So I just read this article and it states metro bank have 915,000 customers
It has a market cap of just over £3 billion. So if we hit 1 million customers should we have a similar cap?
I signed up for a joint account at metro a couple of months ago. We went with metro largely because of glowing reviews on here. I was shocked how bad they were. Their app is terrible and their web site is poor. Sure, their staff were friendly, bit it took over an hour there to open an account.
I expected a new challenger bank to nail the customer experience, but I’ve found them to be inferior to NatWest in prettyuch every way.
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To compare, how do you find your experience with Monzo?
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Obviously Monzo don’t have a web app or branches, so no comparison to make there. When last I used it, Monzo’s app was great, and every interaction I’ve had with customer service has been great. If customer experience were the only consideration, Monzo would win hands down.
Monzo are still missing some features (like the joint account I went to Metro for), but they’re much newer than Metro.
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I’m a happy customer of Metro Bank. They support gender neutral titles and recognise non-binary people (I prefer Monzo’s approach of no titles are all but I’ll take what I can get) and they’re generally very responsive and friendly.
Regarding valuation, I think we are comparing apples and bananas. They’re very different. Metro is a full service retail bank. Monzo provides a current account… One of the least profitable components of a bank. It’s more than gaining a million customers, Monzo also needs to build more profitable services to reach where Metro is.
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I have never understood why an apparently modern bank founded in 21st century still doesn’t have online account opening.
Barclays has much better App and website - I wanted to move my banking to Metro about 2 years ago but just got so disappointed that ended up closing account.
Can’t compare with Monzo because they offerings are totally different.
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They announced a million users 3-6 months ago.
I don’t think you can compare them like for like although it was used as a yard stick by Monzo in their employee stock options calculator recently.
Metro Bank have an estate of prime high street corner retail properties (with great value unlike vast swathes of incumbent real estate) and IIRC they have over £1bn in deposits. That still leaves a large value when you strip out those assets, but then you have other factors such as being more established, being listed on the stock market and therefore on the books of institutions who may see it as a hedge against incumbent banks or a growth play.
I know it is coined a lot but I really think Monzo cannot be valued against traditional metrics. They are a tech company who are only claiming to be a bank to get in the door with regulators, and tech companies are notoriously difficult to value. It is all about user growth and monetisation of platforms rather than balance sheets and bricks and mortar.
Personally I think Monzo would need to hit 3-5 million users before it could be on a valuation in the same ball park as Metro Bank.
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I looked into Metro but aborted because they don’t have online account opening. They’re planning to open a branch in my nearest town (Southampton) soon - but why would you go into a branch to open an account?
Not sure who their target market is? Working people who don’t like the internet?
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Opened a business account with them last week based on their “open a business account in hours, not weeks” campaign. It took 2.5 hours in-branch, followed by 5 days to finally complete opening it. I guess their slogan is true, in a literal sense but still…
You can’t possibly fathom the mindset of their Trump-supporting, Brexit-backing founder, so I wouldn’t try!
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I’m a bit surprised at this given they’ve been quite progressive towards their customers… 
I wonder what other banks have these kind of secrets at the top…
I didn’t know this. Never gong near them now.
Never seriously got near opening and account so didn’t look too far into it. But I was a bit suspicious of the ethics, what with the founders name always being prefixed with, ‘American business man…’
Yeah, that’s ****. But they’ve been very open and positive to their customers, so that’s a good thing. I’m not sure what to make of them, but I doubt their ethics are really any worse than other retail banks.
Nothing like Monzo tho…
Of all the banks I have been with I found them the least competent.
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@tommy5dollar inspired me to do two simple Google searches.
First Metro Bank Founder and second Vernon Hill Trump. These are bit of eye opener they are probably bit worse than I had imagined.
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Given that most of their original branches are in some more affluent parts of London l think there demographic is beyond those without the internet. Metro Bank do make a big play on the personal experience which l think (and sure l read it somewhere) that they want to maintain opening an account as a personal face to face experience.
I guess Metro becomes the first High Street bank to offer this. They didn’t even offer usual online account opening before this.
Monzo’s recent charges seem to be bugging the author of this article.
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Tired it was quite a nice experience. Site well designed, loading of ID all very good. Turned me down though, glad l didn’t go into the branch to try and open an account. 
Turned you down? For a current account? Dang…
I’d like to think they were doing me a kind gesture and saving me from having another bank account 
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