Scottish Widows Reviews

Name: Scottish Widows
Rating: 1.09

1.1 Rating 139 Reviews

1 %

of reviewers recommend Scottish Widows

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1.1

Based on 139 reviews

Shipping & Delivery
Delivery Methods	Own Driver, Postal Service
Customer Service
Communication Channels	Telephone, Email, Live Chat
Queries Resolved In	Over A Week

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Scottish Widows 1 star review on 24th January 2025

Sandra Bernardino Godfrey

Scottish Widows 1 star review on 10th August 2023

Anonymous

Scottish Widows 1 star review on 29th August 2022

Mark Radin

Anonymous

Anonymous // 01/01/2019

Sort by: Most Recent Most Recent Highest Rated Filter: None None 5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Stars Helpful

“My issue concerns a Clerical Medical private pension. Experienced human and technical errors to my pension together with poor customer service. This company altered the total value of the pension for the exact same date from one annual printed statement to the next consecutive annual statement, reducing the value by £3.5K. They say they can't find any historical value matching the valuation on their printed annual statement! Serious problems with record keeping and issuing conflicting financial information to clients. There seems to be a major problem with their back-office.”

Helpful Report

Posted 17 hours ago

“I asked to transfer my funds and they released a tiny proportion of it! There was only one account so where’s the rest ??? Of course it’s well nigh impossible to speak to anyone”

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Posted 2 days ago

“Just had a whopping tax bill on my annuity. It's HMRC,I guessed...silly me! Although informed of new tax codes in Jan'25 SW still using old codes,even though they said they had. A warning to all,check,check again then check once more.”

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Posted 2 weeks ago

“In the five years since I started my pension with them, they’ve lost money in two. It feels pointless to entrust your hard-earned savings only to see them diminish due to poor investment decisions. Despite claiming on their website that even in a pessimistic scenario, you should see around 2% annual growth, there’s no guarantee of this, and instead, you end up losing money. They seem to manage my money without accountability or legal consequences. Considering inflation, the situation worsens as your savings effectively lose value. Private pension funds appear to be nothing more than a scheme to extract money from individuals. By comparison, I could achieve returns of 5% AER through savings accounts or tax free returns of 6.8–7.8% annual growth by investing in bonds. If I, an ordinary person, can secure such returns, how can these professionals—with their expertise—fail so badly? It’s absurd.”

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Posted 3 weeks ago

“withdrawing money is very difficult”

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Posted 4 weeks ago

“Have absolutely no idea what they are doing regarding customers consolidating pensions for the customers 25% tax free pension. I had to point out problems to them and have paperwork to prove SW incompetence x”

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Posted 1 month ago

“Like a lot of people on here SW are not a good company to deal with. They have caused so much stress over the last year with wrong investments and putting me in a lifestyle pension against my instructions. Still waiting on figures from them to confirm I haven’t lost any money from their numerous errors! I have found a Facebook group called Scottish Widows Complaints that has been really helpful. A number of members have experienced exactly what you are going through so found it a godsend.”

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Posted 1 month ago

“Agree with anonymous. SW do not look like they monitor this site at all post on Trust Pilot they will respond. There is also a good support on FP called Scottish Widows Complaint platform . Really helpful group with 2000 members and counting”

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Posted 1 month ago

“Terrible customer support. No one answers the telephone after 5 questions to the right department. Webchat is a machine that is not helpful at all and no agent comes to talk to you. Emails are not replied or take 2 weeks for a reply. Can't login to website, even that my credentials are right. TERRIBLE service.”

Helpful Report

Posted 1 month ago

“To those posting on this site . I cannot see if there has been any feedback from Scottish Widows on this site. Do they respond. If not why not put up your reviews on Trust Pilot or take a look at the Scottish Widows complaint platform on FB where members seek advice and help from others who have or have had a bad experience when dealing with them.”

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Posted 2 months ago

“Poor insurance had numerous attempts to add a trustee to my life insurance policy, but they were never successful.I tried to explain everything to them, followed their instructions, and they still didn't put a trustee on my life insurance.They never call to report a problem. simply grabbed the money without even attempting to explain why the trustee wasn't placed. Reaintell was introduced to me. Through them, I received my money back.”

Helpful Report

Posted 2 months ago

““I have been trying to sort out my pension transfer since September 2014. Nothing has been done, and no one knows anything. I’ve been calling and waiting on hold for over an hour each time. The customer service is terrible.””

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Posted 3 months ago

“I am starting to get worried about my SW pensions especially after reading the reviews on here and the Facebook page that has been set up regarding complaints, about 12 months I enquired about the status of a with profits pension and the likely worth of it in five years time when I retire, the person on the phone did not know and was not very helpful, he said I should get a letter from SW in a few weeks, I have yet to hear anything from them.”

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Posted 3 months ago

“I can't get through to them, there is no way of contacting them. I'm really scared I will lose all my money, reading all the comments”

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Posted 3 months ago

“Bad insurance had so many times try to put a trustee in my life insurance they never placed.try to talk to them explain everything did what they said still not put trustee on my life insurance.they never call to say was something wrong. Just took the money and didn't even try to explain what was the cause was not place the trustee.dont recommend to anyone just want to take money from your pockets”

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Posted 3 months ago

“Awful company. Unbelievably hopeless.”

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Posted 4 months ago

“I advise anyone considering investing with Scottish Widows to think again. Poor performance, poor customer service, kept waiting on calls - could not even find my policy number when contacted. Altogether, an amateur outfit and linked to Lloyds Bank bailed out by government money in 2008. Please avoid Scottish Widows and use any of their competitors. There are many better ones.”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 months ago

“I have had an Investment policy for 5 years and up until recently things have gone smoothly however within last few months there have been delays in monthly income transfers . Although whenever I contact it's always through Clerical Medical customer service who are very good . But it would be ideal to contact Scottish Widows directly. I have now given thought to withdrawing the whole Bond”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 months ago

“My mother RIP had an investment with SW. She died June 23 and we had to wait until Nov 24 to get the Chargeable Event Certificate following countless calls and emails from our solicitor and myself. Also our solicitor received a legally threatening letter stating they were taking us to court if we didnt pay back a £500 overpayment on her account. We have got bank statements from the relevant account and no payments were received. I made an official complaint about both issues and it's been 7 weeks now and no one has been in touch to discuss these issues. 8 weeks is the time scale before I can pass my complaints to the Financial Ombudsman which I will be doing next week. Awful company that don't return calls or emails and seem to think they're untouchable!”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 months ago

“I am trying to find out why final payments made to Scottish Widows have not been credited to my plan. I have made numerous calls, had conversations and sent letters of complaint and got nowhere. No one ever returns calls. They deal only in letters rather than email which frequently fails to answer the questions and I have been trying to resolve this for two months. I receive standard and irrelevant letters from "Head of Operations" David Haworth, including duplicate letters on the same day. All I want is confirmation that they have received all payments and then I will transfer to a decently run provider. They even had the cheek to call me with a Custome Satisfaction survey!”

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Posted 4 months ago

Scottish Widows is rated 1.1 based on 139 reviews