had reserved some "pending" balance in your account. So when you used again in BKK, it rejected, because you had "no" enough available balance in your account. That kind of situation DID happen. Two solutions, leave "enough" money in your account for your trip. Bring two cards or more, used another one when one not working. Almost forget, there is last one solution, don't go travelling, stay at home!
Excuse me, but if you read my post correctly it should be clear to you that there should have been adequate funds in my account to cover our meal in Bangkok. The only reason there was not was because Metro Bank authorised the payment and froze the funds (quite correctly) thus reducing the available balance; and then when they actually debited the payment from the account, the funds that had been previously frozen stayed frozen - thus every transaction was being debited twice.
Do not dare come here to lecture me on not taking enough money on holiday with me; this was nothing to do with over-spending on my part - read the post. Furthermore, I did have additional cards with me, so things weren't as bad as they could have been.
I am merely trying to warn people that Metro Bank are currently having problems with the use of their accounts in certain areas of the world. As they have admitted, and which I stated in my post. They have said it is common in Thailand and Egypt, but I experienced it in Hong Kong and Malaysia also.0 -
So how much you have in your account for the first transaction in HK, and how much money left for your trasnaction in BKK then?
Where in my post said you "over-spending"? It sounds like it is not "Metro Bank"'s fault but yours! I have used god knows how many times the Metro Bank card in HK, Thailand, China, France, Germany. No single problem. Of course, I always have money in my account.0 -
You obviously don't understand - do you work for Metro Bank by any chance?
When I was in Hong Kong, I had £450 in the account. On checking out, I had to make a payment to the hotel for approximately £100.
I made cash withdrawals in Bangkok: 10,000 THB (approx £80); and having kept a tally of my spending (card purhcases and withdrawals), I should have had approximately £113 in the account. The meal in the restaurant was approximately £20; so I had adequate funds to cover the payment - it was declined twice.
It is clear to me that you have not read my post properly. I believe the problem is: Metro Bank authorise the payment and freeze the funds; when the merchant goes on to request the funds, Metro Bank apply the exchange rate on that particular day, but they leave the initial frozen funds frozen.
To be honest, and I don't want to be rude, but you have not read the post and you don't seem to be able to grasp the problem. Give Metro Bank a call and ask them about the problems in Thailand and Egypt - perhaps they can make it clear to you.0 -
It is only the merchant who reserved the fund. Why you said Metro Bank did it?
Why do I want to call Metro Bank if I have "NO" problem with my card in Thailand or other places I used? Just keep some "enough" money in your account, then problem sorted, ok?!0 -
johnmoney05 wrote: »It is only the merchant who reserved the fund. Why you said Metro Bank did it?
Why do I want to call Metro Bank if I have "NO" problem with my card in Thailand or other places I used? Just keep some "enough" money in your account, then problem sorted, ok?!
You do not seem to understand this basic fact:
there was enough money!!!!
In short: For every single payment I made (withdrawal or by card) that amount was being deducted from the available balance twice! I was not making two payments or trying to use the card when I did not have enough money - READ THE POST.
Furthermore, if this was my fault, why have Metro Bank re-imbursed all the expenses I incurred? And why would the operations manager be speaking with senior management within Metro Bank because of this issue? Why have they agreed to pay myself and my mother compensation? - level yet to be agreed. A bank certainly wouldn't compensate someone for spending money that wasn't available to them;they'd be charging fees.0 -
Some bank likes to "pay" some "troublesome" customers a "few quids" to shut their mouth. That in fact, save time and cost at the end. Not sure if it is your case....0
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Just deposit double the amount that you intend to spend in your holidays and you should be fine. Or have a big enough overdraft to cover the uncleared pending transactions
Leaving your balance close to zero after a withdrawal overseas is asking for it!0 -
FPS isn't 100% gaurenteed so you cannot expect it to be. You won't be able to claim money back for HSBC charges.
You also seem to be blaming everything with Metro when a lot of it won't be their fault.
As above duplicate transactions usually occur because of the merchant being used by the shop/hotel etc. You can see other examples of this if you search MSE for Asda Online Shopping Duplicate Transaction.
The other fact is you obviously didn't leave some sort of buffer because of this.0 -
I take your point about leaving your balance close to zero, but when we were in Bangkok, my available balance should have been over £100 at that point, so trying to make a transaction for roughly £20 wasn't being unreasonable (I don't think); my intention was to send money over from HSBC as and when I needed it, and then I couldn't as the available balance was circa £300 overdrawn due to the duplications - they have agreed to pay my HSBC fees. But you're correct that I should not have completely relied on faster payments.
And I take the point about having double what you intend to spend, but as I mentioned in my first post, nobody at Metro Bank informed me of any issues (why would they?). And I have seen no mention of it on the forums. Besides, I'm not a millionaire - unfortunately... hehe.
I just wanted to make people aware that there are issues, and from what the operations manager at Fulham has told me, these are being investigated and should be ironed out soon.0
This discussion has been closed.
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