Nationwide or Smile

Cypher

I'm in the process of switching my bank from First Direct to Nationwide, and I'm having huge regrets at picking Nationwide.

• Its taken over 3 weeks so far and I'm now hanging on changing my Direct Debits over as its almost pay day again.
• The last two nights I have struggled to log on to internet banking.
• Phoning them is a waste of time as they never seem to want to answer the phone. 15 mins last night and I gave up, this isn't the first time either.
• That laptop security issue still worries me.

First Direct look well worth £10 a month by comparision.

I almost opened a Smile account when choosing where to move to, but went for Nationwide. I really don't want to go opening accounts at every bank to test out their service.

Would anyone who has both Nationwide and Smile comment on their advantages and disadvantages.

Also anyone recently opened a Smile account, how did it go, how have you found their service.

oldagetraveller

I'm going back a few years now but when I opened my Smile account and let them take care of the DD transfer it all went like clockwork and completed in less than 2 weeks.
Smile CS are 1st class, there's usually a short wait when 'phoning, depending on time of day, but never anything like 15 min. I use the geographical number anyway.
Just last week I made a mistake when transferring money to my Icesave account, I forgot to move enough into my current account to cover the DD transfer. As a result current account went £3000+ overdrawn, yet they honoured the transfer. I 'phoned them after realising what had happened and promised to transfer funds immediately, which I did. I asked if I would be charged and the lady said no, as long as the deficit is made up before that evening.There have been no charges added to my account.
On a previous occasion I had a debit card purchase refused, again my fault through lack of available funds!!:rolleyes: Smile actually 'phoned me to check if I had attempted the transaction thinking that my card or details might have been used without my authority.
So I do rate Smile quite highly. Don't know about Nationwide, although my daughter has a current account with them and is happy with their services.

Kilty_2

Did you open your account with Nationwide online? I opened a FlexAccount in-branch and it was fully active in less than a working week.

Cypher

Thanks for the replys

Yes I did open the account online, I actually opened a second flex account (also online) and its been 8 days now and I'm still waiting for the paperwork

Kilty_2

Seems their online application isn't anywhere near as good then. I was surprised with the ease and speed of opening an account in-branch.

pt2006

I also have applied online for a flex account and they are been slow at sending letters out, maybe the xmas post is to blame

CopperPlate_2

smile every time. Nationwide take days if not a week or more to respond to messages and it took weeks to open the account online at the start of the year.

topher_2

I recently opened a Smile account and it opended within 3 days (including a weekend I think). I decided to transfer the Direct Debits myself as some are moving to Smile, some are to be cancelled and others are being moved to a joint account. So far customer service with Smile has been great - no being put on hold and passed from person to person as I was with HSBC.

Only thing I haven't seen yet is an easy way to transfer money between smile accounts (I have a savings account with them as well to put spare cash in until the end of the month when it gets transfered to an account with better interest) without typing in the account number and sort code. I may well be missing something though!!!

simongregson

topher wrote:

Only thing I haven't seen yet is an easy way to transfer money between smile accounts (I have a savings account with them as well to put spare cash in until the end of the month when it gets transfered to an account with better interest) without typing in the account number and sort code. I may well be missing something though!!!

Once you do a transfer it will appear on your list of transfers, so you just click on it again to do a future transfer.

The useful thing about it is that you can set up irregular transfers to external accounts without going through the pay bills facility.

Simon.

Cypher

Cheers guys, I'll give Smile a try

Cypher

with smile everyone gets a 12 month £500 overdraft with no fee. You'll just pay 11.9% EAR interest

They say you get a 12 month £500 overdraft with no fee does this mean you have to pay for it after 12 months
I've never used an overdraft so its probably not a issue but I like to know how things work.