Most people do not choose between these; their employer does. But if you are consolidating old pots or weighing a transfer, here is how the charges and reviews actually stack up.
Charges verified July 2026. Pension transfers are a big decision; this is information, not advice.
Your pension charge is one number. Whether you're saving enough is another - and we answer it from your real pensions, ISAs and the State Pension.
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Most people shouldn’t transfer out of a defined-benefit scheme. If you’re in one, the rest of this page is information, not a recommendation. For defined-contribution pots (the common case) a transfer is usually fine — the charges comparison below is what you’re here for.
Consolidating old pots with a household name, and workplace savers who want to manage everything in one app.
People with scattered old workplace pots who want them combined into one simple plan.
Pick the situation closest to yours. The advice below changes accordingly. No account, nothing to fill in.
| Charge | Aviva | PensionBee |
|---|---|---|
| Annual charge | 0.35% up to £500k on the personal pension (nothing above £500k) | 0.50% to 0.95% depending on plan, halved on the portion above £100k |
| Workplace scheme charge | Set by your employer's scheme, capped at 0.75% for auto-enrolment defaults | Not applicable (personal pension) |
| Fund charges | Vary by fund and come on top of the 0.35%; UK shares, ETFs and investment trusts cost £4.99 a trade | Included in the single annual charge |
| Contribution charge | None | None |
| Transfers in | Free | Free, and PensionBee does the legwork of finding old pots |
| Drawdown | Included | Included from age 55 (57 from 2028), no drawdown fees |
On a £100,000 pension left to grow for 20 years, a 0.25% a year difference in charges is about £11,800 (illustrative). Add your pension balances to Delphina yourself and see what charges cost you by retirement and whether you're on track.
See what my charges costIllustrative: £100,000, 5% a year growth before charges, 0.25% vs 0.50% a year in charges, no further contributions. Not a recommendation of Aviva or PensionBee. Delphina is guidance, not financial advice.
The MyAviva app and the convenience of seeing pensions alongside insurance get consistent positive mentions.
Filtering reviews to pensions specifically shows a more mixed picture, with complaints about transfer delays and call wait times.
Read Aviva reviews on TrustpilotThe highest-rated pension provider on the Origo Pension Transfer Index. Reviewers repeatedly mention painless transfers and an app that finally makes their pension make sense.
The main pushback is price: 0.70% on the default plan is more than a DIY SIPP holding a cheap tracker.
Read PensionBee reviews on TrustpilotAviva runs pensions for millions of UK employees and offers a self-managed personal pension at 0.35% a year, dropping to nothing above £500,000. For a mainstream provider with full drawdown support, that pricing holds up well.
The experience depends on which Aviva you get. A modern workplace scheme in the app is slick; an older policy inherited through an acquisition may carry higher charges. If you hold an old Aviva pot, checking the actual charge is the single most useful thing you can do.
PensionBee took the most painful job in UK personal finance, finding and combining old pensions, and made it an app onboarding flow. Transfers are handled for you, the fee is a single number, and drawdown is built in.
You pay for that simplicity. The default Global Leaders plan at 0.70% is roughly triple the cost of holding a global tracker in a cheap SIPP. Whether that premium is worth it depends on whether you would actually do the consolidation yourself. For many people, the answer is no, and PensionBee is the difference between sorted and never done.
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See where I standIf you are in a defined-benefit scheme, almost certainly no - the guaranteed income and spousal benefits are hard to beat. For defined-contribution pots, the decision is about charges and what you actually want from the pension. Charges of 0.5%-1.0% a year compound into a serious drag over 20+ years.
Charges vary by product. The table above shows the published rates verified against each provider. Look at the all-in annual figure, not the platform fee alone - fund charges and adviser charges stack on top.
No. Charges tell you what you pay. Whether the plan behind the charges gets you to the retirement you want is a separate question - and it is the one most readers land here actually trying to answer.
A small charge difference is worth optimising. Knowing whether you are saving enough in the first place is worth far more. Delphina models your pensions, ISAs and investments and tells you where you actually stand.
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