If you talk about internet banks the chances are that someone will mention Smile.co.uk, this is partly due to the large advertising campaign they ran on TV insisting that everyone smile (a nice thought!). The first internet bank that I set up with was First-e, but due to the fact that at the end of September 2001 they stopped trading in the UK I had to get a new account. The only place that I could think of was Smile, this appealed to me for several reasons, well just the one, I wanted a card with a smile on it!
** Services Offered** Current Account - They offer you a whopping 3.29% gross AER (when in credit!), which is more than 30 times more than most banks. A £500 fee-free overdraft. Opening this accoutn gives you special rates om other services. They will help you move to Smile.
No Notice Savings - You get 4.25% AER when you have a Current Account and 3.5% AER when you don't
have a Current Account.
Credit Card - 9.9% APR when you have a Current Account and 12.9% APR when you don't have a Current Account.
Loans - Typical APR is just 9.5% and borrow from £1500 to £15,000.
** Opening an Account ** This is very easy, all you have to do is fill in a few details about yourself like name, date of birth, address, e-mail address and what account you want (if you have an account already fill in the deatails about this too). Having done this you will get an enrolment number, you need to keep this. Smile will send you a message saying that you have a secure message waiting. To read this go to the Smile homepage and click on "application tracker", here you log on to the secure messages section, using your enrolment number and read your messages. These might be to ask you to provide more details etc…
When your account is ready to access Smile will contact you. This is a very easy and painless process, even if you have to phone up Smile to go over something. Their phone lines are open most of the time and I only waited for about 5 minutes, which I thought was very good. Also if there are ant errors that the website can detect straight away this is done well and you get directed to where you are having the problems.
** Security ** As far as I can tell this is very good, when you register for an account you have to fill in seven details that only you will know. These are a four digit security number, memorable name, place of birth, last school, first school and a memorable date. When you go to access your account you have to input your account detailed like Credit Card number or Sort Code and Account number along with the security number. You are then asked randaomly out of the six details you supplied, if this is got wrong three times your account is locked and you have to phone up Smile to unlock your account. I have done this and it is very easy to unlock your account as long as you are the account holder.
Also The British Standards Institution accredited Smile to the BS7799 for Information Security Management Systems, Smile is still the only Internet Bank to have accieved this.
** Account Use ** Once you have logged on you get a screen which displays all of your accounts that you have open with Smile. This is a very simple and easy to use interface. Once you have chosen the account that you want to look at you get access to perform all the actions that you might want to use. So in the Current Account you might want to transfer money, set up a directdebit, start a standing order, change your PIN number, order more check/paying in books etc... This is all very easy to use. When you close down your session you have to close it properly, this increases security. So if you don't close it down properly you will get a reminder on how to do this.
** Navigation and Speed ** As I have said all the way through this opinion the interface to your account is very well designed and very easy to use. This always makes for a good service, but add to this a speedy service, which I think is offererd by Smile. There is no waiting about, considering the security that you would expect the website works at a very good speed. Obviously if you have anything better than a 56k modem the site is very, very fast.
** Requirements ** In order for the Smile internet bank to work on your computer Smile recommend that you use Internet Explorer 5.5 or Netscape 4.75, Internet Explorer 5.0 and Netscape 4.06 can be used but are not recommended and Internet Explorer 6.0 and Netscape 6.0 are not recommended for use at all. You also need to have cookies enabled in your browser. Smile give you instructions on how to check this and how to enable them, this is useful.
** My Thoughts ** For the short time that I have been using Smile I have been very impressed with the service that Smile provide. This for me has been a very stable, easy to use and secure service which has stopped any worries I may have had about using an Internet Bank. I would recommend that if you are looking for an Internet Bank Smile is worth looking at, but I would also adise looking at the others to get yourself the best deal for you personally.
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Advantages: Ethical bank, good interest rates, cheap overdraft, OK site, Post Office OTC service Disadvantages: Extortionate admin and penalty charges, can't remove overdarft, seems slow
magdadh 18.01.2005 (18.01.2005)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Smile Accounts
Oct 8th, 2001
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