Two worthless pensions.

polomint_2

When the government introduced the pensions that companys had to do i didnt opt out. Then about a year later our company was taken over. So it was frozen and had new companys pension. now 10 months later that company has stopped so that one has been frozen. Prob both worth nothing! Now on getting a new job i will prob have to start yet another pension. Advice needed please to what to do thanks.

jamesd

Transfer the two existing pensions into either the one for the new job or a personal pension of your own that you start just to accumulate old pensions from work schemes like the two you have already.

greenglide

.... or leave them were they are. As long as you keep them informed of any changes of address they will keep track of them.

The pensions are not "frozen". They will continue to grow, depending on the investments you chose, until you reach an age when you can access them.

Aretnap

It's extremely unlikely that they're worthless. Does money in a bank account become worthless because you don't pay into it any more or because you open another account? A pension is no different - it's essentially just a bank account, albeit one which you can't withdraw from until you're 55, and which is typically invested in stocks and shares rather than cash.

As above you can either leave them as they are and come back to them when you are old enough to access them, or transfer them both to whatever scheme comes with your new job. Depending on the fees and the range of investments the various schemes offer there may be some advantages to keeping them separate, but if you're the sort of person who doesn't like keeping track of multiple accounts and likes to keep life simple then transferring them is probably the easiest option.

xylophone

In which schemes are pensions 1 and 2?

polomint_2

I have no clue what schemes they are in and each were only paid into for about 10months each. The first one i was told i could not transfer to a diffrent one.

PensionTech

The first one i was told i could not transfer to a diffrent one.

This is not true unless the scheme is NEST. If it is, you will be able to transfer out next April.

As other people have said here, it doesn't matter whether or not you continued paying into them. 10 months' contributions in a pension that you no longer pay in to are worth exactly as much as 10 months' contributions in a pension that you do still pay into. You build up your pension savings over your entire life. Looking at any small period and saying "well those contributions are worthless because they're only 10 months" is like looking at your salary and saying "well that day's salary is worthless because it's only £80". It just doesn't make sense.

What does matter is whether those small pensions are in schemes with the best investment options and charging structure for you. You might find that you can pay less in charges and invest in a wider/more suitable range of assets if you move them into a different scheme. This will become even more important as you start to build up more pension savings in future. If you're worried about not having a decent amount of money in retirement, now's the time to be proactive and think about how much you need to save into a pension, and how you want to invest it.

xylophone

If the first is "Nest", you could check transferring into your new employer's scheme next year,

If the second can be transferred out, find out about transferring to your new employer's scheme.

polomint_2

one is nest and one is friendslife