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Frustrating experience with Aviva's pension customer service

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  • watervolume
    watervolume Posts: 15 Forumite
    10 Posts First Anniversary
    edited 14 June at 1:06PM
    My Aviva policy starts with TK. When I log into my online account, it says the current annual fund charge is 0.27% with the note:

    The charge(s) above do not cover any charges associated with your investment funds. Each fund may have its own individual charge and potentially an additional expense.

    I invest in a Vanguard fund so that's an extra 0.08%, giving a total of 0.35%
  • MeteredOut
    MeteredOut Posts: 3,059 Forumite
    1,000 Posts Second Anniversary Name Dropper
    edited 14 June at 1:20PM
    My Aviva policy starts with TK. When I log into my online account, it says the current annual fund charge is 0.27% with the note:

    The charge(s) above do not cover any charges associated with your investment funds. Each fund may have its own individual charge and potentially an additional expense.

    I invest in a Vanguard fund so that's an extra 0.08%, giving a total of 0.35%
    Is that this screen?



    You can see mine says 0.25%, but that doesn't correlate with this page: https://www.retirementtools.aviva.co.uk/myfuture/schemecharges when I put in my policy number (which could be because I'm not longer an employee with the scheme), or what appears on my annual statement (both the % and the actual £ charges displayed).

    Do the amounts on your annual statements match the 0.27+0.08?
  • watervolume
    watervolume Posts: 15 Forumite
    10 Posts First Anniversary
    Is that this screen?


    You can see mine says 0.25%, but that doesn't correlate with this page: https://www.retirementtools.aviva.co.uk/myfuture/schemecharges when I put in my policy number (which could be because I'm not longer an employee with the scheme), or what appears on my annual statement (both the % and the actual £ charges displayed).

    Do the amounts on your annual statements match the 0.27+0.08?
    Yes, that's the screen.

    I went to that site and put in my policy number and the charge % for the strategy I am on matches the 0.27%

    As for the actual amount charged, I can't easily tell if it matches the charge percentages because I haven't been on the Vanguard fund for a full year yet, having switched from one of those My Future Focus funds last year.

    Also I expect the charges to be made on a monthly basis with the fund total varying month by month so we would need a breakdown of that calculation.
  • dunstonh
    dunstonh Posts: 119,679 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    My policy starts TK. Do you which platform that is?
    Its not a platform product.  Its a traditional personal pension under the life and pensions part of aviva.

    I still can't correlate the % fees documented in various places with the actual charges appearing on my yearly statements, other than its coming out at roughly 0.33-0.34% in total.
    That product range wasn't built for unbundled disclosures.  It pre-dates RDR.   So, they have to fudge a disclosure somewhat.

    However, be wary of the annual cost and charges disclosure as that percentage will be different to what you are being charged.   The way the EU wanted it led to an anomaly.   It takes the costs and charges you pay over the 12 month period and displays them in monetary terms.  That is all good and correct.  But then it takes a snapshot value on a given date and divides the charges by that value and displays it as a percentage.   That is completely wrong as your value changed over the year and the charges were based on the that changing value.  Using an snapshot value to show the percentage means the % charge could be under or overstated what the actual charge is.

    Also be wary at looking at fund factsheets for charges.  They tend to show the default maximum charge and do not factor in any discounts you have.  Aviva can issue a policy details summary that shows the actual charges/discounts and that is typically what IFAs use on the TK policy range.


    I am an Independent Financial Adviser (IFA). The comments I make are just my opinion and are for discussion purposes only. They are not financial advice and you should not treat them as such. If you feel an area discussed may be relevant to you, then please seek advice from an Independent Financial Adviser local to you.
  • I’m very disappointed with the poor level of customer service I’ve received from Aviva regarding a simple pension query.

    I called to request a tax-free withdrawal of 25 percent across three pension policies. I explained clearly that I wanted to take 100 percent from one of the smaller, underperforming policies and then withdraw the remainder from one of the other two. It was a basic administrative request. I was not asking for financial advice, just help calculating what amount I could withdraw after removing one policy from the total.

    The first agent I spoke with did not assist, so I asked for a manager. Unfortunately, the manager was equally unhelpful and dismissive. Despite offering them the exact values of my policies, they simply told me to decide how much I wanted to withdraw, without helping me determine what I was actually allowed to take.

    No one suggested a sensible option such as merging the smaller, underperforming policy into one of the other two, which might have made the process much simpler.

    What made things even more confusing is that the customer service team dealing with two of the policies (TK and DS) did not have access to any information about my third account (AV). It felt like I was speaking to two different companies, needing to call each one separately to deal with different parts of my pension. This separation added unnecessary complexity and frustration to an already stressful situation.

    Since that initial call, I have tried multiple times to get help, waited on hold for long periods (once for over an hour), and spoken to various agents, many of whom seemed unwilling or unable to help. The entire experience has felt fragmented and careless.

    This experience has left me feeling unsupported and uncertain about making the right decision with an important financial matter. I expected much better from a company managing something as significant as pensions.

    I'm afraid this is typical across pension providers, and the situation is only getting worse. I have a pension with four providers and, to be fair, Aviva offers the best service (as well the best fund performance). I check my fundsAchillesfoot said:

    I’m very disappointed with the poor level of customer service I’ve received from Aviva regarding a simple pension query.

    I called to request a tax-free withdrawal of 25 percent across three pension policies. I explained clearly that I wanted to take 100 percent from one of the smaller, underperforming policies and then withdraw the remainder from one of the other two. It was a basic administrative request. I was not asking for financial advice, just help calculating what amount I could withdraw after removing one policy from the total.

    The first agent I spoke with did not assist, so I asked for a manager. Unfortunately, the manager was equally unhelpful and dismissive. Despite offering them the exact values of my policies, they simply told me to decide how much I wanted to withdraw, without helping me determine what I was actually allowed to take.

    No one suggested a sensible option such as merging the smaller, underperforming policy into one of the other two, which might have made the process much simpler.

    What made things even more confusing is that the customer service team dealing with two of the policies (TK and DS) did not have access to any information about my third account (AV). It felt like I was speaking to two different companies, needing to call each one separately to deal with different parts of my pension. This separation added unnecessary complexity and frustration to an already stressful situation.

    Since that initial call, I have tried multiple times to get help, waited on hold for long periods (once for over an hour), and spoken to various agents, many of whom seemed unwilling or unable to help. The entire experience has felt fragmented and careless.

    This experience has left me feeling unsupported and uncertain about making the right decision with an important financial matter. I expected much better from a company managing something as significant as pensions.


    I’m very disappointed with the poor level of customer service I’ve received from Aviva regarding a simple pension query.

    I called to request a tax-free withdrawal of 25 percent across three pension policies. I explained clearly that I wanted to take 100 percent from one of the smaller, underperforming policies and then withdraw the remainder from one of the other two. It was a basic administrative request. I was not asking for financial advice, just help calculating what amount I could withdraw after removing one policy from the total.

    The first agent I spoke with did not assist, so I asked for a manager. Unfortunately, the manager was equally unhelpful and dismissive. Despite offering them the exact values of my policies, they simply told me to decide how much I wanted to withdraw, without helping me determine what I was actually allowed to take.

    No one suggested a sensible option such as merging the smaller, underperforming policy into one of the other two, which might have made the process much simpler.

    What made things even more confusing is that the customer service team dealing with two of the policies (TK and DS) did not have access to any information about my third account (AV). It felt like I was speaking to two different companies, needing to call each one separately to deal with different parts of my pension. This separation added unnecessary complexity and frustration to an already stressful situation.

    Since that initial call, I have tried multiple times to get help, waited on hold for long periods (once for over an hour), and spoken to various agents, many of whom seemed unwilling or unable to help. The entire experience has felt fragmented and careless.

    This experience has left me feeling unsupported and uncertain about making the right decision with an important financial matter. I expected much better from a company managing something as significant as pensions.

    I'm afraid the situation is typical across all pension providers, and is only getting worse. I have a pension with 4 providers and, to be fair, Aviva offers both the best service and best fund performance. I check on my funds twice a year, and if I choose to move funds around or alter investment strategies, Aviva usually does it with the least amount of mistakes.

    The only thing you can do is persevere. Unfortunately, you can't expect to "feel supported," because call centre operators fundamentally don't care. But they eventually respond to pressure.
  • Marcon
    Marcon Posts: 14,431 Forumite
    Ninth Anniversary 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker


    The only thing you can do is persevere. Unfortunately, you can't expect to "feel supported," because call centre operators fundamentally don't care. But they eventually respond to pressure.
    ...or do some learning about pensions generally, including the role of the pension provider. Had you read the earlier posts in this thread, you would realise that they cannot advise (which isn't the same as 'not caring') - and they aren't going to respond to pressure to do something the law requires them NOT to do.
    Googling on your question might have been both quicker and easier, if you're only after simple facts rather than opinions!  
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