I was looking for a new current bank account and my Aunt suggested Smile. I applied and asked to open a savings account and a current account. I was turned down for both! I checked my credit report. I have two credit cards with other providers and both are up to date and have never been missed. I have one hardly used store card and I work full time. I was really angry and sent a letter expressing my feelings. No reply was received. This was back in Sept 15 The same week that Smile rejected me, I went to another bank and opened a current account with an overdraft facility and they also put me in touch with their small business advisor, as I am qualifying as an image consultant in 2016 and will need a business account. All I can say is "It's YOUR loss Smile.I now actually think that you did me a favour, even though you rejected me for no good reason at all !" Never again would I apply for anything from this bank. It looks as if they really do not want new customers.

I've been with Smile for close to 10 years. In that time the website hasn't changed, so it is now miles behind everyone else. Worse is that recently I needed to review some old transactions spread across 2009 to 2013 - at that point I realised although it lists the statements you can't view them! Turns out you can only view the past 12 months of transactions, anything older and they want £10 per statement to send you a printed copy. With no statement download option on the website this stinks. Seriously on-line banking that then wants £440 for me to view my transaction history. Coupled with the fact that all their products are uncompetitive. Zero interest, their ISA was reasonable but now is one of the worst on the market. As others have said, I'm wondering why I'm still with them when I could jump to another bank that offers me something and has up to date services. In their defence they did finally update their mobile phone app. It now shows you more than just the last 3 transactions! It is still quite limited compared to some banks, but is now actually useful.

Smile customer for a couple of years. Recently, I lost my card, and requested a cancel/replacement. They say they forgot to dispatch the card until I called a week later. Then they forgot to post me the new PIN, so I can't use it. As they have no branches, I am stuffed - with HSBC, I could have gone in branch and made a withdrawal with my passport, but Smile has no branches. In addition (same month), they blocked my rent payment for 'security'. I called up to confirm it, and they stated it had been released. Then I nearly got chucked out of my house because they didn't pay the landlord. I had to call up 3 days later, to find it had not been released due to 'clerical error'. I mean, this is bad stuff. I have plenty of money in the account, but this bank nearly made me homeless, and I'm not sure how I can buy food tonight.

I haven had an account with smile for 10 years. I found them fine, no difficulties. I wasn't a demanding customer however. I am in the process of closing my account now. Last year they changed my overdraft. This is perfectly ok and within the contract. What is not ok is that I only found out by having my card declined. I complained and was told a letter had been sent on x date. It had not been. What I had received was a letter dated a few days later confirming my overdraft would continue at the same level for another year....the exact opposite of what happened. This year the same thing has happened. No notice and a changed overdraft. I am furious. I luckily could pay it off immediately but not everybody could. This is shocking customer service and is on the fringes of what the banking code requires. I am leaving because of this. The internet facilities are also too slow for an internet bank. They do not update nearly soon enough. Nationwide have a much better internet banking facility.

I have been a member of Smile Bank for over 13 years. I used to think they were great and was always recommending them to others. NOT ANY MORE In the last year or so their service which used to be really good has become really poor. I believe that there has been a merger of the service with COOP and the service is now slow, poor, arrogant and at times rude. Their online screens do not seem to have changed in years, it is just old fashioned. Many people have commented about not being able to see current balances and this is partly true, certainly it is not in the right place. I think the COOP Bank is in some trouble following its poorly thought through merger with Britannia Building Society. I recently went to pay in a cheque to the Britannia Building Society as I have no COOP bank in the town and it turned out that they still have to send the cheque to the COOP before it can be cleared in your account. in this modern age this is a joke. I am sorry that this has happened, I have always liked being a member of Smile but I am leaving and going to First Direct, their staff just could not be more helpful on the phone. So it is goodbye to SMILE I hope that someone is paying attention to what is going on and sorts this out before it is too late.

For an 'internet bank' they are hilariously slow to respond to their so-called 'secure messages' which you can send when you're logged into your account. There are also a variety of things they aren't able to do through that, because apparently it isn't secure enough O.o I didn't really know how to respond to that. 2 days is really not an appropriate wait time when the whole idea of an 'internet bank' is that you should be able to do everything electronically. Overall, I would not recommend them to anyone that I like ;-)

I switched to Smile on account of their ethical policy and will happily earn less interest on my savings and pay more on my loan for that. What I am not willing to accept is the abysmal quality of their website and iPhone app - for an online bank, it is laughable. It is unchanged since I started banking with them some 8 years ago and resembles a website from the early 90s, offers very few features and makes banking far more of a chore than it should be. It is lacking simple things: if I set up a transfer to another account I can't rename or later delete that listing, so soon my transfers screen is full of random accounts and it becomes easy to mistakenly transfer money to accounts I don't wish to, payments aren't possible through the web app, etc etc. In short it is barely usable. A shame as I really want to bank with them but they simply can't get the basics right.

I never write reviews but Smile have annoyed me so much that a few words are needed. I have banked with Smile since March 2000 and have always found them excellent. They service has now changed and is very poor. You used to be able to speak to a person after a few rings now they have gone with the irritating 'press 5 for this' nonsense and I am having more problems with declined transactions and card problems where before this never happened. I suspect trying to cut costs will lose them many more loyal customers.

I've banked with Smile since it was first launched, and before that for several years with its parent, the Co-operative Bank. I'm a strong supporter of the underlying values and ethos of the co-op movement, and until recently, had always been impressed by the friendly, helpful and flexible service that Smile provided. But over the past six-nine months, something appears to have changed. That personal approach seems increasingly to have been replaced by a more mechanical, alogorithmic approach to lending decisions, queries are dealt with in a disjointed and inconsistent way, and there's a general lack of willingness to listen or respond to the needs of (at least this) customer. I don't require anything particularly complicated from my bank: a decent online interface, a responsive call centre, a debit card, a credit card and an overdraft. In the past six months, for reasons which are still unclear to me, my Smile overdraft was removed with no warning, my debit card expired and wasn't renewed, and my credit card has been cancelled. I hold no excessive debts, and have a very healthy income, so these decisions make no sense to me at all. It was as if Smile's computer system just decided one day, after years of loyal custom, to start refusing everything. Despite numerous phone calls and attempts to resolve these issues (10 calls in the last week alone), I've still not received any satisfactory answers. So I've had enough. I'm off to find another bank.

25th Sept 2012 - I am unable to access internet banking. Been trying for the last hour. No automessage on the phone to acknowledge the problem.

I've banked with them for a while and the online customer service is pretty poor. They lose messages, take ages to respond and fail to action requests correctly. Their online banking system has never been updated and is really outdated. When you send them a message you can't even see if its been sent or read. Overall a very poor bank

This is the second time this has happened. Back in 2009 when my debit card expired it took 3-4 attempts to get a replacement - One of which was to have a card sent to the local Co-operative bank branch for me to collect in person - that didn't arrive there either. My card expired recently and I am now having to go through the same process again, even though I have been in contact with them before the card expired to avoid a repeat of last time. Staff are: Slow to respond to secure messages Are disinterested/rude when you call them on the helpline. VERY POOR CUSTOMER CARE

I have been a Smile customer for over 10 years. For the first 8 years it was a delight, though i have noticed a gradual decline in service over the last couple of years. Managing my account on line was easy, I never had to go into a branch or call anyone. It was a breeze. Although the service was on line, it did feel 'personal'. However recently I have noticed that secure messages don't get answered as quickly as they used to, which can be a real problem if you want something done. So recently I have resorted to calling the call centre, and you really do feel like you are now just a a "number" in a call centre. My biggest problem so far is that an amount was debited from my bank account, which turned out to be a rogue standing order. I had little help in resolving the issue, and felt like I was being fobbed off. They simply didn't care. I am really disappointed in Smile. For so long they were so good. Come on! You can do so much better.

I had no complaints with my Smile current account for a long time. Good service, accurate, reliable. So I was delighted when they told me they could receive an international wire transfer. Great -- I got the info, went to my US bank which required a 'US corresponding bank'. First call to Smile, Rep 1 had never heard of a US corresponding bank. Second call, Rep 2 gave me the info. Third call to re-confirm info, Rep 3 had never heard of it. I tried to do the wire as instructed by Rep 2, and it failed. Now I am out £50 and Smile doesn't even acknowledge my loss. Rep 4 maintains they do int'l wires all the time, gave me the info (different from that given by Rep 2) and now they are ignoring me. Smile might do wire transfers in Europe, but don't expect to be able to transfer money from the US. If they could teach their reps to give consistent and accurate answers, I'd be a happy customer.

I live in Thailand. Every year I need to do at least one or two international transfers. I do that using SWIFT transfer. Cooperative Bank claim that this is their fastest way to transfer. Every year I complain to say how long they take. This year it's taken 7 working days, to date. Their complaints dep't is c**p and I wouldn't pay them in washers. In the last 5+ years they've compensated me at least 4 times and I've reported them to the Financial Ombudsman twice. Smile Banking also claim 24 hour access to your money. If that's true then why can't I telephone the department that deals with international tranfers outside of office hours ? Unfortunately I am not in a position to cancel my accounts due to my locality. But at least I can warn others that expect good service from SMILE.