Smile Accounts > Reviews (19)

I opened my smile account a good few years ago, mainly for the fact that it was an ethical bank with online banking facilities, and of course the generous interest free overdraft limit.

In my 3 years of banking with them I have not had any accidents or mishaps, and have been recommending them to all my friends and family.

However I have noticed a few flaws which may be useful to anybody looking at opening a student bank account.

A student Smile bank account is treated different from other Smile accounts in which although a £1000 overdraft is given with the account being opened. If you wanted to apply for an ISA you can’t do so from the logon screen like normal smile account holder but have to apply again, whereby filling in another form with all your details. The same goes for a Credit card,

I realise these issues are not really that much of a problem but it does take a good 10/20 minutes to open an additional account when it could have been done with a click of the button.

Finally the interest rates at 3%, whilst the bank of England rates is 3.75% are not spectacular but you can do worse.