Scottish Widows App

GrahamLM52

Just received an email from Scottish Widows stating that they are stopping their on-line pension service this month. Customers will have to manage pensions by telephone or download the Scottish Widows App.

Has anyone else had this email (I'm assuming it is genuine)?

Does anyone have any experience of the Scottish Widows App? Is it any good?

dunstonh

Does anyone have any experience of the Scottish Widows App? Is it any good?

Anecdotally, SW and information technology have never gone well together.  If its anything like their other online services, you will get a distinct 1990s feel about it.     However, maybe Lloyds Bank will surprise us and let SW spend more money after all these years of starving it of resources.

kinger101

My Company Pension is with SW.  I've not received any such e-mail myself so far.

I have to say, their website is the most awful I've ever seen.

For a start, it doesn't work with Chrome.  To make matters worse, they launched an "improved" version last year which doesn't even allow you to see historic performance of your funds or what was purchased when.

As a provider, they offer practically nothing in terms on index trackers, but at least fees management fees (though my employer at least) are relatively low.  

I can't see how I'll possible manage drawdown through their shambolic system, so I'll transfer out before then.

Albermarle

kinger101 said:

My Company Pension is with SW.  I've not received any such e-mail myself so far.

I have to say, their website is the most awful I've ever seen.

For a start, it doesn't work with Chrome.  To make matters worse, they launched an "improved" version last year which doesn't even allow you to see historic performance of your funds or what was purchased when.

As a provider, they offer practically nothing in terms on index trackers, but at least fees management fees (though my employer at least) are relatively low.  

I can't see how I'll possible manage drawdown through their shambolic system, so I'll transfer out before then.

One my ex employer pensions was with Zurich, and they sold their workplace pension business to SW.
Although branded SW, it seems to remain a separate entity.
Website is poor and customer service response is poor . If you e mail them, you get an automated response saying they will get back in 10 days. After exactly 10 days you get an answer of sorts. My other two DC pension providers answer in 48 hours maximum, usually less.
The saving grace is that the fees are low, so OK for buy and hold, but as above I would not use them for drawdown.
I have not received any mail about stopping internet access. It seems odd as no other mainstream pension provider insists on an app only service. 

DE_612183

same with Halifax - was a much better website than Lloyds, but then got taken over and loads of functionality disappeared with the promise it would be improved soon - that was about 10 years ago!

Marmot

Not sure if this is this the same thing or something completely different....? But on the login page on the Scottish Widows pensions site it has this message.



I'm pretty sure they added that * bit in the last couple of days because it wasn't really clear what CS meant.... So they've clarified that Money4life (old Zurich pensions) and Workplace pensions aren't affected.

granta

I received the email too.

But I'm confused as to whether it applies to my pension as I have an old workplace pension (according to the website, that includes pensions with former employers), yet the login page only allows me to login via the 'Personal Pension' route.

That's the only login I have used (in recent memory) so I assume I will soon lose access too. I wish there was an easy way to download all the statements and transactions. 

TELLIT01

If the opinion of the IFA my wife is speaking to is anything to go by, the sooner you get your money away from SW the better.  He's pretty damning about their performance, both in financial terms and customer service.

rubble2

I have money invested in SW. I am passed retirement age and have already drawn down the 25% tax free sum from the account which leaves me with approx. £45000 available for future drawdown as required (subject to tax deduction of course).

I would be interested to hear from those with more knowledge than me about what they would recommend my best course of action would be regarding moving this sum to a better performing investment.

I would still like to retain the flexibility of ad hoc drawdowns as required but if there is a significantly better performing home for my money that is available with minimum costs for setting up and safe long term performance I would like to hear about it please?

FIA

Albermarle

rubble2 said:

I have money invested in SW. I am passed retirement age and have already drawn down the 25% tax free sum from the account which leaves me with approx. £45000 available for future drawdown as required (subject to tax deduction of course).

I would be interested to hear from those with more knowledge than me about what they would recommend my best course of action would be regarding moving this sum to a better performing investment.

I would still like to retain the flexibility of ad hoc drawdowns as required but if there is a significantly better performing home for my money that is available with minimum costs for setting up and safe long term performance I would like to hear about it please?

FIA

The complaints about SW above are mainly down to ease of use of their website and the customer service. 
Nobody has said that their investment funds perform better or worse than any others .

Better performing can be interpreted in different ways. Do you mean you want it to grow faster than an average fund? If so it will almost certainly also drop faster than an average fund when markets turn down.

In any case you need to tell us what SW fund(s) your pension is invested in, and why you are unhappy with it . It could just be a matter of choosing another SW fund for your pension,

Saltayr

I've also received the email and access my pension via the personal pensions button.

Interestingly, although they've recently informed me I can transfer from my GPP to a SW product with flexi-access without advice, I received a letter in July saying that my GPP will offer flexi-access from December 2022. I presumed online management will be available. There is also a caveat around the date which leads me to believe that is based on IT architecture being in place. 

Also it's still possible to track fund performance and get the price each day from this page. +Digital – Fund Centre (feprecisionplus.com)