Smile Accounts

I have been using Smile for some months now and am happy with the service that it provides. You can save up to £3,000 a year - free of all UK income and capital gains tax. They offer the CAT standards, which means that you have easy access to your money and the interest rate you'll receive can't be lower than 2% below base rate.

Last tax year I closed my ISA and moved to Smile. The reason I moved was the poor return Halifax was offering on my investment. In March this year just before the deadline I was reading a newspaper and they were comparing some of the Mini Cash ISAs that were around and I saw that Halifax was one of the worse along with most the high street banks. The next day I went to Halifax and gave notice to close my account. At present to qualify for 5.85% you need to have £15,000 + in your Halifax account unlike Smile who offer 6.00% whatever amount you have. Within a week I had closed my Halifax account and re invested the money into a Smile account that could actually do something with my money.

Opening the account with Smile couldn’t have been easier all the functions are easy to follow and the website is really clear and uncomplicated unlike some of the other home banking sites and you get a reply within days if you are successful.

Smile offers all the functions that you would expect from a high street bank offering an ISA the only differences are that its account is online and to withdraw cash you have to transfer money into your current account or you can get a cheque sent.

The good news is that the Government has guaranteed that ISAs will run at least until April 2009.