Do Not Open A Smile Account

Hazzanet

Martinslovechild wrote: »

Mobile-phone speak. How quaint.

Looks more like the co-op customer notepad than text speak. All their notes are abbreviated and they provide a key if you ask for copies of their notes.

maryotuam

I've been with Smile for years and I'm happy with their service. It's also good to know that none of my money is involved in dodgy, unethical schemes.

Fedz

maryotuam wrote: »

I've been with Smile for years and I'm happy with their service. It's also good to know that none of my money is involved in dodgy, unethical schemes.

That's exactly why I'm cut-up by how the co-op operate account(s) (not reflecting pending/reserved debit card transactions online/telephone banking).

I honestly find it too difficult to run a co-op account as I use my debit card several times a-day.

If your paying for stuff on the net ...etc, It's impractical to expect customers to run to the cashpoint to get a true available balance or risk the payment being declined due to insufficient funds or worse going unauthorised overdrawn (depending on account status).

realaledrinker

Like most UK banks, the core Co-op systems are anything up to 30 or so years old. They are a small, full service bank - i.e. offer the full range of banking services & are a clearing bank in their own right - unlike Abbey, A&L & other mid size banks. All this means they are not agile enough to react to the market & their cost/income ratio is much higher than some competitors - as reflected in uncompetitive rates. They can only compete as a niche player - on customer service, ethical stance, specific products (mortgages for example).

itsallaboutyou

I was with smile for about 6 months.. which was long enough to realise how useless they were...

I withdrew all my money and closed my account, by letter and received a letter back telling me that it had all been actioned etc etc...

Approximately 3 weeks later, I received a letter stating that I had gone over my overdraft..

As you can imagine, i was shocked as I was under the impression (and rightfully so!) that I had closed the account..

I logged on (which I shouldnt have been able to do - as my account was cancelled!) and to my horror had seen that I had for 21 days been overdrawn by 1p (obv debit interest - but I'd been told that my account had a nil balance and was settled in full!)

The total charged to me was 7 days X £5 ; 7 days X £35 and 7 days X £70. According to my maths - thats £770!? :eek:

I telephoned and faxed through copies of letters etc and eventually they reneged and reimbursed me (I paid in the vague hope that I would be successful in claiming the money back)..

I also managed to make sure they added on £150 for my time..

This was well over 5 years ago now - had I known then what I know now, I'd have never opened a smile account. It's a shame, because I understand that the co-op are a favourite for people who've gone BR - and most people cant speak highly enough of them..

I also think that the overdraft limits they apply to accounts are shocking.. I was 18 with a £4k overdraft...

Anyway, my twopence worth!

Tom

Butterfliesarepretty

I have two accounts with smile. A current and a credit card account. I eventually changed to alliance and leicester, not because I thought they were rubbish all over. I have had a few problems and I am waiting for bank charges to be refunded. I owe them £893 in the current account and they did make my credit card account invalid because of the overdraft in my current account. So on that account I owe over £300. I fund it once a month with £35. In May I get redundancy so will pay it all off. But not once have they messaged me chasing up the amount owing.:T

I agree that the balance online is not the same as at a cash machine. That is the problem with banks now, their computers all say different balances.

johnllew

I've had several online current accounts for a number of years and can say that Smile is by far and away the best; A&L easily the worst.

boo_star

itsallaboutyou wrote: »

I was with smile for about 6 months.. which was long enough to realise how useless they were...

I withdrew all my money and closed my account, by letter and received a letter back telling me that it had all been actioned etc etc...

Approximately 3 weeks later, I received a letter stating that I had gone over my overdraft..

As you can imagine, i was shocked as I was under the impression (and rightfully so!) that I had closed the account..

I logged on (which I shouldnt have been able to do - as my account was cancelled!) and to my horror had seen that I had for 21 days been overdrawn by 1p (obv debit interest - but I'd been told that my account had a nil balance and was settled in full!)

The total charged to me was 7 days X £5 ; 7 days X £35 and 7 days X £70. According to my maths - thats £770!? :eek:

I telephoned and faxed through copies of letters etc and eventually they reneged and reimbursed me (I paid in the vague hope that I would be successful in claiming the money back)..

I also managed to make sure they added on £150 for my time..

This was well over 5 years ago now - had I known then what I know now, I'd have never opened a smile account. It's a shame, because I understand that the co-op are a favourite for people who've gone BR - and most people cant speak highly enough of them..

I also think that the overdraft limits they apply to accounts are shocking.. I was 18 with a £4k overdraft...

Anyway, my twopence worth!

Tom

smile accounts were very expensive to be unauthorised overdrawn, £10 + £5 per day, I have no idea where you got the £35 per day though unless you had 7 unpaid D/D's, S/O's or Cheques?

itsallaboutyou

My account was always in credit - and as far as I know to this day I have not missed a payment on anything to this day!

As I attempted to explain, though not quite as eloquently as I would have liked is that I had closed the account! One would therefore assume that the account would be cancelled there and then... In this case it wasn't.

Even though I had a letter in writing and a print out of all my secure messages saying that the account was closed, I still ended up paying for about 6p debit interest!!

Its a shame - because when i signed up for smile, I though they were fantastic - being a child of the internet, I relished the opportunity to manage my account solely online, but with the advent of a telephone service if necessary.

As another poster said, smile's internet banking was most definitely at the forefront of technology - but failed to keep up with the times.

I'm lucky that, while I was "testing" the smile account, I was still banking with Natwest and consequently took advantage of their online and telephone banking services - which I really like. As I work away for most of the week, i'm unable to make it my branch as often as I'd like - and the actionline / online banking really makes things easier!

Back to the story..

When I realised that I had been charged this (what can only be described as extortionate) amount, I immediately enquired why, where, when and what for etc..

It transpired that my overdraft had been cancelled, but the account had remained.. Hence any dip into the overdraft, even by 1p would be unauthorised. Apparently, at the time smile used a sliding scale of charges...and because my account had not been fully cancelled (even though I was told that it had been settled in full) a small amount of debit interest was deducted and thats how I found myself in that situation....

So there we go!

I hope someone from smile reads these forums - because they do have the chance to be a fantastic, and I mean fantastic ethical banking provider - but as my story and the OP story shows - at the moment they are just not doing that...

So I say to smile... do your best and make us REALLY SMILE *

Tom

*i take no responsbility for the cheese factor added into this post!

MABLE

brookerbabyisababy wrote: »

I have to honestly say in my lifetime one of the worst companies to deal with has to have been Smile part of the Co-Op. There service is next to nothing. They want you to do everything on their website and everything is automated. Problem is it is the worst website on earth. They have no class and last time I called I waited over 1 hour getting through. Then they have to go through there stupid security which is like a interrogation on your account. What is funny is if one thing is wrong they tell you to go to the Co-Op- it makes you sick. The employees are the worst of all - they are plain and simple rude. If there is one company to avoid it is Smile and the Co-Op.

Well it is an internet based account Wake up....