Standard Life UK Reviews 

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

I was happy with their service since 2007 until late last year, they wrote and told me one of my pensions could not be drawn on beyond the age of 75, so I waited for them to tell me what should happen next, heard nothing. so phoned them it was agreed to move the money into my other Standard Life fund, had a letter dated the 4 February saying it was done but checked through online servicing and no sign of it meanwhile another month goes by without a pension payment, really dreadful service so will now complain to the F.C.A. and Ombudsman, it really is just not good enough I am afraid.

Absolutely awful experience when trying to access money from a pension with Standard Life. My husband was given a timescale for the claim to be processed. It came and went, as did other promises of payment. Each time we called, we were fobbed off by Customer Services, who had no explanation of where in the process our claim was (even though making statements re when payment would be made.

This is a disaster for us, as on the back of the timescale we were given to be able to access our money, we paid a £7000 deposit on a large expensive purchase. This was on 13th January. My husband has called several times for updates and been given incorrect information and simply fobbed off when trying to get to the bottom of what is going on. He called back today, to be faced with the same situation. He passed the phone to me, as he is trying himself to work whilst also trying to sort things out with Standard Life. The customer service staff become flippant and frustrated that you are trying to push for answers. They become defensive and try to shut you down. As I worked in pensions (not front office) for another large pension provider, I stood my ground and insisted someone takes ownership. Whilst my husband and I appreciate that timescales can change a little, for various reasons, we expect to be 1. given the correct facts and a realistic timescale at the point of starting a claim, and 2. being informed when timescales have slipped and for what reason. We do not expect to be simply kept in the dark and not kept up to date re where in the process things are. As we made the claim on 13 Jan and subsequently paid our large purchase deposit a few days after, it looks like we are going to lose the £7000 we paid, which is devastating. It's only today that we were given the information that the internal transfer (first step of the claim) hasn't even been processed yet, after six weeks of being messed around. This is due to high work volumes, apparently. It's just dreadful.

Very disappointed with the lack of customer service from Standard Life. For some unknown reason, details of my pension have disappeared from their online portal and the app. They encourage everyone to use their app but how can I when I can't access my details? I emailed them about this 3 weeks ago but have received no reply or any explanation why this has happened. Still waiting for an answer.

Excellent communication and very helpful. They really guided me through everything I needed to do.

Found every member of staff I spoke to very friendly and helpful. Moving my pension was a breeze

Requested a withdrawal mid December as online portal wasn't working - so called and told 10 - 15 working days - and still waiting. Many messages and calls to chase with teams including raising a complaint and keep getting brushed aside with no firm resolution - and payout as of today. How can a financial business holding our money operate like this? Suppose I will need to escalate to the FOS - where Standard Life will still drag on....

They are not very good at giving update to problems when asked, been having problems with them concerning monies being transferred from my exemployer to my plan it's been going on 6 months, standard life did uphold my original complained but the problem hasn't been resolved and I keep asking for updates just to be told we have passed it on to the team who are dealing with it.

Shocking experience. Trying to transfer my pension to them for 3 months and still not processed. Have sent 10 emails in the last 14 days and not one single reply. They just completely ignore you. Have asked them to cancel the transfer as I’d hate to think what the experience must be like as a customer. I’m just trying to become one and they are ignoring me.

Updated 18th Feb. @standardlife appreciate the quick apology but how you respond in a few hours to a public complaint but you don’t reply to your customers 10 emails over 2 weeks ?

26 weeks after requesting funds still nothing call after call after call your service is dreadful.. complaint made and wont be investigated until payout... which will be when... some advice i received was if you are short of money i can tell you where your nearest food bank is REALLY are STANDARD LIFE SO DESPERATE FOR MONEY THEY ARE STOPPING CUSTOMERS FROM TAKING THEIR FUNDS.. i have writren to Angela Byrne and writre on Andy Briggs Linkden page and even they dont care
18.2.26 update srandard review from standard life which totally ingnores my review because if you did you would take note 1/ money not paid out 2/ COMPLAINT WILL NOT BE LOOKED INTO UNTIL PAYOUT IS MADE... YOU SERIOUSLY HAVE LITTLE OR NO THOUGHT ABOUT CUSTOMERS AND CLEARLY DO NOT CARE

Absolutely terrible experience. Tried setting up a SIPP as I wanted to add money into a SIPP to invest and build my own pension pot. Two accounts were made for me, requested to cancel one and keep the other open, weeks went by with still no communication. Must have called them about five times chasing why I have not had any form of communication still on this being set up to them apologising for the admin errors and reassuring me I would get a letter, email and access to my online portal. Weeks go by again, still nothing so i chase and ask surely you want my business. Only to be told that they had set up not 2 but 3 accounts in error and it was taking them this long to cancel and keep 1 much to my frustration the man I spoke with was incredibly rude and interrupted me expressing my frustration on this matter. I told him, this is not my error it is yours - it can't be this hard. I cancelled everything to do with them and will never use them. Avoid at all costs. I have now taken my business elsewhere and they set me up the same day. Not difficult!

I had a pension plan with a payment date of 13/11/25. The money didn't arrive. SL sent me 2 letters, which arrived on 22/11/25. No explanation by email, no phone call. SL said , when I at last got through, that I could not claim my pension because I needed to send details of my bank account and passport. But none of the letters or phone calls I've had with them mentioned that I had to do this. After many communications (phone calls-when they answer the phone-email, messages) I got a new pension date of 1st March 26. The money arrived in my bank on 4th February 2026. What a SHAMBLES.
I have informed the financial Ombudsman. Let's see what result I get.

Always been very efficient with my pension needs and especially transfers . No hassle .

I wanted to draw down my small pension to my bank account and went through the entire process online to do so. At the end it said that I had successfully completed the process and that the money would go to my bank account, however it hadn’t , the pension balance is still exactly the same. Very annoying and now I have to spend lots of time trying to sort it out.

After speaking to a member of staff at Standard Life on 3-Feb-2026 I started the transfer of a pension from Scottish Widows. It is 8 calendar days later (11-Feb-2026) and I can see the funds have landed and showing in my online account. Can't fault it! Thank you.

Transfer of pension into standard life pension - very easy to use on the app and notified when done.

Their customer service isn't perfect but credit where it's due ,they do get things sorted out eventually.

I tried to access my account last Thursday, to see various past documents, and all I was offered was the opportunity to alter my security details. I sent a message about this via FaceBook, and received the following reply:
"We do currently have an issue with Bulk Purchase Annuity plans not showing online, however, a fix is planned for this tonight and should resolve the issue.
Social Media Team"
The following day showed no improvement. Meanwhile I have had two messages, one on Thursday and one on Friday both giving me Standard Life verification codes. What am I supposed to do with them? The website also says "log in to send us a secure message". Having logged in there seems to be no option to do this. I am very frustrated by this, which I believe has happened before.

Filled out my application form last Sunday for a pension plan I received an email from Standard Life saying I would receive my welcome pack through the post including my log in details & password to log into the app, I’ve since received an email saying there is a important message to read in the app however I’ve not received anything in the post so I can’t log into the app to read the document. Not very impressive so far it’s been a week now, I’m not sure I can trust a company with my pension money if it takes this long to post my documents….