Smile Bank customers - time to leave

meester

Smile have finally driven me away. Their interest rates have not been competitive for five years. Their current account has inferior interest to most high street banks, so do their savings and ISAs.

Their Visa/overdraft interest rates have been whacked up sky high. Charges have been introduced for things that used to be free.

They were going to steal £20 off me for the £1000 overdraft facility I've had for six years, I had to email them in order to get them NOT to charge me for something I've had for free. They charged me £30 when I forgot to cancel a standing order when I changed it to Lloyds (in the same bounced payment situation, Lloyds increased my overdraft free of charge) despite having plenty of money in my savings account.

And now today I received a robot call from a computer, which asked me to press any key. I DO NOT speak to computers, if somebody wants to speak to me they can make the effort to do so in person, so I hung up.

It turns out I had forgotten to pay my bill by a measly five days.

So I paid it online, only to notice they had reduced my £7,000 credit limit to a poxy £500, so I fired off an enraged email to them slagging off their dreadful service and explaining why I've moved to Lloyds.

I wasn't impressed then to receive ANOTHER robot call at 7pm, I didn't even bother swearing at that one before hanging up.

So seeing in my email I have a new 'secure message', I logged on expecting to see a meek apology for being such a rubbish bank.

But no, it's a patronising email from Smile:

We regularly undertake a review of all our Visa accounts to make sure our customers are making full use of our services.

In cases where an account hasn't been run within the terms and conditions, a decision is made to reduce the credit limit available to try to get things back on track.

Because you've not been making regular payments to your account we've reduced your credit limit to 500 pounds.

We'll review your account again within the next 6 months to make a decision on whether to return your card to its original credit limit.

In the meantime, please make sure that you keep to the smile Visa credit card terms and conditions and make the minimum monthly payment to your card.

!!!!!!? I had £10k in my other account (I say had, because it is all out now), have in the past had over £100k in there, and have never missed a payment, and for being five days late ONCE on a tiny £350 bill, they have decided to treat me like a child, and oh-so-f***ing generously decided that in six months if I'm a very good boy they will review my behaviour and might let me have a real credit limit.

I have told them where they can stick their credit card.

And the same applies to the rest of their services.

simax

meester wrote: »

Smile have finally driven me away. Their interest rates have not been competitive for five years. Their current account has inferior interest to most high street banks, so do their savings and ISAs.

Their Visa/overdraft interest rates have been whacked up sky high. Charges have been introduced for things that used to be free.

They were going to steal £20 off me for the £1000 overdraft facility I've had for six years, I had to email them in order to get them NOT to charge me for something I've had for free. They charged me £30 when I forgot to cancel a standing order when I changed it to Lloyds (in the same bounced payment situation, Lloyds increased my overdraft free of charge) despite having plenty of money in my savings account.

And now today I received a robot call from a computer, which asked me to press any key. I DO NOT speak to computers, if somebody wants to speak to me they can make the effort to do so in person, so I hung up.

It turns out I had forgotten to pay my bill by a measly five days.

So I paid it online, only to notice they had reduced my £7,000 credit limit to a poxy £500, so I fired off an enraged email to them slagging off their dreadful service and explaining why I've moved to Lloyds.

I wasn't impressed then to receive ANOTHER robot call at 7pm, I didn't even bother swearing at that one before hanging up.

So seeing in my email I have a new 'secure message', I logged on expecting to see a meek apology for being such a rubbish bank.

But no, it's a patronising email from Smile:

We regularly undertake a review of all our Visa accounts to make sure our customers are making full use of our services.

In cases where an account hasn't been run within the terms and conditions, a decision is made to reduce the credit limit available to try to get things back on track.

Because you've not been making regular payments to your account we've reduced your credit limit to 500 pounds.

We'll review your account again within the next 6 months to make a decision on whether to return your card to its original credit limit.

In the meantime, please make sure that you keep to the smile Visa credit card terms and conditions and make the minimum monthly payment to your card.

!!!!!!? I had £10k in my other account (I say had, because it is all out now), have in the past had over £100k in there, and have never missed a payment, and for being five days late ONCE on a tiny £350 bill, they have decided to treat me like a child, and oh-so-f***ing generously decided that in six months if I'm a very good boy they will review my behaviour and might let me have a real credit limit.

I have told them where they can stick their credit card.

And the same applies to the rest of their services.

........... and if you'd paid your bills on time and made sure your money was in the right place, then that wouldn't have happened, would it?? :rolleyes:

I'm expecting a post from you in the next few months, exactly the same, except that the word "Smile", will be replaced by "Lloyds TSB"

Poor money management. Plain and simple. And no-one to blame but yourself.

If I had a million quid in savings with Nationwide, but a zero balance on my Flexaccount, and a Direct Debit went out for say £30, I'd be in the wrong and would have to suffer a poorer banking relationship and a charge. As it was my fault I didn't manage my cash better.... sheesh!

meester

simax wrote: »

I'm expecting a post from you in the next few months, exactly the same, except that the word "Smile", will be replaced by "Lloyds TSB"

Have you actually read my post?

That DID happen in my Lloyds account. I made a transfer for £3,000 having previously scheduled a £3,000 payment.

They honoured both payments, increased my overdraft limit to £3,250, and didn't charge me a penny. And they wrote me a letter to explain it.

Poor money management. Plain and simple. And no-one to blame but yourself.

If I had a million quid in savings with Nationwide, but a zero balance on my Flexaccount, and a Direct Debit went out for say £30, I'd be in the wrong and would have to suffer a poorer banking relationship and a charge. As it was my fault I didn't manage my cash better.... sheesh!

Well yes, but I had about £35k in my Lloyds savings account and £100 in my current account, and they DID honour my payment.

So I am very happy to give them my business, especially when they have better rates than Smile.

I used to keep track of all my payments with mind-numbing accuracy, but I have enough spare that it's not worth my while, I do however hope for a bank that will act with some consideration should I err.

CopperPlate_2

I have to say that, in general, I agree with the OP and his opinion of smile and their deteriorating product offerings, their customer service levels and often poor approach to customer retention.

That apart, the fact they missed their credit card payment date by 5 days - not just a day (we are all prone to the odd forgetful day) - is a bit much to then rail against the bank when they take some form of action. What did you expect them to do? Take the cash to pay the bill from another account? What happens then if the same thing occurs the following month? Do they do the same again? Some might argue that that's not really the banks responsibility to manage your accounts in that way? It's easy to point the finger afterwards - but why didn't you have a full/minimum payment direct debit in force for the credit card which would remove the need to always remember to pay in time.

I think you're expecting a bit much from them in so much as receiving an 'apology' (I take it you were being tongue in cheek). Let's be fair - you forgot to pay your credit card bill by almost a week overdue. I'm surprised they didn't stop your card, and you did receive contact of sorts (albeit from the automated service) which you chose to ignore/not take.

There's little point in ranting about the amount of cash you had with them/moved from them after the event. You don't say whether this was a one off or whether you regularly miss your payment date - given the current climate, banks are taking a harder line with those they might perceive to be a 'credit risk' and failing to pay the bill in time is probably a warning sign on their part to look at the account.

You're not with them any longer - I'd move on and get over it.

meester

CopperPlate wrote: »

I have to say that, in general, I agree with the OP and his opinion of smile and their deteriorating product offerings, their customer service levels and often poor approach to customer retention.

That apart, the fact they missed their credit card payment date by 5 days - not just a day (we are all prone to the odd forgetful day) - is a bit much to then rail against the bank when they take some form of action. What did you expect them to do? Take the cash to pay the bill from another account?

It's not a case of being late 1 or 5 days. It's not unusual for people to forget a bill altogether, they will obviously remember it when the next bill comes. It's only one bill. If you look on a credit record, they have '1's for bills paid one month late, and then '3's for bills paid 3 months late. A '1' is not a catastrophe.

It's grossly insulting to me to send me a patronising email telling me that I'm not fit to borrow money from them because I forgot one bill in 8 years.

What happens then if the same thing occurs the following month? Do they do the same again? Some might argue that that's not really the banks responsibility to manage your accounts in that way? It's easy to point the finger afterwards - but why didn't you have a full/minimum payment direct debit in force for the credit card which would remove the need to always remember to pay in time.

I don't think it's possible to set up a full payment direct debit, a minimum one is not particularly useful, some months there might be £3k on there, and the minimum payment might be high, other times nothing.

I think you're expecting a bit much from them in so much as receiving an 'apology' (I take it you were being tongue in cheek). Let's be fair - you forgot to pay your credit card bill by almost a week overdue. I'm surprised they didn't stop your card, and you did receive contact of sorts (albeit from the automated service) which you chose to ignore/not take.

What on earth? Stop a card because you're a week late? I have forgotten to pay my bill on another card before, they just show on the next bill the late payment charge, and you pay it double quick to avoid incurring any more interest.

And my complaint was about their overall customer service, i.e. the substandard interest rates, the increase charges, the charging for things that used to be free, the use of automated diallers, which I know a lot of people find annoying, etc.

There's little point in ranting about the amount of cash you had with them/moved from them after the event. You don't say whether this was a one off or whether you regularly miss your payment date - given the current climate, banks are taking a harder line with those they might perceive to be a 'credit risk' and failing to pay the bill in time is probably a warning sign on their part to look at the account.

I did say "have never missed a payment".

BTW, I paid my bill on Friday, received a further automated call from them on Friday evening, was woken up on Saturday by it, received more calls from them on Saturday, then on Sunday again, several calls today, starting at 10am.

Obviously their systems are too stupid to recognise that I have paid my bill on their site three days ago.

The bottom line is Smile had me as a customer, and they drove me away to another bank. THey might be very happy with that, I have no idea.

CopperPlate_2

No. The bottom line is that you didn't pay your bill in time and because smile has taken fairly Draconian measures against you, you're p'd off. You admit yourself that you've missed a payment on another card - smile may take these other missed payments into account. I don't know.

You can try and dress it up as their fault, poor customer service/deals, etc, and justify these as the reason for leaving them. It doesn't really make much difference. You still seem extremely fired up about something that you profess not to care much about.

As I said, get over it, you're not a customer of theirs now.

meester

CopperPlate wrote: »

No. The bottom line is that you didn't pay your bill in time and because smile has taken fairly Draconian measures against you, you're p'd off. You admit yourself that you've missed a payment on another card - smile may take these other missed payments into account. I don't know.

They couldn't possibly. They would have to do a credit check for that, and they are not allowed to do that without my permission.

You can try and dress it up as their fault, poor customer service/deals, etc, and justify these as the reason for leaving them. It doesn't really make much difference. You still seem extremely fired up about something that you profess not to care much about.

I am just saying, I think they suck, and people should leave. It took quite a lot of bad service to drive me away. I think others should follow suit.

As I said, get over it, you're not a customer of theirs now.

My accounts are still open for now

nick74

meester wrote: »

I don't think it's possible to set up a full payment direct debit

It is, although they don't advertise the fact. I have one set up on my Smile Visa card.

WTFUK

Smile are crap and I left them too. I think Simax and CopperPlate are being somewhat unfair. It is human to forget to pay an item especially if you have a lot on your mind. The payment is 5 days late; Smile could have simply whacked on a late payment charge instead of this; however as someone who is being a little bit more savvy these days moneywise I loathe credit cards....

TrickyDicky

meester wrote: »

It's not a case of being late 1 or 5 days. It's not unusual for people to forget a bill altogether, they will obviously remember it when the next bill comes. It's only one bill. If you look on a credit record, they have '1's for bills paid one month late, and then '3's for bills paid 3 months late. A '1' is not a

This isnt quite right. the numbers refer to the number of consecutive late payments. So a 1 would be 1 payment missed, 3 would be 3 payments missed. Then an 8 means default, which is why often you'll see 0000128, which is when the company recalls all the debt immediatly. It was quite common to see defaults occuring after only 2 late payments.

margaretclare

I am just saying, I think they suck, and people should leave. It took quite a lot of bad service to drive me away. I think others should follow suit.

...and I don't think it is up to you to tell other people what they should do just because of your bad experience.

I have had no problems at all with Smile, so I shall not leave just because you think I should.