I will be very non-PC in this review, I am warning you. Everybody is raving about Smile, aren't they? Especially the ethically minded, politically conscious folk....

But it's not all that smiley and lovely down there in Smile-land.

I applied for the Smile current account back then in 2000. It was fairly early days of Internet banking and most of the bricks-and-mortar banks didn't offer the on-line facility.

*APPLICATION*

The account was not activated until I signed the papers that were send by post. I have not moved any of my direct debits/standing orders to Smile as I still kept my other joint account for such purposes, so I can’t comment on the efficiency of their ‘move’ process.

I don’t like Smile’s login process very much. It uses your account details (sort code and account number OR visa card number) and it means – at least for me – that I have to rummage for the cheque book or the card every time I want to log in, as I am not capable of remembering such long strings of numbers. After providing these data, you use a special security pin code (this is 4 digit, so OK….) plus an answer to one of your ‘personal info’ questions to log in. I am sure it has something to do with security of the account, but I would rather compromise a little bit on security and have an option of saving the longest part of my log-in details on my home PC (Barclays allow you to save the customer number and thus you only need to remember a pin and a password).

Firstly, your current available money don't show in any way on the website. In other words, if you spend some money on the card the balance on the website doesn't show it until it goes through properly. The only way to check what the real situation is to check via a cashpoint. In comparison, Barclays on-line show you current un-cleared balance, last night’s cleared balance and your funds available, including transactions that have already registered through VISA but are not, as such showing on the listings. It DOES get a tad confusing if these are three different figures, but it helps to manage your money.

Smile offers as a matter of fact telephone banking on top of the Internet option as well as ability to both pay in cash and withdraw money in Co-Operative bank branches and every Post Office.

- It seems impossible to reduce or remove your £500 overdraft. This is a particularly strange behaviour for an ethical bank: surely they should not encourage borrowing and allow people who don't want a facility not to have one. Of course, you can simply keep the overdraft and not use it, but it is very hard not to use a facility that's there and over time small debits will generally accumulate and the overdraft will be used - that's the way it works for me, anyway. I didn’t pursue this course of action much, but I did asked once, when I was in credit and I knew my financial situation in the next year or so will be bad, and I was told that they can’t do it.

It's an excellent account if you are usually in credit and ocassionally want to use an overdraft facility. The interest rates are good, site works well, Post Office OTC service is a big plus and the fact that it comes from the Co-operative bank with all its ethical credentials is a definitely a major one.