Pensionwise 

oh deary me . looking at these reviews -this is not the place for me

Had an appointment scheduled for 5:20pm on 05/11. Was ready waiting from 5pm, garbled voicemail received from PensionWise at 5:20pm to say they'd call me by 5:30pm. At 5:30pm another message to say "I'd missed the appointment!" I Rang at 5:30pm to rebook the appointment- surprise-office closed!
Had an email this morning to say again "I missed the appointment" At no time last night did my phone ring from PensionWise. Rang Pensionwise this morning to tell them no-one called me, was told there was something wrong with my phone & I should get it checked!! Was also told if a voicemail came through, my phone must have rung. It did not, I was sat there looking at it with all my papers ready for the call. I was notified of voicemails last night by text messages.
Absolute waste of my time & energy, next available appointment 22/11 at 8am or 10.10 am-I'm in work!!!
Would NOT recommend for advice, useless.

An absolute waste of time! I felt as if i was listening to a recorded message. I was being talked at with a lot of baffling information.
Terrible service.

I attended a pension wise appt with Val today in the Age UK shop Barnsley.
I'd done a little research prior to my appt and took all relevant documents with me which certainly helps and save's time
I found Val to be personable , professional and highly knowledgeable .
You are made aware at the beginning of the conversation what will be covered and you have the opportunity to ask questions and information gather. The advisor isn't allowed to push specific solutions , products or companies but the information they provide will certainly help you with your decision making process as to which route /routes you'd like to explore further yourself .
I left the appt today feeling very happy with the content of the meeting and armed with more knowledge and information that will not only assist me in achieving my retirement goals it will afford me some credibility and confidence when liasing with financial advisors.
I cannot thank Val enough for her time and attention to detail .
I highly recommend both the location in Age UK and Val as an advisor , a font of knowledge and certainly an asset to Pension wise.
What a great customer experience provision and it's free , fabulous!

Call supposed to be at 9.30. They finally call at 10.15 saying they didn’t know why I didn’t get the call on time. Judging by other reviews I have little hope that this is going to add any value and so far at least it’s been a complete waste of my morning.

Booked a visit with 'Bryan' at Littlehampton. Bryan took ten minutes to collect information with regards to my personal financial situation, savings, assets, address, email etc, then 'spoke' scripted generic lines at me for a further forty minutes that had no bearing on my personal situation. At that point I stopped him pointing out that I only had a few minutes of my hour left and I had some questions. He appeared disgruntled and could offer no help at all to my questions, at that point he asked me to complete a 'satisfaction' form and left the room.

A total waste of time, but more worryingly it seemed like a data collecting and ar*e covering session.

My advice is that you avoid this service as it offers no assistance whatsoever and may be a covert Government means assessment, why else did Bryan want to know details of my finance etc???

Do not waste your time, this is just generic information you can read yourself, no advice is given,

They cant give any specific advice about your personal pension policies nor can they answer any specific questions - which is why i booked the appointment in the first place. They can only advise you to write to your pension provider which is a disappointing and unhelpful response. They can only talk about generic pension allowances and general options available for over 55s, you can find this information yourself on the internet - and - they wont give you this ordinary generic information until they have taken all your personal details including your email so they can send you 'information on products you might be interested in'. Spam in other words. Suspicious? Oh why am I so cynical

I needed to speak to someone urgently about a problem with my pension. i was happy to speak on the phone, they could only give me a date over a month in advance, and were totally unconcerned when I said I needed to speak to someone urgently. Guess what? I have to pay to see a tax adviser now. This is posturing and no use to anyone.

This is not a DWP service. But another 'charity-run' outfit.
They want you to sign a GDPR form even though you meet them in person and not viewing their website online.
They seems to be more interested in collecting data than giving 'free' advice. They refused to give pension advice until you surrender your personal details by signing a consent form. The promise is they won't give your data to another company but they do have hundreds of other 'charities' that will share you data. So you will actually pay for the advice with your data.
The advice they give is nothing you can't find online anyway. Just google it.