signed up to smile in 2002 when the bank was exceptional. Good rate of interest on savings, modest rate on credit cards and loans, a non-punitive approach to bank charges and never any reason to call customer service.
A few years ago the overdraft facility was removed on one of my accounts in spite of it being the account that my wages were paid into. I recently had the overdraft facility reinstated (which took about half an hour on the phone ironically) as they had started hitting me with daily fines every time a direct debit caused me to be overdrawn even for a few hours, but I am still getting hit with "service charges" even when I am still in credit and I don't have anyone to speak to about this apart from the chatbot entities on the website. In addition to this their website login page fails from time to time which, given their recent restrictions on customer service, means there is sometimes no service at all. Nobody to talk to and no branch to visit.
Smile fail to acknowledge that the withdrawal of telephone support has been a massively unpopular move with their long-standing customers.
In the absence of any meaningful PR communications I have to conclude that smile is failing financially and is now gradually but deliberately driving people away from what must now be an unprofitable appendage of the Co-op Bank. Anyway, it's worked. They've abandoned everything that made them a great bank and now they're a joyless remnant resorting to service charges and minimal customer service. I was a happy customer in 2002 but there's no longer anything to smile about. Time to change banks.
Reviewed on: 3rd July 2018
