Smile Current Account

brookerbabyisababy

Do not choose Smile. Biggest mistake I made. Rude staff and a true unwillingness to help their customers.

Choose First Direct instead. £100 if you like them. £200 if you don't. Best bank in the UK - BBC Watchdog.

sdooley

I have both a First Direct and a Smile account. I like to keep a current account for spending (Smile, which pays a small amount of credit interest and has a small overdraft facility if I oops... overspend) and another for salary being paid in and debits going out (First Direct, with transfers in and out of savings to get some interest in).

Both are fine.

I would NOT recommend Alliance & Leicester. I switched to their flashy offers and chose the 'branch-based' account only to find that you couldn't do anything in branch, they just direct you to the telephone which can take half an hour or more to answer. The 'online and telephone' banking from FD and smile is better, don't think I would fancy online-only, like to speak to someone

Gambit

sdooley wrote: »

I have both a First Direct and a Smile account. I like to keep a current account for spending (Smile, which pays a small amount of credit interest and has a small overdraft facility if I oops... overspend) and another for salary being paid in and debits going out (First Direct, with transfers in and out of savings to get some interest in).

That's how I bank... one account for DD's and one for spending :money:

Although at the mo I'm not with either of those but am looking to move over soon. First am paying my salary into Nationwide for a few months as I want my account upgraded to have a debit card (at the mo I only have a cash card - )

brookerbabyisababy

I've never understood why people do this. One account for spending and another for Direct Debits. Can anyone explain.

ShelfStacker_3

So that they won't be tempted to spend money that should be used for bills, basically, and that they can account for it better.

I personally just use one account and use a spreadsheet to keep track of everything, but some people like the idea of not being able to spend money they should have earmarked.

Fedz

To my understanding it's to physically separate inbound and outbound monies for easier management

Personally I can mentally separate my inbound outbound monies so I never have bothered for the above method.

Theirs no need for 2 current accounts as one can have eg: a Halifax current account and a Halifax web saver (savings) as transfers between accounts is instant.

Gambit

brookerbabyisababy wrote: »

I've never understood why people do this. One account for spending and another for Direct Debits. Can anyone explain.

Well I cant speak for anyone else but the reason I do it is so that I can put all the money needed for Direct Debits into the one account and not have to worry about when they are due for the month. That way everything I have in my 'Spending Account' I can spend... :P

Fedz wrote: »

Theirs no need for 2 current accounts as one can have eg: a Halifax current account and a Halifax web saver (savings) as transfers between accounts is instant.

I do that sometimes too with my Barclays e-savings accounts so I can ear mark money for different purposes

simongregson

Well - I'm switching from smile now. They are paying too poor an interest rate. The final straw was the email to say that they are decreasing current account interest in line with the bank of england change. However, they didn't ever increase it when the rate went up.

And as a smile more account holder I have been annoyed by the fee increases, it used to be £6 a month. When I complained they pointed out I could get a discount on buying a tree - I don't want to buy a bloody tree or an organic freetrade t-shirt - I just liked the fact that they didn't lend money to arms companies etc. I'm not a bloody tree hugger!

Rant over!

Fedz

simongregson wrote: »

Well - I'm switching from smile now. They are paying too poor an interest rate. The final straw was the email to say that they are decreasing current account interest in line with the bank of england change. However, they didn't ever increase it when the rate went up.

And as a smile more account holder I have been annoyed by the fee increases, it used to be £6 a month. When I complained they pointed out I could get a discount on buying a tree - I don't want to buy a bloody tree or an organic freetrade t-shirt - I just liked the fact that they didn't lend money to arms companies etc. I'm not a bloody tree hugger!

Rant over!

In fairness to Smile/Co-op you can't please all the people all the time but, they are good on their ethical stance - I commend them.

They turn down milions upon millions in loan requests from companies that don't meet their strict criteria.

Other banks quite possibly accept these loan requests as all they are interested in is profit, profit, profit but, they aren't illegal loans either.

As Smile/Co-op refuse these potential high profit earners - they don't gain all this custom and offer the higher account interest your after - it's a trade-off and I 101% believe in the the co-op for this.

CopperPlate_2

I have to say the 'supposed' ethical stance of the co-op bank doesn't really bear up to sustained scrutiny. Yes, the bank turns down business with companies that it rates as 'unethical', but it's part of the Co-operative Group whose supermarket business isn't the most ethical part of the business. Also, the bank surely invests in other banks, businesses, etc who in turn invest in the companies/funds that the co-op publicly states it doesn't support. So yes, all in all a good marketing tactic but when you look at it closely they can't but help but invest, indirectly, in the companies/funds they publicly turn down, surely?

They offer such poor rates (or non-existent if you're a co-op bank current account holder) because the Co-Op historically isn't a front runner in providing competitive products. smile is slightly different but it's still not as competitive as other internet providers; and not because it's following some altruistic path of 'wealth redistribution' and 'fairness to all' - it pays poorer rates just because it does.