Jonathan Evans's reviews - Smart Money People

Really simple and accessible way to automate savings

5

I've been impressed with Plum's ease of use through the Facebook Messenger app and the way it automates savings and allows you to move them across to investments. Reviewed on: 15th November 2018

Good free account with savings attached.

4

Easy to set up, although had to make an appointment to organise my switch to them from another firm. I primarily use them as they have a branch near my work, so it's convenient to pay in money, primarily through the automated machines. Staff have always been helpful in branch when needed. Reviewed on: 15th November 2018

Really easy way to make saving exciting and painless

5

Chip is a fantastic idea, well executed. The small team help you overcome your natural human bias to spend what you have available and automate saving based on what you can afford. They've communicated changes and updates efficiently , consulted with a group of users and quickly resolved any of the (small) errors I've encountered. I'm looking forward to seeing this company grow! Reviewed on: 15th November 2018

Good product, good service

5

Due to the cashback this is my credit card of choice, only let down by the fact that it's not accepted everywhere (likely due to the higher fees that afford me the cashback!). I had a great 0% purchase deal for almost 1.5 years (the first 3 months of which I earned 5% cashback). If I've had a query or error the call centre have been able to resolve it satisfactorily every time and hold wait times have not been too bad. It would be nice if the cashback ramped up a bit faster, as now I'm out of the introductory period, it currently staircases slowly from 0.5% to 1.25% Reviewed on: 24th November 2017

Solid product for first time mortgage, couldn't match remortgage rate

4

Halifax gave me my first mortgage on my property at a reasonable rate. We went through a broker which smoothed the process, but as I was (lucky enough to be) gifted some funds from my parents we had an extra layer of scrutiny to prove where the money was coming from and to confirm that it wouldn't need to be paid back. This was all sorted and the product has been fine with regular payments taken correctly, with an easy process to set the payment date. I would have been happy to stay with Halifax when my initial rate ended, but they couldn't get close enough to the leading rate we were offered elsewhere. In summary, Halifax seem to be well suited for first-time buyers, but perhaps are not competitive enough once you've built up some equity. Reviewed on: 24th November 2017

Great service, great rate, annoying legals

4

I remortgaged to Atom as they had the market leading rate on a 5 year fix. the process was fairly smooth and the app made it easy to get the information and stay up to date. The one problem was the inefficiency of the law firm they chose to provide the (admittedly free) legal service. Perhaps I was unlucky in which firm was selected for me, but they missed my target completion date and so I had extra costs from higher interest rates with my original mortgage provider. Edit: One thing I would add is that as the mortgage is app controlled, it can be difficult to read all the small print /T&Cs for the product on a phone. You can download to your phone these so that you don't get timed out of the app, but you may still need to crack out your varifocals. Reviewed on: 24th November 2017

Reply from Hi Jonathan, Thanks for such great, detailed feedback. It is feedback like this that allows us to understand what we can improve upon, as well as feel proud of what we do well. So thank you for being so open. It's great to have you on board Jonathan. Have a great week, and enjoy banking with Atom. PM. Response date: 27th November 2017