Smile customers

rachelstephens · 11 December 2006 at 12:04PM

hi, i am trying to find out what Smile are like if you ask for charges back, if anyone can tell me their experiences that would be great.

also, when i have gone over my overdraft limit they have charged me £5 a day plus a £15 "service charge" - is this service charge recoverable?

thanks for any help anyone can offer, i have done my best to find the answers on the board but am still unsure

cheers, rachel

foxij · 3 January 2007 at 6:06PM

rachelstephens wrote:

hi, i am trying to find out what Smile are like if you ask for charges back, if anyone can tell me their experiences that would be great.

also, when i have gone over my overdraft limit they have charged me £5 a day plus a £15 "service charge" - is this service charge recoverable?

thanks for any help anyone can offer, i have done my best to find the answers on the board but am still unsure

cheers, rachel

Hi Rachael,

Ive not had any problems with Smile so far. They sent me my subject access request list with all the charges within the 40days. In fact they replied within 1 week. When I got my charges list it was abit confusing so I rang them up to explain the charges as they use different terms such as Commission, Debit interest, fees etc to equate to charges.

I totalled up the Commission, fees ( this is the service charge) & Debit interest. I am now reclaiming my money back for £1200. So, don't delay. Good luck let me know how you get on.

foxij :T

Skintus_McFlintus · 5 January 2007 at 7:20PM

Just wanted a bit of advice first from anyone whether my chances of success are reasonable...though no harm in trying anyway.

Situation being a £500 overdraft facility was revoked without my receiving warning (to clarify, the bank DID send warning by email, though due to so many phishing emails my spam filter junked the smile email too - so not a case of a failure to advise as such and out of the Bank's control, though a letter confirming the content of the email would not seem unreasonable to ask for but hey..)

The balance at the time was enough below the overdraft limit for me to be unconcerned as the account was not being drawn on at all.

However, due to the revoking of the overdraft:

Month 1:
£115 in daily excess charges
£15 in service charge

Month 2:
£160 in daily excess charges
£15 in service charges
£60 correspondance commision (for sending me a letter which confirmed my account's current status and demanding payment - had found out by my card on my other account being held by ATM)

TOTAL: £365

Overdraft is now settled by bank transfer from another account

Looking at the T&C I can see that a £5 daily excess is indeed mentioned.

My initial thinking is to claim back all but the service charge - as this seems more "normal"? Or should I add those into the calculations on this site anyway since all they can say is "no" - or is it deemed more "reasonable" to accept those charges which are more reasonable, when thinking in terms of how the application is received?

Edinburghlass_2 · 5 January 2007 at 8:20PM

The above post by foxij might help regarding their charges.

rusty-london · 5 January 2007 at 8:28PM

I claimed back my charges from Smile and it went without a problem.

I claimed back the service charge, commission and daily £5 charges. The total that I claimed was about the same as what you are claiming. They paid out after I got to the Moneyclaim stage and never threatened to close my account like they seem to have done with some customers.

Skintus_McFlintus · 5 January 2007 at 9:06PM

The consumer action group seem to concur with the above, however I have realised that I do have a basic bank account at Yorkshire bank that I have never used (couldn't even tell you what my PIN number for the cashpoint is - as if I would tell anyway!!) - and awaiting a low-use tariff prepaid mastercard to arrive which I need anyway for about 2-4 monthly payments that I MUST make by card (football tickets from a club 70 miles away) and the odd amazon purchase (savings on marketplace are more than the added cost of the card) since I have also been downgraded to electron :eek: so even if they do shut up shop on me, as long as I balance enough in my a/c to see my regular payments are paid if they don't, and enough on the prepaid card to see me OK for the transition if they do I should be safe enough.....

The signs seem to be encouraging, however I DO have a credit card which I am paying off with them (cut up card and returned it) so I suppose they MIGHT be iffy with that if they really wanted to be threatening

rusty-london · 6 January 2007 at 9:30AM

I wouldn't worry about them doing anything about the credit card, as the credit card is under a different agreement to your current account, they can't withdraw the card from you.

Wiggly_Worm · 10 January 2007 at 10:12AM

Hey, just thought I'd share this! Below an exchange between me and Smile, through their online banking system. I didn't want to be rude straight away, but give them a chance to 'redeem' themselves (inasfar as a banking organisation can do so

)... It worked! And pretty swiftly too - only cost me one sleepless night :rolleyes:

To : BANK
Date : 09/01/2007
Subject : Bill Payments

I have just been charged £50 for an unpaid something. Please explain.

Hello Mrs G

The £50.00 charge was for to items returned unpaid. One for £11.90 from Morrisons. Also £36.40 from the Inland Revenue. These were paid by your debit card. There wasn't enough funds in the account to cover the payments. This is why they were returned and two £25.00 charges were applied.

Thanks

To : BANK
Date : 09/01/2007
Subject : Bill Payments

Thanks for your reply, but I still do not understand. Both those payments went out, so they cannot have been "unpaid". And there was enough money in my account on that day because I transferred some.
I am not satisfied with this explanation and feel I would like to ask for a refund of these unreasonable charges.

Hello Mrs G

I'm sorry for the confusion. I've looked at your account. I have refunded the £50.00 as a gesture of good will. This will be in your account in 1 working day.

Thanks

He he. So, they took a whopping £50 out of my account, leaving me so far over my o/d limit I had to empty our 'insurance' fund to cover it (sorry cat, no vet for you this month). For what? For two 'unpaid items'...which had been paid! You can't take your eyes off em for a minute can you?

Hope this helps someone.

woottonjohn · 17 January 2007 at 10:10PM

Hi,

Back in November I sent a secure message to my bank (Smile) requesting details of any charges I have incurred in the past six years however I have not had anything from them. I sent them another message on 11th December asking for the information again and they said "the Subject Access Team will be in touch with you shortly about providing you with all your statements. " yet still have heard nothing back....

Is this to be expected or should I follow up with a letter? Is the 40 day response time to get the information or is it to get literally a response saying they are dealing with it.

I've become increasingly frustrated with the service with them lately where communcations have been poor and worse than that, a card I cancelled because it was stollen they are still letting transactions go through on. They are refunding me but all the same, I reported it stolen back in November and my other banks seem to be doing a good job in blocking any fraudulant transactions....

Does anyone else have any experiences of dealing with Smile on the reclaiming bank charges issue? Am I being fobbed off?

Thanks

J

Wiggly_Worm · 17 January 2007 at 11:41PM

I wrote a letter and asked for details of charges and they sent it within 2 weeks, and sent my £10 cheque back too.

I've not had any problems with them and found them quite communicative (see post above)

foxij · 23 January 2007 at 1:26PM

Hi All,

Smile paid up into my account £829 today yippppppppee!!. Although, the total charges came to £1150. What I've done is transferred the £829 to a linked account & will accept that as part payment & go for the rest. What template shall I use ...Any advice

foxi :beer: :T :rotfl:

Smile customers

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