Smile UK Avis 

Smile have gone from the best internet bank to the worst. The App is very limited, the Visa Verify on the credit card is antiquated. The secure message response time has gone from a few hours to 5 Days!!!. Further Smile are almost impossible to contact by telephone. Again a huge change from when we first joined 20 years ago. Have finally decided to give up and close all accounts.

It was amazing working with this bank. can you please check your facebook page and reply my message? GEORGINA ADALEZ by username.

Terrible App, I can understand 'planned maintenance' will be necessary from time to time, but waiting up to ten minutes to view my account? I just give up trying. The access issue, ongoing for years HAS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO WITH 'planned maintenance', this is a daily occurrence. Thinking of quitting Smile after many years of loyalty. I received a call from their IT department and told 'nothing can be done, but thanks for the feedback'. Really? In this age of tech?Why after so many years is Smile being run into the ground? Why not get things back in order and be proud of the product, instead of making excuses? Utterly hopeless.

I can only repeat the experiences of others. They now block transfers as a matter of course so that they are holding balances for as long as possible without paying interest. I received no notification that they had done this until I contacted them through the painfully slow message "service". ( I am deaf so cannot phone). Only then am I am told it's due to security checks and I am advised to phone them - despite my constantly telling them I can't use the phone! A week later they have simply cancelled the transfer completely without explanation. Is the bank in trouble and having to shore up its capital by unfairly withholding balances?

Something is broken within Smile, it has not been possible to reset an account password using 2FA for almost two weeks.
If this service has been disabled for security reasons it worries me that is has been closed for so long.

I'm going to have to use a cashpoint to see if my account has been emptied at this rate.

I am now twenty five minutes into listening to an annoying audio loop on a premium rate line and not getting an answer, this is not a premium rate service.

This is all quite ironic....

"Smile - The Internet Bank"
That cannot cope with being connected to the internet.

If this call reaches an hour of wait time my accounts will all be moved.

Update:
I managed to speak to an agent who was polite, efficient and issued a one time PIN access number.
In hindsight I should have stayed on the call while trying this as the PIN was reported invalid.
The agent sounded about as stressed and tired as I would be with a relentless tide of locked out customers, not an enviable role so out of empathy I left the call.

I have an account with another bank that is a member of the CASS service, a few clicks later and I have initiated an account switch.

This decision isn't driven by the customer services response, it is driven by a loss of trust.
If there is a problem with access, how well are other threats being managed ?
Whatever team is working in this area needs a capability review.

After more than twenty years it is time for a change.

So long and thanks for all the fish!

Added a star as I did get through in under an hour.
(I don't use Twitter or FaceAche)

I closed my account with smile in February/March of this year. Unfortunately my brother sent me a big sum of money on the 13th of May this year. And he sent it to my smile banking account which was closed by the time. I received a letter from Smile dated the 13th of May saying that they receive the funds. (and by the way, I would like to know how they could put the money on my account as it had been closed for over 2 months !). Since then, I have been trying constantly to get this money on my current bank account. For one month I spoke with different people on customer service, of course after waiting for more than 1/2 hour on the phone, and each time I heard a different story. My present bank confirmed that they did not receive the funds and my brother did not get the money back ! They basically have stolen the money ! I am now ready to contact the Financial ombudsman with proofs and also citizen advice bureau. Don't trust them ! I want to sue them for fraud and theft!

Zero stars. I have been reading the appalling reviews which exactly reflect my recent experience. Transfers I have made to long-standing payees are apparently blocked by the fraud department. I phone Smile and they say the payment will be made and it’s now all fine…except that it isn’t. What use is a bank that won’t let customers transfer their own money? I have been a Smile customer for over 20 years but I am switching to another bank now.

Just looking at other reviews, and realising the incompetence of smile/co op bank is endemic. I have been paying my visa credit card via my smile account for forever. Suddenly no more, a confusing message, and money returned to my current account. Have sent secure messages to find out why, and am fortunate my account is not due, because would be charged interest, which I always avoid. Last time I phoned regarding a problem, I spent over an hour waiting to be answered, by an unkind and dismissive advisor, so am quite scared to do that again, not to mention waiting time. I am elderly I appreciate, but I am not “stupid” and have always had control over my accounts and spending etc., Infact I am very efficient when it comes to banking. I joined smile many years ago at the beginning, an ethical bank, but so saddened to realize with this latest negative interaction with smile I am going to have to seriously consider moving banks. This has actually really upset me, and obviously others if these reviews are anything to go by.
So it is now 7/6/24 and checking the account again, and it appears the money went through over night, after it was returned to my current account the previous night. No explanation, I don’t like to ask just incase it confuses matters. Awaiting reply to my previous messages to smile/co op banks. But although it may be a nuisance to change banks (but I am advised it is much easier these days) I am not confident in smile/co op anymore. Just waiting for the next thing to happen, and very sad to actually see so many folk experiencing similar problems, especially like myself who have banked with smile for years 😢
Sent a message via messenger re call back as requested.
Received call from Justine on 7/6/2024. Justine “saved the day” as it were. Absolutely outstanding. Thankyou so much Justine, appreciate your help. It must be hard being in the direct line of so much negativity. smile should be glad they have you as an employee, I am 🤝

Bought a car, transferred the money via BACs after jumping through hoops with security. Then got locked out of all my accounts for 2 weeks. On phone for over 5 hours in total and no one seemed in the least bit bothered. Only got resolved after a direct email to the CEO of smile, then solved within 2 hours, What a surprise. In process of changing banks as we speak. P.S been banking with them for over 20 years and service is truly shocking

Mobile banking registration for new customers has not been available since May 24. This is appalling for a regulated bank not to resolve such an issue promptly.

Called to enquire. Staff have no idea.

Not smiling!!

'' There has been an error'' Please go back and try again.

Terrible joke of a credit card company. Been with them for probably ten years, have no idea why. Terrible, terrible company.
Can I have a replacement credit card? Sure, wait a month and you still won’t have it. Crap terrible company.

Echoing the other reviews, I have been with this bank for 20 years but I am closing my accounts and informing the ombudsman of how bad they are. I'm not sure they even care, they don't seem to even look at complaints but just send a letter telling you to go to the ombudsman.

Edited to report that I never heard from Emma. I've now chased up a complaint I made in March 4 times about a problem with a £600 transaction. Still no proper response. Bank doesn't care at all about customers. Staff have no idea what's happening. Glad to be moving to a bank which doesn't cause you endless stress. Suspect they are purposefully driving customers away. Why else would they be quite so bad?

Answered the call really quickly, Annila the customer service agent was really helpful and resolved my issue within a couple of minutes

I have been a customer of smile for over 20 years but they have completely gone down the drain. An urgent international transfer to a bank account in my own name took over a month and endless calls to smile to sort out. Calling from a non UK number is virtually impossible and ended up costing me a huge phone bill. No response to any messages.
Now, they have refused to pay a simple invoice to a UK account that I confirmed was legitimate. Despite further endless calls to change my contact details to a non-UK number, they refuse to update this, and insist on trying to contact me on an old landline number from 20 years ago which is absolutely ridiculous.
I have completely lost my patience and plan to move my account asap. Terrible service, financial ombudsmann informed.

Never had any issues with them to be honest over 20 years. Have never requested anything complex but has always been fine.

If I could give smile zero stars, I would. I've banked with smile all my adult life. In the beginning they were great. Now, the app is rubbish, the website is rubbish. If you need to contact them about an issue that can't be resolved online, it's nigh on impossible. No email address and enormously long queues on the phone. Goodbye smile, Hello First Direct

I have been with smile bank for many years. Locking my account so many times. Cut off several times in one go with 26 minimum minutes waiting between calls. Tried to switch accounts and blundering
stupidly with Smile I have lost my patients. So trying to switch again. They don’t seem to like if you take large savings away from your account!
I’ve gone to Chase who go above and beyond to help. My wife tried to call them on her death bed 2 days before she died from cancer with no help. Chase managed to sort it for her.
Good by Smile. Can’t seeing you smiling for long!

I am abroad and locked out of my online banking system. I cannot call the 03457212212 number from my hotel in Nepal and I spent 40 minutes calling the customer service through my husband at home, was told they would call me directly on my mobile and they have not. I am stuck at the beginning of my holiday without access to my online banking and no way of contacting the bank to unlock my account. It is an emergency and the bank lets me down.

Now revised 1 star up as, after complaining on FB Messenger I have received a callback from the Social Media team who transferred me directly to a CS agent. Apologies to anyone who was in front of me in the telephone queue.

Unfortunately there isn't an option for zero stars.

I am trying to close some old accounts and I have lost access to online/mobile banking. Therefore I need to contact the bank by phone. The waiting times appear to be constantly over 1 hour. Both mine and my wifes mobile contracts have a fair use policy of 60 minutes maximum call duration. I managed to get through after 58 minutes of waiting only to be cut off. I've tried several times since and the wait times are always over 60 minutes. I need to close these accounts so it appears I will have to revert to formal complaints/letters. This is absolutely ridiculous.

Very badly designed customer experience for online and mobile banking.

If you want to see a statement, you will be sent a code that you have to put in. However, if you want to set up a new payee, no security checks required. Also, the security checks for simple things like opening a statement often fail and you receive an error message that can then lock your account.

Not to mention the random drop outs of service where the app isn't available at all.

All for only £15.50 a month