Heinz wrote on Jul 29
th, 2010 at 11:30pm:
Aren't they Americans? Most fo their CS numbers are toll free so 03 numbers are expsnive by that standard.
The MetroBank model is of local retail banking. In the US each branch has a local number, which by definition is "toll-free" for its customers.
The UK telephone network is different. Because "local" calls are charged, the concept of "toll free" does not exist in the same way.
The two UK branches share the same non-geographic telephone number, which seems a little odd. "03" offers what is probably the cheapest all round option, even though 0845 or 080 would be cheaper for some customers.
Google reveals that they did indeed start off with 0845 08 08 500, but obviously decided to switch before the launch. (The Google cache reveals that the FSA register entry was changed at some point after 4 June.)
I wonder if they caught wind of what Ofcom is planning to do!