Phoenix Life Reviews 3,200

It's borderline criminal how disjointed and dysfunctional this company is.

It's now been over 12 months of trying to deal with a claim. They've showed little sympathy, and have increasingly requested more ridiculous evidence in order to progress the claim.

They are recommending that I open a third formal complaint despite not even having resolution from the previous complaint.

Do not trust or use this company.

Phoenix Life have been nothing but pleasant and courteous when I have called, their small team who I have been dealing with is a credit to the company as a whole, with special mention to Shannon and Kelsey (I hope I have spelt names correctly) who have been empathic and understanding in what are quite sensitive and difficult circumstances.
Overall I rate this company 10/10 and would have no hesitation in recommending them for pensions/life insurance. It’s so refreshing to speak with people who actually care!
Massive Pat on the back, thanks again

Dear Phoenix Life Team,

I hope you are well. I am writing to provide feedback following a call I made this morning on behalf of my elderly mother regarding a letter she received from your organisation.

Unfortunately, my first interaction was extremely disappointing. I spoke with a representative named TEE, who refused to take the policy number from me to begin the security process, despite the fact that I had the letter in front of me and my mother was present on the call. My mother did not know the policy number by memory, which is perfectly understandable given her age.

TEE insisted, quite abruptly, that she could only proceed if the policy number was stated by my mother directly, even though industry-standard practice is to verify security using "personal identification details", not solely a policy number. Her tone was rude, unhelpful, and unnecessarily inflexible, which created a frustrating and stressful experience for both of us.

I ended the call and rang back. Thankfully, I was assisted by another colleague who handled the situation properly and professionally. He took the policy details from me, completed the security validation with my mother using her personal information, and obtained her consent so that I could speak on her behalf. The issue was resolved quickly and politely,exactly how it should be.

I am raising this because it is clear that "additional training" is required for staff members like Tee, whose approach risks damaging Phoenix Life’s reputation. The second adviser demonstrated how simple and customer-friendly the process can be when handled correctly.

I trust this feedback will be taken constructively, as the difference between the two experiences was significant.

Kind regards,
Mr Mathan

Lost my mam in September , she had life insurance with this company. They sent cheque out with my step dads first and middle name only and bank obviously was refused by bank.
Very insensitive operators, even when bereavement is selected on the phone choices, they actually asked to speak to my mam. They also asked my step dad her year of death.
This firm supposedly issued a new cheque on 1st November. No cheque has arrived.
I've spent hours on the phone trying to sort this out having to relive the whole thing of my mams death and during the last phone call the woman agreed to pay the money into my step dads bank via bank transfer. No money in yet. Has anyone else encountered anything similar?

Update: 10 December, the basket I broke has been delivered.

Update: 02 December, absolutely nothing from CECOtec. Have called the Portuguese number many times, and no one can explain anything. DO not break anything you buy from CECOtec, their after-sales service is non-existent.

Update: Received a phone call on the 17th. Still waiting on further information today 26 November 2025.

Shocked at the level of service from Phoenix life. Just NONE. Called to change my address SIX times. Told on the 20th of October 2025 everything was correct, and today 14th of November 2025, I got an email asking me to call them. Called three times so far, cut off ALL three times. Andy Briggs, you clearly have not picked up the phone and called your support, as Jeff Bezos, to discover the absolute incompetence of your system. Still trying to resolve a RA I took out in 1998.

Phoenix life insurance, have an agenda for deliberately delaying payment of a simple and uncomplicated end of life insurance claim of my late mother. Their call centre is manned by staff who are as much use as a 'chocolate teapot' they avoid pertinent questions when asked how much longer do we have to wait until this matter is bought to a close, by deflecting the responsibility to another department, who are unreachable by phone!

If I was looking for a Life Insurance provider for myself, this company would be a at the very bottom of my list, so consumers beware!

100% avoid. After a family member passed away we have spent hours and hours on the phone being constantly told maybe next week and it continues, no record of the calls and no management available to escalate. Shocking service will take it further.

Incompetent is too small a word for the shambles they show, give out information then say it's wrong, give out more information and again someone else says its wrong. I approached them 7 months ago to ask how to draw down part of my pension, followed their advice and they are currently unable to give a timescale to pay out part of my pension over a month after I retired.

spoken to numerous advisors and sent all documents they required to verify my pension plan and still not recieved my policy number
they are still dragging their feet for whatever reason, all i want is my policy number to log in online
why are you witholding my policy number.......

My partner passed away in June. IAM still waiting to be paid out. Because we were not married Ive sent them documents to prove we were a couple. It's been horrendous. He took out this pension plan 30 years ago.

Failed to provide a valuation of insurance policies for probate. Took ages to pay out.

Incompetent, took over a year to move a pension. Their complaints dept's number either rings out with no answer, and the number for the named person on the complaint was unobtainable. Calls go unreturned, and they continually posted material to wrong address, despite being corrected many times. Avoid.

Firstly let me say that this company like all the other Life and Pension companies use the same tactics of 10 day rule and 6 weeks for any postal queries.with anything you want to do! I had the same issues initially till I called the customer service Couple of days ago and spoke to Sayanthi first and was absolutely surprised and impressed with the way she handled my call with patience, empathy and explained all details and answered my questions completely which was a godsend, then she transferred me to the correct department and I spoke to Sarah who was brilliant, she was understanding, patient and went through the process and constantly made sure I understood the legalities. The whole experience though long was very satisfactory and put me at ease. Hope the rest of the staff will follow the great work of Sayanthi & Sarah and process my request in a timely manner. Thank you! god bless

What an absolute shambles of a company, pushed from pillar to post lost information, and documents possibly the worst company i have ever had to deal with !

Missing paper work and a really drawn out process at a time when we could really do without it.
I've sent forms back several times since august only to be told they haven't received them nearly 2 months later from the initial form. I dread seeing the envelope from Pheonix life in our post no because I know its probably going to be the same forms again.
Also, they did not keep us informed of the status of changes in my late father's pension scheme and I had to make phone calls to find out what was happening. However, The person I spoke to was really helpful, informative and quick to get us the info we asked for, but surprised we hadn't received any notifications through the post that we should have done. Not particularly comforting under the circumstances. The whole experience has been stressful so far and our experience with two other firms was much smoother and quicker.

what can I say! im now on the phone,,,again!!!! waiting to see where my money is?? call handlers that are giving me the wrong information from forms to when I will be paid, keep quoting the 10 days line when I have sent back about six forms!!!! then to be told because of the mess caused by these guys that I will be put on the priority payment,,,,AND IM STILL WAITING!!!!

this is my second review which i would give 0 stars if possible , my payment was due over a month ago, still no payment , no senior staff available and no one has any authority to do anything .
this company sadly needs a rethink, i have now taken this to another body ( outside this company ) I will post what happens next . a certain TV production company are looking to speak to other clients of Phenix life

Scam company. Lie constantly so they don't have to send what is rightly yours.
DO NOT get involved with these scammers. Cannot stand a liar and there are a few working at this company.

This Pension provider is simply rubbish , spent 3 days just trying to speak to someone , after my 4th attempt and 1 hr wait i got through to someone who waffled nonesense for 20 minutes before i asked to be passed to someone else , this took another 15 minutes and i got no further , i will be switching my full pension out of here asap , they are a joke !

I have had the misfortune to have had to deal with this company after the death of my wife.

The first issue was when they were the only organisation that would not take official documents online. On one occasion a bereavement customer services person explained that there was a way - the policy holder could download app, register and sign in, then using app to scan document upload it digitally. I talked them through this and then asked the question "who is the policy holder" (my late wife). Stund silence then "no we don't take digitally"

Customer service people do not seem to listen or taken in what you are saying. They in my case lied or had recorded wrongly what I had said.

They don't seem to know processes such as APS - when they finally understood they had already caused issue for me.

They lost my wife's will delaying the process by 18 months.

Etc, etc ....

I will never knowingly use this company in the future - they are purely there for their own greed - they have never explained to me (nearly 24mnths asking) why the zeroed an account they were managing to make money - no money made over many years but still they took out management fees!