Aberdeen Reviews 182

We were forced to use Abrdn as an intermediary as we could not directly invest funds with stock market fund managers. Some of this money is through ISAs and when we wanted to withdraw this and move it to cash ISAs we instructed Abrdn to to a transfer to cash, which they did.
Despite this, they say the funds are within a stocks and shares ISA so are refusing to transfer OUR MONEY at less than 30 days, even though Government rules say cash transfers should take place within 15 days.
They even lost a week registering the transfer request from the receiving bank.
Abrdn is remarkably keen to take your money, but once it has it, it is incredibly slow giving it back to you.
This is not the first time we have had problems with the Company. When they were still called Standard Life it took many months and the threat of legal action for our pension to transfer.
Abrdn either deliberately sit on your money, or are grossly inefficient in handling it.
We have now been forced to take this matter to the Financial Ombudsman as we are losing money every day.
Avoid at all costs!

This seems a weird company. Having asked them for a Tax Certificate on one of their products, which actually they had failed to send me, they claim not to be able to send me over an email attachment and have put hard copy in the post - in this day and age I find quite amazing.

An absolutely dreadful business to deal with, especially when you wish to cash your fund in. Processes are archaic compared to any other FCA related business I deal with. Require a voided cheque or an original paper bank statement to transfer my funds into the account I have been paying them monthly from for 20 years. They close down a fund and then require you to write to two seperate Abrdn adresses, both in Chelmsford to cash your fund in. Their communications are unclear, unhelpful and the associated processes lead to blind sellling.....who know when they actually execute your instructions.

In August 2023, I instructed Abrdn to transfer my stocks & shares ISA to Interactive Investor on Abrdn's advice. This was to avoid having a second Interactive Investor account being set up if I left it until the automatic transfer later in the year when Abrdn closes its business.
Abrdn send the wrong info to Interactive Investor and two and a half months later, the transfer still has not happened.
To make matters worse, Aberdeen closed my account a month ago, so I can't see any records of my share transactions. I don't know how much they are now worth. I can't withdraw the cash in the account or sell shares. I was so worried that I phoned them. They say the transfer should be complete at the end of the month. That's another fortnight with no access to anything.
Interactive Investor have tried by email and phone to get Abrdn to make the transfer, without success. I've submitted two formal complaints to Abrdn so far, but nothing has happened.

Avoid this company!

The trouble with sites like this, especially with investment companies, is that the majority of people that make the effort to post are people who have received a bad experience and those that have a good experience don't bother to write anything as they don't find a need. I personally have nothing to complain about. My account was originally with Standard Life and I have been even more pleased with abdrdn. ii Is extremely easy to use and cheap and I have no problems with them at all online, with their App, or customer service. All in all I'm very happy with them.

If I could give ZERO stars I would.

My ISA transfer stock was sold on 15th September. Their website says transfers will be made within 4-5 working days.

I called and they told me it would be done on 12th October, because they had a backlog.

I would echo what others have said. Avoid.

This was the only company to lose money on my Great Uncle's investments over the last 6 months. They keep asking for more documents that were not requested originally. They can't even do a credit check over the phone. I offered to travel 100 miles to their office to show my documents but they refused. They just don't want to pay out the money!
Avoid this company at all costs!

El plop! 1/3rd of shares missing.
Company has gone down hill.

I submitted a review recently and the company asked me for details of my account etc. Not sure why because I included the account number in the original submission. Whether this is the fault of Abrdn or Trustpilot, who knows.

Still no response even though they say a reply will be sent within 5 working days and my original email was sent 5 (plus) working days ago

Now I thought I would make a complaint to the Financial Conduct Authority and/or the police as the holdings have gone missing.

I therefore thought I would phone up their complaints line first and indeed I phoned the number given on their website about making a complaint. Guess what, that number does not deal with complaints.

Is this really a serious company or just a scam operationoperation.

I’m trying to move my ISA and SIPP from ABRDN to other providers as the service they offer is dreadful.
The original request was made on 25/8.

The funds were sold down on 31/8 and 1/9 and despite many requests since then through my PCM, with assurances on a number of occasions that the monies would be moved within the next 24-48 hours. The money still sits with ABRDN.
I’ve now asked for a formal complaint to be raised and when the 3 days are up and I’ve heard nothing I intend to write to both the financial ombudsman and the FCA, although I have little belief in either of them helping.

Buyer beware ….cash into ABRDN…quick …cash out……clock still ticking.

My PCM raised a complaint on my behalf on Friday 15/9 and advised me that they have 3 days to respond. 3 days expired yesterday and as I fully expected …not a peep from them. My ISA has been set up with a BACS transfer on 19/9 but as yet no monies have moved out nor have the been received by my new provider.
My SIPP continues to sit with ABRDN , even though the funds were sold down on 1/9 and has been requested by my new SIPP provider

On abrdn announcing the closure of IT accounts i opted to sell my holdings and withdraw the money. Took a while to get payment from abrdn but my main problem is a result of abrdn closing the account so I could no longer access it online despite there being cash in it from dividend payments. Unable to access transaction history and tax certificates etc. Spent about 45 minutes in hold before customer services answered my call. They promised to send a cheque to me to clear my account. Still waiting over three weeks later for my own money to be handed over. Customer services call centre always on hold. Very poor, not what I expect after having been an account holder for over 25 years.

Update 31st August - after several attempts over the last week I eventually got to speak to customer services again today. Despite initially indicating payment within 5 days they now admitted they had not got round to forwarding my money due to a backlog of requests for withdrawals of funds. Complaint to FCA will be needed.

Update 15th September - they still have my money despite saying payment to me would be prioritised.

Update 5th October - Still nothing from abrdn, they still have my money. Formal complaint made to abrdn -no response.

Never, ever use this company if you have dont have the absolute patience of a saint, takes forever to answer the phone, website is pretty rubbish. Unfortunately I was transferred over to them by Standard life, I will specifically exclude them from any investement decisions in the future so I can retain my sanity if I ever need to call any financial companies.

Second problem withdrawal in the last 6 months.
These people do NOT like giving you back your money !
I arranged a transfer of my ISA to another provider last month.
The stock was sold on 4th August, settlement date was 09th August (both advised by letter to me from abrdn), but no transfer has happened. When I queried this this morning I was told the monies were still in my ISA account with abrdn. I couldn't find out why.
Last time it took nearly 3 months to get the transfer complete. This is looking worrying similar

UPDATE

Despite sending requested information by return, I have heard absolutely nothing from abrdn.
Yes, I finally got my money but the supposed "prompt" investigation seems not to have happened in any form.
I'd like to know why abrdn held my money back for weeks (on 2 occasions now).
It seems that prompt investigations take about as long as protracted withdrawals.

Following the closure of abdrn ISA savings plans my decision was for the shares, not the value of the shares, to be transferred to another ISA provider. Instead abrdn sold the shares and transferred the cash proceeds. On shares repurchase the prices were in my favour. Had they not been, I would have been very, very annoyed and not just irritated and a formal complaint for compensation commenced. This is bad admin. Two stars generous here.

Agent keep changing contact no. Very bad experienced.

Thanks to Steven Quinn’s post I phoned the 0800 number he supplied. It was answered immediately which took me by surprise as I had waited 40min previously. Following my first Trustpilot post in June, I received two thirds of my investment (in a personal portfolio) on 14th June but not the ISA stocks and shares. The person on the 0800 number said the last ISA third was still sitting there from April when I closed the account. He said I would get it next week. Obviously it will be at the amount standing on 24th April so I won’t have any interest rise since then added to it. Incompetent system and people but not the person today. He was helpful. Hope I get it now.

This company in my opinion is functioning well below average expectations. The reason I say this is because even very very basic processes just don't work, for example amend direct debit amount for ISA online...nope doesn't work. In addition, try to sell stocks from ISAs and your money could end up let's say anywhere...when my ISA was with Standard, the service was OK, since moving everything to Abdrn the service has been imo, well below par. Surely FSA should get involved soon?

Unable to access the platform since transferred over and unable to contact anyone.
After being in the music queue finally got through to someone. After I informed them I could not access my account they hung up.
This company is absolutley shocking!

Added my ref number previously however no one contacted me so not adding it this time

Ps the only way to close your account and withdraw your money is by sending a letter. Not an email, not a phone call. A letter. Who writes letters in the 21st century?
Absolutely diabolical setup.

I have responded to your request and i decided to make another attempt to retrieve my money so called the number given on google 0800 027 4675 and low and behold the service advisor closed my account without any issue.
I would recommend some re-training for the service advisors as 1 hung up on me (most call centres would trace this person through call logs etc but not you.
Then the second person stated that i had to write a letter to close my account and was very unhelpful.
The third person was actually useful and closed the account without question.

They are the latest in a long line to take over fund management of my ethical ISA fund. It's performance has deteriorated each time over five years from a high yield fund to falling behind the stock market average. Their app is cumbersome. It also takes an excessive amount of time to trade and release funds, presumably while they 'overnight' the cash a few times. Not good.

My IFA said I should transfer my pension pot to ABRDN 3 years ago. I took his advice and 3 years on my pension pot, despite being invested in a cautious managed scheme, has lost £23000! I am looking at how to move it out of ABRDN as it's not getting any better.