Standard Life UK Reviews 

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

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 ?