What on Earth is Happening at smile Bank?

DairyQueen

eskbanker said:

DairyQueen said:

Why is this issue suspiciously absent from mainstream media reports? If this was one of the big four the media would be all over it like a rash.

Surely you've answered your own question there, the mainstream media aren't interested because it's a tiny niche product of no interest to the majority of mainstream media consumers....

smile was one of the first internet banks and I have held this account for around 20 years. Judging from the comments on social media many customers are of equal long-standing. 

Current a/cs with regulated UK banks aren't 'tiny niche products'. The cause of this issue is still unknown. I would have thought that all risks associated with online/mobile banking would be of general interest and a technical failure is a major risk.

quirkydeptless

I think the downtime is part of a re-branding exercise to become Frown

eskbanker

DairyQueen said:

eskbanker said:

DairyQueen said:

Why is this issue suspiciously absent from mainstream media reports? If this was one of the big four the media would be all over it like a rash.

Surely you've answered your own question there, the mainstream media aren't interested because it's a tiny niche product of no interest to the majority of mainstream media consumers....

smile was one of the first internet banks and I have held this account for around 20 years. Judging from the comments on social media many customers are of equal long-standing. 

Current a/cs with regulated UK banks aren't 'tiny niche products'. The cause of this issue is still unknown. I would have thought that all risks associated with online/mobile banking would be of general interest and a technical failure is a major risk.

Sure, I wasn't trying to imply the accounts themselves were unregulated, but the fact remains that Smile is a tiny niche provider, in the context of the wider market you were citing, regardless of how long they've been in existence for.

The fact also remains that technology-related outages are unfortunately not infrequent and so in themselves aren't particularly newsworthy, even for the main players, so, for example, the Lloyds group has had seven incidents affecting online or mobile banking in the past year, few, if any, of which received significant coverage on here, never mind genuinely mainstream media: https://www.fca.org.uk/data-visualisation/operational-and-security-incidents-12-months-personal

johnowls1

I contacted the COO by e mail this morning he is on A/L till 27.7.20. Not been able to find an e mail for the CE

juice777

3 days ago I couldn't log into my other two banks tand I still can't login to the smile account I think this country might have been victim of a cyber attack from China over retaliation to Hong Kong citizens being offered to citizenship for the UK and 5G they did it to Australia last month and that's why there's been a press blackout.

parcival

Simply not good enough from Smile.  When things settle a bit I am off and been with them from the start.

alanwsg

https://www.theregister.com/2020/07/10/smile_uk_outages/

supremetwo

DairyQueen said:

Online banking still down and I don't use mobile banking. I was able to use telephone banking to check my balance (very lucky to have dredged the security number from the depths of memory). Large incoming transfer from savings has been credited.

So...

Attempted to use my debit card to transfer savings from linked smile a/c to my NS&I account. The first transaction (a £1000 test) was successful. Card then declined the first attempt at transferring the balance. Tried a lower (£10,000) transfer - also declined. I suspect that the amount has triggered some kind of security check. I can't find-out without phoning the ("we are experiencing high volumes of calls") call centre.
 *sigh.

I now have £44,000 trapped in a smile current a/c paying zero interest. OK, interest rates on cash are universally low but I'm losing £1.20 each day the money is trapped in that a/c.

I know how I would be feeling if I needed to pay a large bill, or complete on a house purchase, or any other time sensitive transaction.

Why is this issue suspiciously absent from mainstream media reports? If this was one of the big four the media would be all over it like a rash.

Looks like your credit did not arrive at the time you used your debit card.
Usually these incomings are credited around mid-day. Try again.
If you have a telephone banking login code, you can check the actual balance via 03457 212 212 - after the first recorded message you are given various options and these are all still working.

supremetwo

The Bank of England are the regulators and they are aware of the situation. 

Edit: Also Which:-
https://www.which.co.uk/news/2020/07/smile-digital-banking-outage-what-are-your-rights/

ice4mymice

Just tried again and still cannot login. Cannot transfer sums over the phone to other accounts - & need to do urgently.  Seems odd that it has been down for so many days now and they aren't providing any info regarding why systems are down. Been with Smile since they started and don't want to move banks - but their response to customer needs has been at mimimum inadequate.