Smile
Good:
Very secure online service and your loan will be paid out next day if you are a Smile customer
Bad:
Loan is not flexible so if you wish to change your payments, you can't
Verdict:
Smile has a very good reputation for their banking, online service and customer service but not for their loans - they are inflexible and the process can take a while
Smile is an online bank that lend between £7,500 and £25,000. They do however have call centres where you can speak to someone if you are having problems. Smile offers a fixed rate APR for the life of your loan so there would never be an increase in your monthly repayments.
You can apply online. After completing the application, you are given a PIN number that will let you log in and track the progress of your loan online. They will call you back within 24 hours to advise the success of the application (you will also receive an email). Once approved, you will go through relevant details on the phone before paperwork is sent out to you via post. When you receive this, read through it carefully, ensure you are happy with the APR and provide any other documents they may request. Once they receive it back, if you have a Smile bank account, the funds will be in there the following working day. If you bank with someone else, it will take 3 - 5 working days.
The general consensus of opinion by previous customers is that Smile offer a good service. The interest is not as low as some other loan companies out there. They are not the most flexible in terms of repayments as these cannot be increased or decreased and settling the loan early will cost you a fee on top of the interest you would have paid. They do however also offer quite a wide range of loan terms, allowing the customer to choose between 1-7 years whichever suits them best. Smile only offer loans to people over 21. You will be credit checked so its only worth applying if you have good credit (i.e. late payments, CCJs, defaults on your credit file). Once again it does seem to be recommended by a lot of its customers so if you are looking for these sort of amounts of money, this could be quite a viable option.
Loan Calculator (Representative 7.9%APR)
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From Oct-Jan i waited for my account. there is n problem with my credit, I was approved and jsut spent monthsw waiting for them to send me the acfount iuformaqtion. I called numeroius times and evey4r tiem ~I jsut got put on hold. I wa sure that I was put on hold and then jsut left there in the hopes that I would get bored and hang up. Because they had no clue why my application was taking so long. toal, utter rubbish. do nt waste your time,.
I've been banking with Smile for about 2 years, its been a pretty smooth relationship for most of that time with the odd exception. However, the loan application process has been long, confusing and very frustrating. After numerous phone calls to establish the status of my application I was finally told it had been accepted. When the paperwork arrived, the payment date was different to the one requested during the application process. When I called about this, I was told that I couldn't choose the date or indeed amend it....ever! I pointed out that I had been asked for my preferred date at the time of application but was told this was a mistake. Apparently you can set a payment date with a Co-Op loan but not a Smile one. As they are the same company working from the same offices, with the same systems and the same staff, I find this almost impossible to believe, it defies all logic. Needless to say I will not be completing my documents, in fact I will be tearing them up and applying with someone else.
I switched my banking to Smile, and my partner and I set up a joint account with them, because of their ethical policies. However, we are now leaving after one too many unpleasant experiences. Naively, I assumed that their ethical investment practices would be reflected in the way they treat their customers. But the moment anything goes wrong, or anything remotely complex takes place, the shutters go down, and you're met with dumb intransigence. The latest thing, and the final nail in the coffin, is that we transferred £850 into the account to be sure that we could cover a £1080 payment that was shortly due to be debited. Later in the day, the payment was refused and a penalty charge was levied. This happened despite the fact that our balance by that time was sufficient to cover the payment. Smile's "reasoning" is that they process credits before debits on any given day - a tactic which seems designed to screw as many penalties fees as possible out of customers - and a dubious claim in any case, given the statement showed payment of £850 in at 12:26, payment of £1080 refused at 15:40. We are now moving our banking back to NatWest/RBS, with whom we have had many years of happy service, and who in our experience show more humanity and flexibility in such circumstances.
“smile was recommended by someone i know in banking and they were right! The most important thing to me is online security closely followed by excellent customer services. smile delivers both impeccably. I have found your customer services people second to none - thank you to all for that.
I have always found smile to be very helpful, but often find it can take them a couple of days to reply to secure messages online. However if you are not looking for a flexible loan, and are happy with their APR rate then I would fully recommend them.
Smiles online banking system is fairly user friendly, reliable and nice to use. As I already bank with them, it was really convenient to have my loan account together with my other ones. Unfortunately, the biggest disadvantage of this loan is that it is not flexible, you are not able to increase or decrease payments, and paying the outstanding balance of early means you will have to pay a fee.
Loans up to £25,000 - 7 years
Other account holders - 4 working days
- It doesn't matter if you haven't been in the UK for a specified length of time
- You must be in full-time, part-time or self-employment earning £800 per month OR in education
- You must have a good credit history
- You need: proof of ID, proof of address (residential history for the last 3 years), details of your employment, your National Insurance Number and proof of income (bank statement, wage slips, etc.)
- You must be aged between 23-69
- You must have a bank account with credit/debit card facilities
- Courier charge to receive your documents quicker - £50.00
- CHAPs fee to receive your money quicker - £25.00
- Whole or part of an instalment, interest will be owed on the instalment from when it is due, at the annual percentage rate shown in the Loan Agreement until its actual payment
- One month's additional interest calculated on the balance outstanding will be payable
