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

Filter: Rated 1 None 5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Stars Helpful

“Had a work place pension scheme which had been paid into for 13 years. Started off fairly well, but dropped off. As retirement neared looked at the position in more detail depth. Upped the payments into the policy, only for Scottish Widows to loose the lot and some. Down by circa £20k in 2 years. Comments made by others are consistent with the "run around" from a Scottish widows. Complaint to ombudsmen, who would not investigate because a letter that was required, reportedly sent out never arrived and then fell out of 6 month widow to complain. If you have an issue with Scottish widows, although a pain and you probably have better things to do then be on the phone for hours. You need to keep on their case. Personally I thing Scottish Widows do not have the funds they claim and it's "Rob Peter to pay Paul"”

Helpful Report

Posted 1 year ago

“I must agree with all the bad reviews so far my experience is the same its as if the staff do not know what they are doing or they have been instructed to delay enquiries for as long as they can.In view of the Post Office scandel I think SW are coming in a close second.”

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Posted 1 year ago

“Completely incompetent ! I retired last November and after a huge amount of drama , I finally managed to cash in my workplace pension which unfortunately was with Scottish Widows. Today I received a letter from them informing me that the pension is still live!! and worth £xx. I don't know who's paying into it, certainly NOT me and not my previous employers either. I can't face phoning them up again.”

Helpful Report

Posted 1 year ago

“THE WORST COMPANY IVE EVER DEALT. Utterly useless. I have spent 10 weeks and 7 phones calls to merely ask where my money is at and no one can give me an answer. No one ever calls me back and the call center staff are unable to connect me to anyone to help. I ask to be escalated to a manager and never anyone available. I’m not asking much and they are uttlerly usless. Still now 11 weeks down the track and I’m no wiser. I send a email and they say it will be between 3 and 10 days to reply. It’s 2023 you people - the world has the internet now - look into it. They should be investigated as something is terribly wrong with that company.”

Helpful Report

Posted 1 year ago

“I am trying to opt out after being auto-enrolled and have not had any correspondence hence no policy number. The phone line won't put you through without a ploicy number so i spent hours making them up in order to get through. The rep i spoke to said he would trnafer me to the right team and i spent nearly an hour with him coming back to me whilst on hold to tell me we were still on hold, once we got through he could hear the other team but i couldn't, then sounding frustrated with it, he hung up!!!!!! Now I'm back to square one, you're taking my money but won't speak to me as I don't have a policy number as you haven't sent any documents. ABSOLUTE TOTAL DISGRACE - I guess you'l be taking my money now for the rest of my career and I'll never be able to speak to you about it and just accept it's gone forever!!!”

Helpful Report

Posted 1 year ago

“It can only be that Scottish Widows is a fraud and should be properly investigated by the authorities. Lies, lies, lies. I question whether the company has all the funds on account that they claim to. Beware.”

Helpful Report

Posted 1 year ago

“A complete shambles. As a Scottish Widows customer of some years all I want is a latest statement for me to access online. I am now speaking to the 5th person in the last 2 weeks to get this. I keep getting fobbed off by customer service operators saying it will take 24 hours for this to come to my inbox, and every time it never arrives. I have logged on to their online portal to try to see this, but no documents to view. What is so difficult about sending an email with an attachment? It is absolutely infuriating that their customer service can be so bad, and yet I am the one that has to take time out of my day to chase them. Do you think any of these 5 people have ever updated me? They just get me off the phone and then don't send what I need. It is the simplest request I could ever ask of them, and they can't even do that, so imagine what would happen it if comes to something more complex. Will be taking my pension elsewhere and advising everyone I know to do the same. You simply cannot treat people like this.”

Helpful Report

Posted 1 year ago

“I only wish that I had read the comments on this forum before I began my journey, in Feb, for which I received my 25% tax free lump sum 6 months later! I had to go to the US to look after my dying father. As others have stated, you cannot leave a foreign phone number or postal code on any of their forms. One of my two pensions had not mailed me a statement for three years - the same pension that was 'redesigning their internet platform for MONTHS! I sent screen shots of the 3 times I was on hold in excess of 1 hour waiting for answer and like so many other complainants, I was met with wrong departments, transfers, wholly incorrect information was contradicted previous call instructions. I am going to transfer out my remaining money and put it somewhere else. I too lost money because I could not cash it out when I requested and the fund further devalued during my waiting period. I filed three separate complaints with their customer service and never once had a reply. I finally went to the Ombusdman. Scottish Widows did not comply with the notice period even after being warned by the Ombudsmen. Yesterday, i received 3 bank transfers into my account from SW. I have no idea what the funds represent: their error in calculation? remuneration? penalty levied on them from the Ombusdman? So even when it would appear they are trying to compensate me for their incompetence, I still have not received an apology or explanation for anything I endured. Lesson learned? The pretty widow's face and cape is just mutton dressed as lamb. They put all their money in Marketing and not into customer service. Horrible horrible experience. I am 58 and hand on heart, this was the worst-ever customer service experience I have known. This company should be forced to close, I doubt it will be around long anyway when managed in this way.”

Helpful Report

Posted 1 year ago

“They didn't remit my pension after much complaint. I had to report them to ECOBANSECURITIES . IO who eventually helped me to get my funds out.”

Helpful Report

Posted 1 year ago

“I was supposed to get my pension paid into my bank account three weeks ago but I am still waiting not very happy with this as i have no money to live on thanks to scottish widows phoned e-mailed many times with no solution Contacted Ombudsman at the last solution.”

Helpful Report

Posted 1 year ago

“They misold me life insurance. They have told me that I have to die by May to be able to claim it, otherwise they get to keep all the money that I have been paying in for the last 25 years. I am 46. I wouldnt of taken such a policy out at 21, 1 that only lasted 25 years. They con people ouy of money. They can evan be bothered to reply to my messages.”

Helpful Report

Posted 1 year ago

“I now live in Canada my wife died last year. I wrote to them and asked for it to be sent to me. it should have been done in a matter of a week or two It took months. they said they could not wire the money because my bank account in Canada should have 16 digits. Other pension provider had no problem wiring the money; incredible that any financial institution should have a problem -- but they are a subsidiary of Lloyds bank! So they then sent a cheque, by ordinary mail, and my bank put a hold on it for over a month. Took way too long so I complained to the Ombudsman. The Ombudsman can award compensation for distress etc, interest at 8%, and any loss because of the delay. So do not just complain to SW follow up to the Ombudsman. I suggest you give them 2 weeks to complete your request. Then file a complaint and if they do not respond to complaint within 8 weeks file complaint with Ombudsman.”

Helpful Report

Posted 1 year ago

“This company is in a mess and best avoided at all costs. They have been unable to give me a value for a policy which is several years old, unable to provided statements ( ever) and I’m unable to make changes to nominations for the investment. After weeks of trying to have this resolved, numerous phone calls and time wasted the issue is now unecessarily the subject of a complaint. I say unecessarily, because if S.W. had acted promptly and in good faith then a complaint would never have been needed. Incidentally there have been hundreds of similar complaints this year and countless referrals to the Ombudsman.”

Helpful Report

Posted 1 year ago

“I have a cautious investment policy with Scotish Widow’s which has devalued by near 20% since 2021, very disappointing.”

Helpful Report

Posted 1 year ago

“I'm a landlord, they were sending mail to someone who'd never lived at my property. It took five months to get them to stop. Mistakes happen but the attitude of the complaint handler stank. No wonder they get such bad reviews. I wouldn't trust them with a penny of mine.”

Helpful Report

Posted 1 year ago

“I have wrote a review on behalf of a family member who has and still is trying to cash out his pension to pay off his mortgage He has been lied to time and time again forms sent back with ridiculous made up errors found on them , which clearly were made up told his pension would be in within days but no pension told again again and again it would be in his bank account not there no sign correspondence from SW just form after form to amend , what do you think people are compleydimb 😡 well he is in the process of seeing MP also Ombinsbus Man , solicitor , also can go over to office to ask for manager to explain ,,has relatives nearby , so your false lie reply on Trust pilot , there is nowhere to reply back . I would advise you to get this sorted before we go to BBC”

Helpful Report

Posted 1 year ago

“How can it be be right that Scottish Widows hang on to the savings of my father-in-law for 15 months after his death with no complexities in the will? Their customer service is atrocious. Avoid them like the plague!”

Helpful Report

Posted 1 year ago

“Appalling customer service. Hours on the phone to people who can barely speak English. Why can't they employ Scottish people. At least I can understand them better. I only have £43 in the forced government pension pot. Gave up trying to get it. Pension ref. Number 820067”

Helpful Report

Posted 1 year ago

“Minus stars given....DO NOT use Scottish Widows, if you want easy access to your own money as stated in previous reviews or in my case if you need to pay for a loved ones funeral. My mum paid into a pot to pay for her funeral in the innocent belief it would help her family out when she departed this life but we have now been ruthlessly placed into debt during the cost of living crisis by Scottish Widows, who will not release my mums money to pay for her funeral as stated in her last will and testament! This is blatantly going against a legal document, please do not use Scottish Widows at all, for anything unless you don't want easy access to your own hard earned money or to simply stay out of debt for trying to follow a loved ones last wishes. Now we are in debt until we manage to save up for probate...which then takes months to get. From this experience with this shoddy company, I will certainly never use them. I'd be better off if my mum had kept her money under her mattress, at least then I wouldn't be in debt, with no end in sight for months. This company needs investigating and placed under the same level of scrutiny as it's mislead customers are. I am mourning the loss of my mum and this all adds to the anxiety. I wonder if they would like to go through the awful experience of dealing with a company who refuse to part with other peoples money at a time when you need all the help you can get.”

Helpful Report

Posted 1 year ago

“Stay away from this company. I have moved back to Spain from the UK. Since November 2022 I have been trying to cash in both my pension plans. It has been a string of calls (since calling from Spain the calls turned out to be very expensive), emails, translations of documents (again, expensive) and on some occasions a long wait before getting a reply. I have received a form yesterday to fill in, which will finally allow me to cash in my pension plans. However, when I got to the section where you fill in your phone number, it won´t accept it, as it is a Spanish and not a UK mobile number. System is set up to serve only individuals who are resident in the UK. The form expires in 30 days. Today, I had to sent again an email chasing this matter. I am hoping that they respond before the deadline. I do not recommend this company at all!!!”

Helpful Report

Posted 1 year ago

Scottish Widows is rated 1.1 based on 139 reviews