Pension Bee?

[lorca]

Has anyone used PensionBee? I am coming up to 60, have several pensions (that I know about), some of them old, some quite big, some private. I'm looking at drawing down on my pensions in the next few years, if poss.

i'm still working and paying into a work pension. I work Part time so it's not a huge amount per month - and not going to be a huge amount per year either

I've looked at PensionBee, which seems to consolidate all of them into a single one, which they then administrate? And they charge a fee, which in my case, from a quick look, looks to be about £750 a year!

I don't even know how many pensions I have - some might be from my jobs decades ago, and I'm not even sure if they exist from my first few jobs! I've had loads of jobs over the years. Would I/they be able to find them from my NI number?

Ring the National pensions helpline. It’s run by The Government and will tell you how many years NI you have and which pensions you have. You then get in touch with any pension providers you have a pension with and ask for a forecast.

www.gov.uk/contact-pension-service

I think this is the right number but I rang them a few years ago.

Im currently waiting for a forecast from an ex employee who are sending me a forecast of my pension, they were very helpful.

Employer not employee !

I use PensionBee and have never been charged a fee

I combined my old pensions into Nutmeg, similar sort of thing. I like the fact that everything is now in one place and I only pay one fee not 3 different ones. Pension Bee sounds good but I had already transferred everything into nutmeg when I heard of them.

@theunbearable - that is so helpful! I'll do that monday.

@icedcoffees - on their page they show the fees according to the size of the pension pots. and the fees for the 'plans'

@duchessminnie - I'll have a look at them too, thanks.

I got details of all of mine through gov.uk it is straightforward. One of my early ones has done extremely well - so it is well worth tracing them.

@lorca ah, you mean the annual fee. I thought you meant an upfront one.

Of course you have to pay something, as ultimately you're hiring a private company to manage your finances for you.

@icedcoffees - yes I get that; I thought maybe they'd get their fees from the pensions/commission themselves. Does it get billed to you annually - or does the fee come out without you 'knowing'? It would be nearly £800 - a huge chunk if I had to pay it from my wages.

Especially if I could do the admin myself, as Unescorted and Unbearable have pointed out.

Unescorted and unbearable are talking about tracking your pensions down which is absolutely free and very easy to do. You will already be paying an annual fee to whoever is your pension provider. What I found was I was paying 4 x annual admin fees to different providers, so consolidating my 3 old ones into a single pot made my annual fees easier to see and understand.

I paid £916 in fees last year, but I made £31k on the growth of my pot so well worth it in my view.

All private pension schemes will charge something - otherwise they won't make any money. I'm self-employed and have two previous workplace pensions, so for me it was easier/cheaper to have everything in one place and to just pay one admin fee to one company.

As far as I know, PensionBee take it from the total pot each year. I've never had a separate charge for annual fees.