Metro Bank Reviews 

I represent a small subscription membership society (an angling club) which needs banking services. We have a small turnover (under 3k p.a.) and a reserves which will cover us for over 5 years of turnover.

We have a community current account and an annually renewed savings bond. On paper it would seem that Metro (unlike many other banks) should be able to provide the services we need. Caveat Emptor!

Im general the current account meets our needs although we are now subject to a monthly service charge. I will note that the Metro inspired bureaucracy (as distinct from legal requirements) made the process of opening this somewhat protracted and the paperwork seemed overly fulsome and repetitive. For reasons of good governance we require dual authority on payments we use a chequebook for payments out. payments.

We've held the account for 10 years. Each year we have to renew the savings account and this has been an annual nightmare. The renewal simply moves money which has been held by Metro into a new Metro account with no new funds. On maturity it is automatically transferred to the current account (where it earns no interest). Ahead of this we are invited to say what we want to do on maturity and invited to phone or 'drop into branch' if we want to renew.

We are NOT told that renewal is far from as simple as this. We require:
1. Minutes of the meeting signed by all account signatories which takes the decsion to renew (even though the society's constitution, of which Metro has a copy empowers the elected officer to act).
2. Completion of a 9 page generic form to open a 'new' account signed by all signatories. (It is not ''new' and therefore subject to required money laundering check it is existing, held by the bank and a new annual savings internal transfer should be simple and straightforward and quick).

The invitation to renew does not state this or provide the required forms or links to the same. As for the dedicated business managers they seem to move from year to year and inour experience certainly do not maintain contacts with their clients.

This paperwork has to be taken into branch. They do not make appointments so you can be 'lucky' and see someone fairly quickly or wait for hours. The renewal in my experience over a number of years takes anything form 30-60 minutes, assuming you have a representative who is familiar with what is needed. What should be fairly straightforward and speedy process is anything but.

On 4 occasions in the last 7 years this is the end of the matter and you are set up for the coming year. On 3 occasions including this year, the money sits in the current account. As a result the renewal dates have slipped from mid January to the second half of March and once this year's debacle has been resolved are likely to slip to mid year.

I have mixed experiences about the complaints process, which can vary from informative, responsive and timely to dilatory, uninformative and unresponsive. Currently we experiencing the latter.......

5 weeks after providing all the paperwork, checked and signed off in branch, the former bond's assets languish in the current account. I have yet to be told why or why if Metro can't find the paperwork I have not been contacted to re-provide. Metro either have it or they don't, but seem unwilling to tell me.

It looks as if we are on our way to FOS; a process which will be an unnecessary mutual waste of valuable time.

Sutton branch in surrey . Do not know how to use s computer young lad said he wasn't sure he only could print off statements. My advice do it yourself. No wonder banks are closing if know one can use a computer. Im closing my bank account

Don't bother with the on -line .Visit the branch. Bit stuffed though if a branch visit is not possible as virtual assistant can't figure that out.

Had to close my account today due to the overly strict security systems being a pain in the backside. Locks me out constantly when I try and log in and or reset my password. I don’t have that problem with my current bank. Absolutely dreadful bank, save the hassle and take your business elsewhere

Dreadful bank. Opened account 3 weeks ago yet still can’t use the bank account because there’s a technical issue with the banks card system where it doesn’t allow you to activate cards in the app because the app doesn’t register that you have been issued a card. I’ve phoned up 8 times and everytime they said the will resolve the issue but the still haven’t, even after issuing 3 new cards nothing has changed whatsoever
I’ve filed an official complaint but yet still not heard nothing
They simply said oh I thought we resolved the issue it’s a common issue is what the technical team said
They admitted they have no idea what the problem is
Useless is an understatement

After trying to open a business account with a couple of digital only banks unsuccessfully, I walked into my local Metro branch on a Friday at 3pm and had an account up and running before 5pm. It was much easier to work with a dedicated human face to face who understood my business and didn’t ask irrelevant questions or ask for documentation that was not applicable. One of the digital providers I tried previously took me right to the end of the form filling and then told me it could not open an account for an investment type business. The other just got stuck on a page that I had completed but kept telling me my form was incomplete. Another asked for a full life history and onerous documentation and then refused to open the account. The experience at Metro was much easier. The form filling was done by them and each step was clearly explained in the context of my business. All the financial checks went through easily as only the relevant ones needed to be done. And I wasn’t fobbed off by anyone telling me it could not be done that late in the day because we are outside banking hours on a Friday afternoon.

The worst bank I've ever dealt with. The company I work for has two business accounts with them. I've been added as an authorised person but after an hour plus on the phone with them trying to set up the app on Android discovered its not possible due to a known issue so they sent out a security token which was supposed to be posted the same day, it took over 10 days to arrive. I've just tried to use it for the first time today to discover I'm missing a 6 digit pin I should have been sent. I called to make the payment but they're not able to verify me. Dreadful service. I would never use them again.

Everything was perfect. The bank’s representative, Mr Jatin, was highly professional and made the entire process smooth and stress-free. His knowledge, efficiency, and courteous approach truly stood out. He handled everything with great care and made my life much easier. Excellent service overall.

UPDATE: I sent my chat transcript as an attachment to "phishing@..." with a written complaint. They called me back today, about 48-72 hours later (maybe due to the weekend). They talked me through what they were doing to fix it. I'm not sure whether they will resolve the specific points that I raised (E.g. I explained that "live agent" in English does not necessarily imply live=breathing human, but could mean live=realtime bot. I also asked them to change the phone number in their SMS fraud warning to Metrobank's advertised number). Nevertheless, they did phone, demonstrating good will, and therefore I have upgraded my review from 1* to 3*.

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I've been a customer for 20 years. Normally I never talk to them as no need to. This week, for the first time, I received an SMS saying that they'd stopped one of my transfers of a few thousand pounds. The phone number in the SMS was not their normal number, so, even though I had made a transfer, the SMS looked suspicious.

So I called their normal number. Spoke to their AI phone bot, which asked me to use the app chat. The chat system is terrible. The bot says it's connecting you to an agent. The agent says that they're going to transfer you to the right team, but then ends the chat. I wrote about my problem and their agent said "we can't see your message" in the chat. They could see every message except the one explaining the problem. I typed it 6 TIMES into the chat over an hour.

I was so fed up with them that I asked to speak to a manager, and they said "the manager is in a meeting". Oh COME ON. Such BS.

I can't find any email address on their website for making complaints (it just re-directs you to their chat), so I'm writing here instead.

P.s. This is the same week that the media covered their CEO being paid £millions in salary.

Metro Bank’s (Guildford) service is getting worse every day. Customer response times are very slow may be due to staff shortages, and waiting times are consistently at least one hour. This is becoming increasingly frustrating.

Went to local Stains metro where we have an account and the staff was unhelpful.
Took long time to meet a member of staff to sort out our on line banking app.
the staff not helpful at all.

I've just switched away from Metro as I got so fed up with Metro not supporting open banking fully. Originally I moved to Metro because of their 7 day branch opening and longer hours, which have also now stopped. Very disappointment overall.

A well trained team who guided me through the intricacies of my new business account. Friendly, experienced and knowledgeable

Set up based on being the "banking revolution" where your card could be printed there and then open bank holidays, weekends and weekdays until 8

Now can't print card there and then a normal Monday to Friday 9-5 bank everything that made it special gone

Very nice I m full satisfied 😌

Really poor experience with Metro Bank again. I wasn’t able to transfer money in the app – exactly the same issue I had last year. Tried using the in-app chat first, but they said they couldn’t help and told me to call instead.

Ended up stuck with the virtual assistant on the phone, going round in circles with the same questions and never actually getting through to a real person. The whole process took over an hour and I still didn’t get it sorted.

Very frustrating and a complete waste of time – not what you expect from a bank

I LOVED this bank. Personal service, print your card in store, helpful etc etc etc.
1) You can no longer call your local bank.
2) You can no longer print your card in store.
3) You can no longer get through to a human without speaking to a terrible AI assistant.
Noawdays that's all normal. But...
4)If you want to search if you have ever been paid by or paid, a person or company, you can't. You have to traipse through the every statement one by one!
In this day and age this is unacceptable.

Absolutely the worst bank I have ever come across arrogant horrible people who think they are better than customers I have missed the passing of my sister over these not putting my money in on time and no sorry would never recommend this bank to anyone please don’t make the same mistake as I did PLEASE LEARN FROL MY MISTAKES PEOPLE I DO DEEPLY ADVISE YOU

My experience with metro bank is 5 star
Specially person Tania
Who helped me open my account
All I can say she’s a super star we need more people like her
She’s very very talented professional and most of all she’s very very kind person
So for her
5 stars 🌟 🌟🌟🌟🌟

Easy to communicate with easy to work with very professional made the process simple and straightforward would definitely recommend this. Many kind regards Adam five stars all the way even more if I could award them.