Smile Bank

LuSiVe

You can pay in cash, just hand it over with your debit card. It can't go in the envelopes but you can pay it in.

billbob

I would recommend reading the recent threads with regards to the new card readers now issued by Smile. This may put you off if you like using Internet banking!

KickandRun

LuSiVe wrote: »

You can pay in cash, just hand it over with your debit card. It can't go in the envelopes but you can pay it in.

I stand corrected, must admit it was a few years back when i tried. Was told to use the envelopes and I couldn't pay in cash.

oldagetraveller

I've been with smile as my main current account since their inception and except for the dive in interest rates, to near zero, on offer cannot fault them.
Customer service is excellent and U.K. based. I've yet to experience any pushy sales attempts when 'phoning them and just sticking to the business in hand.
I've read on MSE of people experiencing problems with their bank regarding the Direct Debit guarantee. Having just experienced a DD problem, Southern Electric taking payment for a closed account, contacting smile via secure message yesterday and receiving a reply this morning that the £35 will be credited to my account today. That is how it should work!
Of course if the £35 doesn't appear then I'll be straight back here having a whinge!:D

will-in-estoril

Smile has a geographical number, 0161-477 1927, which is also printed on the back of the debit card as their international number. This can make telephone banking less expensive!

Would also agree that their secure messaging service is very efficient.

dc110

I had a savings account with them a few years ago and service was great up until the day I decided to close the account.

After that everythign went wrong. Account not being closed but internet access disabled, wrong balance sent to me, no interest paid on account up to closure.

To their credit, they apologised and gave me £5 compensation - which was good given that the residual interest due was only about £5 so 100% profit!

The complaint was dealt with very well and for me this is the best way to judge a company - mistakes will happen but how do they handle them?

So for me, a very good bank - go for it :j

iscrimger

Good bank, great customer service but they can be a bit 'funny'. The interest rates are awful really for an Internet only bank.

Most of your banking with them is done online. You can use the Co-op branches but the Post Office can do everything, pay in cheques, pay in cash/take out cash etc.

You can also post cheques to the bank using the Freepost address.

The secure message facility used to be very efficient but in the past year or so I've found replies take longer than they originally did but still within 48 hours in most cases.

The new card reader they have issued is a bit annoying and they are planning on rolling this out further for online transactions. Basically I pay all my bills using smile. So I know have to sit and go through the procedure 10 times to make all my bill payments where previously it was a simple enter amount, press ok.

This new card reader requires you enter a long number into the reader and it generates a 2 part number which you enter into the site. Doing that 10 times one after the other puts me off paying my bills!

lynzpower

INterest rates are pants.

Brilliant bank though, I have 3 seperate savings accounts ( short term) and also 3 current accounts. I cant fault them- althugh th card reader does bother me a bit. But as OH is with co-op we both have the same card reader so we can carry one round for banking on the move.

I dont tout for referrals often but if you are interested in going ahead I can refer you adn we will both recieve acase of wine. I have a thread on the referrals board from ages ago for this.

hannahO_2

I've just discovered that they produce a statement after every 25 transactions so if you had 100 transactions you'd have 4 statements in one month and they charge £2.50 each, totalling £10 to receive their printed statements should you need one for a special purpose. Their excuse was, "We are an internet banking based" :mad: