Smile UK Bewertungen 

I have now been on the phone for 45 minutes. There is simply irritating music and telling me to be patient. The bak has blocked payments to my credit card and even though I have changed everything on line it makes no difference.

I will be looking for a new bank.

Should be ZERO STARS. The most USELESS bank under the Sun. Yet again I was unable to transfer money to my own saving account held by another bank. Money has been deducted from my account but was not sent to my own account in my own name. CRAZY … then over 24 hours later I get a lousy email from FRAUD PREVENTION TEAM that I need to contact them in order to release the money. ONLY NONE IS WORKING ON SUBDAY TO RELEASE IT. I am moving my money elsewhere. DO NOT OPEN ACCOUNT IN THIS USELESS BANK

I've been really unhappy about Smile banking for ages now. I haven't yet got around to changing Joint account so I'm stuck with Smile in the meantime. It is NOT Internet banking anymore. Be prepared for transactions to be blocked (they say for security reasons but that is rubbish). For example, a couple of weeks ago I tried to log onto internet banking (I normally use the app) and when asked for my password I foolishly entered the one for the M&S credit card I now use 99% of the time. It didn't give me a second chance - just locked me out and said I should phone. I left it for a couple of weeks but tried again today - still blocked. When phoning I got told queue was currently over 20 minutes so I gave up. This wasn't what I signed up to! If other banks can provide a proper internet service, surely it's not beyond the wit of Smile/Cooperative to do the same.

Would be zero stars if I could. Used to be a good company but having withdrawn telephone support is now useless. Try to reset a partner's verified by visa password. Can you do it online? No. Can I do it on the phone? No. Not even if I wait for an hour!

So Smile's solution, phone us when you are both available and we'll speak to both of you. So we both sit here for an hour to sort out a problem at your end. Right!

Will be closing the account very shortly.

I hadn’t had any issues with Smile until Verified by Visa/Visa Secure. Now I constantly get my car blocked from online payments, and I call and wait for a minimum of 30 minutes each time to be told I have entered my password incorrectly. This is simply untrue. I never put my password in incorrectly. Today, after a failed attempt to book a holiday this morning, I took 45 minutes out of my day to ring through to Smile, to be told I’d entered my password incorrectly (I had not) and they have reset it.

I’ve given it a few hours and tried again. Of course, it’s still not allowing the payment ans I still haven’t entered my password in at all, let alone incorrectly.

I do not have time to spend another 45 minutes in the phone to solve an issue that is entirely not my doing. It’s disgusting.

I have been with Smile for 25 years but I’ve had enough now. Customer service is not good enough.

Additional - After waiting over an hour to speak to someone last night, i eventually spoke with Kathy who was extremely helpful. They were a credit to Smile and quite frankly, the only credit I’ve experienced recently. Employ a few more Kathy’s so that the only effective method of communicating with you (ie have enough people to answer the phones) and you may still be a credible bank. She was fantastic and eventually resolved the issue which as she admitted, was seemingly completely inexplicable.

Awful Bank! Rang up to report the death of an account holder. Waited 40 minutes on hold. When I finally got through, spoke to the advisor for about a minute and then they hung up on me. Didn’t try to call me back. Useless and infuriating company.

Update from your reply: I’ve also raised a complaint with the details, so we’ll see how that goes.

Appalling service.
They keep blocking my online card purchases and larger money transfers, meaning yet another 30-40 mins on hold in a queue to sort out.
I will be closing my account.

they claim 'no queues' but I've been on hold for ages. All I want to do is move some of my own money from one of my accounts to my ISA, but I have to call them to 'refresh' my ISA. I chose Smile for its ethical policy, but the service has become unacceptable, and they are now owned by hedge funds so their ethical stance is not what it was. I've been googling alternatives while I wait for them to finally answer my call.

Out of date - hopeless APP that takes 3 days to show purchases - dreadful customer service - 'Secure Message' service takes 5 days for a reply - no phone support for urgent issues - glitchy payments mean that you think you've paid an invoice, but you haven't.

I used to love this bank and have been with them for over 20 years but they haven't kept up. I'm changing bank asap - Avoid like the plague!

No verification code sent because apparently sites can circumvent this so I thought £4.93 was being taken and £50.70 was accepted without any verification from Smile - what is the point of that? I can’t even stop the payment. Everything is so random and inconsistent these days - you’ll stop a payment of £10 to a borough Council insisting on a code but allow £50 to disappear not checks made. Disappointed.

Had enough of the lack of function the app provides. Also the blocking of online payments for no reason. Terrible interest rates!

Finally moving to a new bank. Two weeks to go and now I can’t withdrawn money at cash machines. *update* left the bank, needed my final statements as I couldn’t print them out before they cut off my account. So I called them, 40 mins to get through! Asked for the last 2-3 statements. They’ve sent 1. Utterly useless bank, in every single banking task they have failed.

Avoid this bank!!

I’ve banked with Smile for nearly 20 years, but I’ve had enough. They keep blocking my credit card for some crazy ‘security’ reason (it is never clear or explained), I’m now sitting on the phone in a 35 minute queue with no end in sight. App is seriously basic, no live chat, the secure message response time is up to 5 days (really?!!!!) and no other way to resolve this. I travel regularly and it has caused me considerable disruption. As soon as I get my new credit card with Monzo, I’m closing my current, savings and credit card account with them. Used to be really good, but now absolutely awful! How about you stop responding to reviews and actually do something about it Smile!

You may have noticed the reply from the Smile team. I'm not sure if this is PR damage limitation or whether anyone will actually contact me, but to date I have received no contact from anyone from Smile despite the message . I wonder if this is familiar for others who have received a reply from a Smile rep on here. I will update this forum either way if I do or do not receive contact.

I am trying to transfer money from an account earning little interest to a 3year bond with another bank. Payment held up because of fraud concerns. I send a secure message but 5 day turnaround so I phone. Wait for ages and then have ludicrous conversation treating me like an idiot. Even though I have already explained what I'm doing and why, they go through a long prescribed list of questions punctuated every now and then with demands for me to repeat back to them what they've told me. I understand fraud concerns but every time I try to transfer money I have these problems. I dread having to do it. Have been with bank for 30+ years but have had enough

I've been with Smile since soon after they launched and generally been happy, but things seem to have gone to pot recently. I now often have problems making payments. yesterday I tried to transfer some money to an ISA elsewhere using my debit card. the transaction failed. It failed again today. Smile have not been in touch to tell me why it has been bounced. I then tried to make an online payment to a different external account. That appeared to work but the money has not arrived. Again, no contact from Smile. It used to be possible to check the success of such a transaction online, but that seems to have gone from the web site. The only option is to phone. After wading through the menus, I find there is a wait of OVER SIXTY MINUTES. What kind of service is that? Looking at reviews here 81% are one star and others are reporting a similar experience, so I'm clearly not alone. I think I'll open an account elsewhere. The first alternative I checked on trustpilot had 67% 5*. You'd think SMILE might have got the message by now. There is only so long you can annoy customers before they leave, or is that what they are trying to achieve?

I’m fed up with smile. It seems every time I want to transfer a payment they think it’s a scam.
This includes payments to DWP,HMRC, car dealers, window companies and my daughter who I have been transferring money to for years. ( she has now left smile for this reason). Because the other party does not receive the money, they think I’m evading payment, yet it is the bank that withholds it until you contact the fraud dept. I nearly left some time ago, but following my recent dealings, I’ve made it one of my New Year’s resolutions. Goodbye Smile.

I know there is a lot of hate out there for Smile, and I have previously had some frustration with the time waiting for calls to be answered, but today (a week before Christmas) my experience was the best. My call was answered in 5 minutes. The lovely lady who answered was extremely helpful and, while having to go through a lengthy script, the whole thing was wrapped up in under 15 minutes. Good service for me to Smile about today!

It seems impossible to contact them . I have an ISA account but want to update log in details. Phoned them -got cut off by them . No customer service help.

It is hard to see how this company can improve.
The problems are systemic. It does not operative in the customers interests and each change they make does not improve but makes things worse.
Their so-called Customer Care Assistants know nothing. There job seems to be fire fighting and there is no suggestion they can solve a problem. Consequently you wait hours (literally) hanging on phones and being cut off.
They also make things up as they go along just to get you off the line. I am told by an ex-employee they have X No of minutes to deal and if it goes over that time they are told to cut you off. They deny this but it has just happened to me again this morning.
Don't just go on social media, this is another ploy to bat you out of the way. Complain to the FCA who are watchdogs. They can't deal with individual issues but will investigate the Company's methods and dealings with the public.
If you are not satisfied with your treatment by Smile you are able to go to the Ombudsman of course.
My concern is there are other elderly people who might be fobbed off by their insolent and intimidating behaviour so they ought to be investigated.
If your reputation, Credit score or record of missed payments has been affected you can go to the ICO who will get them to remove the conversations that result in your being blamed for faults regarding blocked Credit Cards.
If you feel your record with Experien is being affected you have the right to complain to Experien that information from Smile is incorrect and is damaging to your future management of your finances.

In the last 3 days I have spent 4 HOURS trying to simply make a not very large transfer to someone abroad. This has been dealt with by Smile bank in the most utterly ineffectual, confused manner - which has resulted for me in a great deal of worry and stress. I have never come across such gross inefficiency at a bank in my life.