Standard Life UK Reviews 

My pension was incorrectly transferred and not transferred back quickly even though it was high priority!!

Only been part of one of their plans for less than a month, and according to their web page, I am already losing money...! I am soooo excited to be part of Standard Life's journey???

On top of that, the laborious sign up and sign in process makes users jump through hoops again and again and again...it's not user friendly at all. Given that users lose money before they've even started, why would anyone want to pretend to be a customer??

And then, as if that wasn't enough, they suggest users download an app...so I did. When users log in to the iOS app, they are presented a screen about cookies, which I NEVER accept. So I click Disagree, and the useless unfriendly app chucks me straight back to the login screen! In other words, they bully users into accepting cookies if they want to use this appalling app, which is horrendous behaviour.

Sipp bereavements, what a nightmare. After 3 death certificates and requested paperwork. Received 1 set of post back with a tea stained letter . Im still waiting for the other 2 death certificates which I had to buy. I cannot believe it will take up to 2 year's. I hope no one has to wait as long. I wouldn't recommend this company to anyone. My next step is now going to financial Ombudsman. No one should have to wait 2 years after the death of a loved one.

Shocking customer service - I have an old pension from a previous employer who clearly entered my date of birth incorrectly I have tried to resolve this several times with no luck - I cannot register for the online account as it says my details dont match when I email they say cannot accept emails and when I ring they say my details dont match so I have a pension pot that I cannot access and is set up with the wrong details but no one seems to be able to help me resolve this - very rude customer service advisor on the phone

Very good
No fuss
Kept well informed
Plenty info sent
Very satisfied

Yes Shane, you're correct...Almost! It's funny how your final response gives the punter zero time to reply and argue the point.

Not to worry, not long now until my transfer happens and you can treat your 3 remaining customers to the high quality, top notch, expert service you provide...NOT!

DO NOT USE STANDARD LIFE - THEY ARE USELESS

Had a problem logging in to my new account.
But a quickly answered phone call sorted it.

Nicola was completely unhelpful in finding my account, and attempted to move my request onto someone else by suggesting I can only correspond by post.

Do not use this company I can’t believe a company of this size treats customers the way they do they think it’s ok to hold you money for as long as they want like o it’s a busy time or we made a chap’s payment then find out it’s gone back to them don’t tell you and when you call you get it will be looked at it’s in a queue or we can’t speak to are payment side I believe maybe doing it to make more money on everyone who has a pension with them and I have just looked at there reviews in here they must be embarrassed that there service is so bad I am now closing my account with them and will be recommending everyone I know never touch them is so bad
To be fair all staff are friendly but nothing ever gets done twice in 12 months I have had same issues not the best company I have delt with but all we can do is take your money elsewhere as they don’t deserve to look after it

Absolutely appalling service.
I made a mistake and instead of moving my SL pension to current pension provider, I've done the opposite. Called my current provider a few days after noticing the mistake and they said they will contact SL to reverse transaction.
Since then (about 4 weeks ago) I sent several messages to SL to process return of funds, received no confirmation this will be done. A few days after calling current provider, I also called SL to ask them to process this. The person I spoke to said they will make sure this is done. This was about 2 weeks ago. Last week I received an email from SL saying they received communication from my pension provider ( this was a few weeks ago now) and asking me to confirm I want SL to send the money back. I called again the following day (Thursday last week) asking for this to be processed urgently.
They have done basically nothing for weeks, since I requested transfer reversal. They did nothing for almost two weeks again, after I called as I got no communication from them. And they have audacity to ask am I sure I want to move pension from them? Absolutely appalling company. Re reviewed as I was not able to access previous review from last week and provide more information as requested by SL to get this sorted as request has still not been dealt with.
Edit today: Just noticed they have lost over 300£ in investments on my pension as of today. I cannot believe this. I have contacted ombudsman to try get this sorted urgently. You should be ashamed of yourselves.

After been promised that my drawdown would be in my account by the end of close of the day nothing yet again they are making promises they can't keep and definitely are a very disorganised company as will be back on the phone to them Monday as this has been going on since 31st January 2026

Call centre staff need to be in a quiet place. Call was excruciating due to surrounding noise at the call centre and as a result had to ask for repeated clarification at times

A breath of fresh air in customer service. Call was answered promptly. The lady I dealt with, Lorna, was friendly, cheery, and extremely helpful. I wish other companies would follow suit. Thank you!

Hope you don't have a relative die and leave you a Standard Life pension; I've been fighting to get a RESPONSE - let alone the money - from Standard Life SIPP BEREAVEMENT team for 3 months now. 19 days since the transfer request and NO COMMUNICATIONS. 8 solid days of email chasing, NO RESPONSE; Vanguard (a decent provider I am trying to transfer to) have heard nothing. Standard Life are a company that gives the impression they are a useless bunch of amateurs. AVOID AVOID AVOID

It seems that I get more attention here than I when message Standard Life from my account. So, today I found again that investments funds have gone up, but total plan value and growth do not match that % of gain, in fact my total plan value is about £1000 shorter than it should be. I have now filed a complaint to the ombudsman.

From the ratio of dissatisfaction. It would appear that Standard Life need to upscale their complaints and investigation department. From my Wife's experience, Standard Life should not be trusted to manage funds. She requested a release of Funds in December 2025, and it is still not resolved. It seems like a full time occupation to chase Standard Life for updates and resolutions. To be frank, the responses seem very unprofessional and B.S.

I requested to transfer in 4 x pensions into my current standard life work pension.
So far the 1st one has successfully transferred within one week.
Thanks

Excellent service, support and communication. I’ve had Standard Life handle my private pension and I couldn’t recommend them enough. Very helpful and helped every step of the way with various money traders.

I transferred my pension to standard life at begining of February ,as yet no contact ,no welcome package and no statement of balance of transfer,not good.

Top quality information and very helpful advice