Workplace or personal pension?

[MadamNoo]

Having started quite late I want to make more payments into my pensions. I have my current workplace one and a personal one (Zurich adaptable plan) that is from a previous job. I cant figure out which i would do better paying into. I already get my max employers contribution on the work one, and if I pay into my personal one I can claim back tax relief I think? But workplace pensions have lower fees, I read, should I focus saving there? Not quite clear on what the relative advantages would be. Thanks in advance!

There are so many ifs buts and maybes. How old are you? Do you have any other income planned for retirement? (BTL, ISA etc) are you on track to get full state pension?
what age do you plan to retire?

Workplace may provide salary sacrifice scheme, so if they do that will be something to factor in.

Workplace pension may be lower cost, or it may be higher. It may have more fund choices, or less choice. If you want to have a particular fund, such as a global equities fund, does it have that... do either of them?

Personal pension will automatically claim lower rate tax relief. If higher rate tax relief applies to you, then that can be claimed via HMRC / tax return.

There will be lots of factors to consider. There is no right answer... aim for simplicity, and low costs. You do not know what will perform well in the future, so spread investments as global as you can.

Be prepared to change... you are not fixing things forever, you can review it in a year, two years etc.

Thanks very much. I’ll look into both schemes in greater detail and try to figure out where saving would have more impact. Yes I’m on salary sacrifice, and yes I am a higher rate tax payer and file a self assessment return where I would claim relief on any payments to the personal pension.

Don't forget to factor in the % contribution from your empoyer. Contribute enough to max that out, it's free money.
Also your employer may give you some (or if really lucky all) of the 13.8% NI saving they make with salary sacrifice.
Most employers negotiate a cheaper rate with pension providers than individuals can get.

Even off such limited info. I'm 90% sure your workplace pension will be the best option, at least upto getting the max employer free money contribution

Remember the investments inside the pension wrapper are just as important.

Your future self would thank you if you were to spend some time on the Money saving expert pension forum, there are some real experts there who are extremely helpful.

@Jimbobdibob “I already get my max employers contribution on the work one” OP already said that she does that, which as you say was likely to be the biggest pro to the work one.

How flexible are the investment options in your workplace one? Mine are pretty limited, so that could be a factor.