Standard Life UK Reviews 

These people never give any updates and just say 14 days to everything. Their website is shocking and rarely works. Move your money out of here!
This company asked for more details which I provided but then you get the silence again and no basic communication. Simply shocking customer service…..

What a unprofessional organisation,

Worked for openreach for 5 years.

Been away from them for 3 years now

Called to check on the amount in my old pension and because I couldn't remember a 3 year old telephone number, they hung up on me.

They have refused to give me my old policy nunber and have said ive now lost my pension.

Im hinestly gobsmacked she hung up on me after saying you failed security so you have lost your pension!!

I remember around 18k in there as I transferred a previous pension into this one.

Will be taking this much further. Luckily I have the call recorded.

Very helpful and very quick. They got my pension moved over very quickly indeed.

Investment aspect is fine but the website seems frequently to be non-functional (such as problems signing in or pages loading so slowly they time out) and getting paperwork is slow; and then there can still be issues. In this case, I requested a statement yesterday for a mortgage application, which arrived in my secure mailbox today, but the PDF is corrupted and can't be opened. So now I'm back to chasing again, for a usable file, and it's somewhat urgent as the bank considering my mortgage application keeps asking for this, the last thing they need to proceed. Standard Life really needs to up their game on the tech side.

I have been fighting Standard Life on and off for the last few years over delays in accessing withdrawals from my Income Drawdown plan. Once your fund value exceeds a certain amount you cannot use the online platform to make withdrawals and have to call them. The online platform typically takes 5 minutes to complete the questionnaire and the money is in your bank account in less than 3 days, sometimes just hours but if you ring them you'll be on the phone for hours, be transferred to 3 different people and it then takes 4 weeks or so! I have previously raised formal complaints about this and because of this, ludicrously and counter to providing for my retirement, I have been trying to keep my funds below their limit to ensure easier access. I recently tried to make a small withdrawal using the online platform. I noticed a few new questions trying to force you to call them and thereby slow the entire process down but managed to complete my request but after a week nothing has been received. I contacted them via the app and received a reply stating that their normal turn around time is 15 to 20 working days (its 1980 again!) which is wrong for online requests and they had a few questions before they could start to process my payment. Unfortunately prior to me contacting them nobody had bothered to tell me they had questions so who knows how long I would have been waiting if I had not contacted them first, but yet again their manual intervention turns a simple process into a nightmare. So I now have to wait who knows how long for MY money. The acknowledgement to my initial withdrawal request stated "Whatever you choose to do with your money, we hope you enjoy it." Yes right, whenever they choose to give it to me! I am getting to the end of my tether with these constant battles with them. I nearly transferred everything away in 2024 so I think it is time to revisit this. Don't ever try to make plans to use your pension funds for anything specific or within a certain timescale because it will be guaranteed that Standard Life will screw that up. I was a Pensions Adviser and IFA for 35 years and back then I used to actually recommend Standard Life to clients but now how the mighty have fallen.

Standard life have supposedly been dealing with a transfer of pension for me. They have provided email updates through the app reassuring me they have completed the necessary paperwork but apparently they haven’t done this. After I raised the issue they then submitted the paperwork with the wrong reference and information causing even further delay and issues.
I have still not completed the pension transfer and I am unsure what is happening as the email updates I receive do not match with the actions taken.

Absolutely appalling service. 10+ weeks of delays, excuses, and obstruction.
Standard Life told my mother her pension withdrawal would take 15 days to process. It has now been over 10 weeks.
We completed the withdrawal over the phone, submitted all requested ID documents, and were then left in limbo. Because we live in New Zealand, the only way to call is at 11pm NZ time, which is difficult for my mother. Despite repeatedly registering me as someone authorised to speak on her behalf, every time I call I’m told they “need to speak to the account holder” and we’re forced to go through the same exhausting process again.
Email support is a lottery. Sometimes they reply, sometimes they don’t. Today the website is completely down, so there is literally no way to contact them at all.
After seven weeks of silence, giving them the benefit of the doubt over Christmas and New Year, I emailed asking what the delay was. Their response? No apology. No accountability. Just a blunt message saying a “key document was missing” — a document we were never asked for. They made no attempt to contact us, no follow-up, no notification. They simply sat back and waited for us to chase them. If we’d been asked for it at the time of processing we could have provided this. Almost like they wanted an excuse to delay further down the line.
We sent the document immediately and explicitly asked to be kept updated. That was three weeks ago. Total radio silence since.
In the meantime, the exchange rate is dropping. Their negligence is actively costing my mother money while they sit on funds that do not belong to them, continuing to take fees. And before anyone trots out the line about “long-term performance,” this fund has underperformed the market for years while charging thousands in fees. So no, that excuse doesn’t fly.
I used to roll my eyes when my mum said years ago that Standard Life were dragging their feet and “playing games” when she tried to access her own money. Having now dealt with them directly, I owe her a massive apology. She was right.
This is not just slow service, it’s obstruction, indifference, and a complete lack of respect for customers. A pathetic disgrace of a company. Avoid at all costs.

Financial Ombudsman is being contacted today.

Try to update my bank details can't be downline so I called them they didn't know how to do it so they hung the phone upon me I go back the next person told me they couldn't update my bank details and last I made a withdrawal I told them that bank account had been closed they have the wrong information for me but they still refuse to update them I made a complaint and then they call me back and said they needed some more information because the person that was managing my camera changed departments I went through everything with them again explained I've just been diagnosed and neurological brank condition was to talk they said somebody would call me back nobody called me back I made a complaint I use the messaging system within my account I was then told again by the messaging system to call them I explained that already spoken to somebody three times as of five hours I still do not have my bank details updated or access to my money as soon as I can get my money out without having to pay tax I will do and I will make sure I worn anybody of this dreadful

very easy to transfer money from one account to another

Very straightforward and easy to do and it’s good to have all in one place. It was quicker than I expected and was informed

If you’re trying to transfer a pension from another provide then good luck. I have phoned twice and each time passed from one dept to another and NO-ONE seems to know what they’re doing after giving g them a detailed description of what my situation was - even my 4 yr old Granddaughter would understand. When I eventually spoke to someone who had a rough idea I got cut off, when I phone back (total phone time over 45 minutes at this stage). Lil Miss Snowflake ended the call as she couldn’t tell the difference between being exasperated and what in her opinion was shouting. Absolute shambles with armatures on the phone

Most communications / Newsletters are fairly empty of any useful information. Very high-level and generic. Overall, the lifestyle profiles are terrible in terms of performance

Excellent service. Did not take long to have my pension transferred.

i have twice asked for money from my Pension Funds - both times went without any issues and the follow up emails saying what stage my request was at was the best of any company ive dealt with - great company

Brilliant service always easy to talk to and so helpful much better that other companies I have dealt with

Barry

This says it all, get used to reading it when you want to see your pension performance .......
"OOps Sorry something went Wrong

We will investigate it and get back to you"

Trouble is it always goes wrong, they never investigate it, and they never get back to you.

Why not take your investment money and set fire to it....the result will be the same . STAY CLEAR THESE PEOPLE ARE Incompetent
Now they want more information from me , in order to recognize that their website is always unavailable. Denial of the bleadin obvious is how to describe this . If they are so concerned about their customer service why are there so many awful reviews on this website. These people live under a delusion that they provide a good service . Total BS .

Do not trust this company ,useless customer service , they mute their calls not putting you on hold like they say and listen in and record you , whilst you think you cant be heard .
Also their paperwork says one thing in big type but in small print says another .. so they back track and cost you money and its your fault
Wish i had never transferred to into this company

Transfer of pension from another provider to Standard life, really easy and quick, within a week. Didn't give them a 5 rating because they sent a text to my partner regarding the transfer, bit of a breach in security 🙁

If you have money in standard life, I advise moving it ASAP. The service seems great to begin with, recieving a timescale for a withdrawal from my drawdown plan and get it set up, which I had based a house move on (which we may lose due to this), and SL being fully aware of this. The timescale was 3-4 weeks, whixh seemed reasonable. After chasing this up close to the end of the timescale, I expressed concern and was told this had been made priority and should be resolved in 2-4 days. I am now coming up to week 7 with absoloutely no progress.
Noone seems to have any idea what's going on, they apparently have an admin department in which noone can actually reach because there is no internal contact number and noone is responding to emails, there is no accountability and the entire process I have been passed from pillar to post.

I requested to withdraw a lump sum from my persion 5 weeks ago and since then I have had no correspondence from them confirming this is going ahead. When I contact them they are unable to give a timescsale on when I will receive the money and it is impossible to speak or converse with anyone who can help

They give empty promises about excalating this etc. but it is all guff and no communications regarding when I will get the payment are forthcoming

No one more senior than customer service will speak to you, they hide like cowards behind the CS staff and there is no one with the spinal fortude to actually talk to a customer, to justify why you are treated in this manner

I'm sure they will reply with the same empty lies about being commited to offering great customer service but the reality is that the opposite is true

Please think twice about using this company