AJ Bell or Fidelity

CaptainSkeptical

Hi - Over the years I've ended up with some work DC pensions with Scottish Widows and Aegon and both these companies have been pretty woeful in their correspondence with me.  Questions have had to be emailed several times and taking months to get an answer, waiting ages on phone queue handling systems etc. 

I'm hoping to retire around the end of this year and take pension drawdown.  Based on my experience with Scottish Widows and Aegon, I have a lack of faith in them being able to deliver me a hassle free transition into drawdown. 

So I'm thinking of transferring those pensions to either AJ Bell or Fidelity.  Both AJ Bell and Fidelity appear to offer the same products that I'm considering, with similar charges, so I think my choice will probably boil down to which of them offers the better service (email and phone) and an easy to use website/app. 

Has anyone out there had experience in using both these companies for pension purposes and if so I'd appreciate hearing your thoughts. 

Thanks  

Scarum

I use both AJ Bell and Fidelity as my only SIPPs.  I am saving and some way off from accessing my pensions.

They are both useable and serviceable and it is easy to get info on your investments.

One thing I like about AJ Bell is the X-Ray report which at first glance may make your eyes glaze over and seem complicated but there is a lot of helpful information in the report which can guide you in to making adjustments to your investments for the goals you seek.

Helpdesk enquiries for both responded within day or two.

Sarahspangles

Having switched from a workplace pension to a SIPP I would say that overall the service is better and response times for email enquiries are pretty good. But costs are low because most of the information is provided in online guides and I’d only expect to interact with them to request a specific service, and then I’d be checking first if there was an additional fee.

cloud_dog

CaptainSkeptical said:

Hi - Over the years I've ended up with some work DC pensions with Scottish Widows and Aegon and both these companies have been pretty woeful in their correspondence with me.  Questions have had to be emailed several times and taking months to get an answer, waiting ages on phone queue handling systems etc. 

I'm hoping to retire around the end of this year and take pension drawdown.  Based on my experience with Scottish Widows and Aegon, I have a lack of faith in them being able to deliver me a hassle free transition into drawdown. 

So I'm thinking of transferring those pensions to either AJ Bell or Fidelity.  Both AJ Bell and Fidelity appear to offer the same products that I'm considering, with similar charges, so I think my choice will probably boil down to which of them offers the better service (email and phone) and an easy to use website/app. 

Has anyone out there had experience in using both these companies for pension purposes and if so I'd appreciate hearing your thoughts. 

Thanks  

I'm not drawing any pensions just yet, so cannot comment specifically, but have held accounts with both.  I found Fidelity more 'clunky', and of the two would probably go with AJB.  

Having said that I have recently (last year) moved a SIPP from AJB to II.  I was preparing for drawdown (April 2025), and it was a very, very close call, it literally came down to the fact that II guides and help pages were easier to find and were fractionally easier to follow (they had pictures!).  I pay fractionally more with II than AJB, (but we were paying fractionally more for AJB compared to Fidelity). 

CaptainSkeptical

Thanks for the comments folks.  I now have some homework to do re II as I hadn't considered them.

Albermarle

CaptainSkeptical said:

Thanks for the comments folks.  I now have some homework to do re II as I hadn't considered them.

If you have a larger sum, then II are good as they have a flat fee.
AJB and Fidelity charge a % so once you go over say £100K it start getting more expensive.

However if you stick to investing in 'exchange traded products' ( such as ETF's) rather than funds, then both the latter cap their fees at a low level. 
One positive point about Fidelity, is that they have almost no added charges for anything, whereas the others have some added charges for non standard issues, that may or may not be relevant.

CaptainSkeptical

Thanks - I should have mentioned that in total it will probably be approx £130K in a couple of ETFs.

Albermarle

CaptainSkeptical said:

Thanks - I should have mentioned that in total it will probably be approx £130K in a couple of ETFs.

Then Fidelity ( £90 pa) will be cheaper than AJ Bell ( £120 pa ) .

Oldhand_2

cloud_dog said:

I pay fractionally more with II than AJB, (but we were paying fractionally more for AJB compared to Fidelity). 

That means - I think - that Fidelity is cheapest, AJB middle, and II the most expensive. When trying to calculate the costs for a £105k sipp with one fund (Fidelity World Index) I found the opposite. Fidelity £472.50, AJB £388.50, and II £281.88 pa. That's with no deals, and II the clear winner. The difference however between Fidelity and II is only 0.18%, so no big deal.

dsw_123

If you are using only ETFs you might want to consider HL as they cap their fees for ETFs and their website and CS are pretty easy to use.

Albermarle

dsw_123 said:

If you are using only ETFs you might want to consider HL as they cap their fees for ETFs and their website and CS are pretty easy to use.

The HL cap for ETF's is £45 for ISA and £200 for a SIPP. ( separately charged) 
Fidelity is £90 cap for whole platform.

In the past HL had a much slicker website/ease of use, but not much in it nowadays.

OP - In fact it is possible to try out Providers websites for many things without being a customer, so see which one you like as well as looking at charges. For Fidelity look for Fidelity Personal Investing in UK , as if you just google you might get the US or some other site.