Scottish Friendly Avis 

Terrible. Been trying for 3 weeks to cash in my daughter’s child bond. The company seem reluctant to return her money to her and are using stalling tactics to avoid sending her money , requesting ID, bank statements , which we provide , then they write back requesting something totally different. Been told payment will go straight to my daughters bank, then by a cheque in her name, now to her fathers bank. No consistency and still waiting for her money after nearly a month since first requesting it.

Very easy to open account, all information explained

Stay away from this provider. Once you are with them, extremely poor customer service. Very unhelpful and poorly trained customer service staff. Managers do not come on telephones.

Used Scottish friendly for my kids isa's. It was difficult to setup pays into the isa's for grandparents. What we didn't realise that each set of grandparents had their own policy as well as us as parents. So each kid has 3 policies and each policy has a £50 early exit fee. 1 of the policies only had £122 in it.

The platform fees are way too high at 1.5%. They also moved funds 2025 and charged us for the pleasure.

There is far better value out there.

Edit, Scottish friendly have responded below. I'm not sure why, as I'm simply detailing their policies. Unless I can email and quote trust pilot and they'll magically charge less...... Which is even worse of a company in my opinion.

Everything was straightforward

Ive Just opened an ISA for my daughter and I have to say it was very easy indeed.

Average app which could improve on functionality.

Catherine today answered my call, handled the situation perfectly and efficiently. very well spoken and great manners. honestly - amazing job!

I've just been reading through the negative reviews, following a telephone call with Scottish Friendly just now about my policy, which is due to mature in a few months.
I have actually been looking forward to maturation for a very long time as I am already aware of how poor the returns are going to be. I did, in fact, reduce my monthly contributions some years ago to reduce possible losses.
I called to clarify when exactly I can close my account. I was told that I had to do it on the EXACT day the 10 years are up to keep the final minimum payout guarantee. I asked if that was a Sunday by any chance. Turns out it is. So if there's a problem on the website, I'm screwed.
So, I asked the lady to confirm what the value would be if I closed the account now. She said £2600 odd which turns out to be £300 and a bit profit - that's after nearly 10 years. She did not volunteer whether there would be a penalty fee.
Can I just point out, when I was 16, I took out a £50 a month Sun Alliance 10 year policy, which promised a £10,000 return, which was very good. As it turned out, I actually received £14000 on maturation. Things were very different back then.
I am not blaming Scottish Friendly specifically for the way things are these days but the lady on the phone clearly wasn't interested or helpful or understanding. That is a growing problem, not just with Scottish Friendly. And everything 'they' do, just makes it worse.

I transferred a lump sum into an ISA using the provider’s app. The funds left my bank account, but did not arrive in my ISA.

When I contacted customer support to resolve this, I was asked to provide an extensive amount of highly sensitive personal and financial information by email, including:

- A full bank statement
- Full name
- Date of birth
- First line of address and postcode
- Policy number
- National Insurance number

I refused to send this information via email, as email is not a secure method and providing this level of detail would expose my main bank account and leave me vulnerable to fraud and identity theft.

I did, however, provide the acquirer reference supplied by my bank, which I would reasonably expect to be sufficient to trace a missing transfer.

I find it concerning that a financial services company would request such sensitive information over an insecure channel, and that resolution appeared to be dependent on my willingness to do so.

I am sharing this experience to make other customers aware and to encourage the company to review its data security and customer protection practices.

Useful little app to keep track of your savings. When I have had to contact SF to sort out administration on my Bond they called back promptly and I was able to sort things out with a real human being.

Secure, friendly, simple to use app, easy navigation

Quick and easy way to check and make any changes to my plans.

I would advise against using Scottish Friendly. Some years ago, SF acquired the business of another provider with which I had 2 pension policies. Over the years, I was not impressed with SF’s admin and so, in 2021, decided to transfer these 2 policies to a SIPP I already had with a different provider. SF took months to complete the transfer, but I was relieved when it eventually completed – or so I thought! In August 2025, I was notified by my SIPP provider that SF had just transferred a 4-figure Loyalty Bonus into the SIPP. This should have been included in the funds transferred in 2021.
Since August 2025, I have been chasing SF for compensation for the financial loss suffered as a consequence of the Loyalty Bonus not having been invested in 2021. That should not be difficult to calculate. For the whole of that period my SIPP was invested in two funds with JP Morgan. Helpfully, JP Morgan have a hypothetical investment performance calculator on their website. This provides a good estimate of my loss, which is about 45% of the amount of the bonus.
Four months later, although SF have acknowledged that compensation is due, they have yet to make a proposal. I have been told the person in SF Pensions dealing with this cannot speak to me because “he does not have a phone”. The person in the Complaints Team (who occasionally emails to say the calculation is still being worked on) also refuses requests to phone me. It is infuriating.

Scott was such a great help with setting up my account,very patient and talked me through every step. Customer care took to the next level thank you so much

Make a mistake opening my Son JISA.
Trying to get that sorted and it’s been a nightmare.
Customer service appealing on our 3rd attempt.
Your not the main contact-another issue
Your brother is over 16 got to sort it himself
And here we are now.

As a grand mother I opened an account for my grand daughter. Everything appeared fine. The DD was set up. I phoned after to make sure the account was up and running. Was told yes. My grand daughter wanted to see her account and I discovered I was unable to log into the account. After e-mails to them, I received an office response to each, waited the time scale and then I phoned them to be told this company does not do these types of accounts. My account had been closed. If you put this into the search this company emerges. So I would not bother.
You gave me hope in your reply and I got in touch: after series of secruity questions and a promise you would get back to me within 3-5 days I waited. Still waiting... Silence
Conclusion, a product that is not available can not be fixed.

I had trouble logging into my account. I telephoned, I did not have to wait long before the call was answered. The problem was soon resolved with the lady staying on the line until I had gained access to my account. Once in my account the transaction I wished to make was very straight forward, easy to follow steps and some of the boxes were automatically filled, name, address and bank details etc.