Self-invested personal pensions (SIPPs) let you manage your retirement savings, but charges and customer service vary greatly between providers. We explain how to choose a SIPP
Picking a self-invested personal pension (SIPP) can be challenging. With dozens of products out there, it can be hard to know where to start, or even what to factor in when deciding which SIPP is best for you.
Picking the accounts with the lowest fees is a good place to begin, but providers often charge different fees for different services and the most cost-effective provider can depend on the size of your pension pot.
“Choosing the best SIPP provider can make a significant difference to individual retirement savings, particularly in terms of maximising the value of your portfolio and minimising fees,” says Jo Groves, investment specialist at the investment service Kepler Partners.
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“It’s worth carefully weighing up the pros and cons of different pension providers to find the best option to meet your needs.”
Opening a SIPP can pay dividends in later life, providing a welcome boost on top of your state pension entitlement, as well as any workplace pension and life savings. But the fees you pay for your SIPP could eat into your retirement pot.
“Over the long term, even small differences in fees can reduce the value of a portfolio by thousands of pounds – the difference between a flat fee and a 1% platform fee could be £150,000 over a 30-year period,” says Groves.
Customer service can also vary a lot, meaning many pension savers will be looking for value for money: good customer service plus competitive fees. Which? recently unveiled its best SIPP providers for 2025 - which we’ll highlight later in this article.
Comparing SIPPs: the top SIPPs for low fees
Broadly speaking, SIPP charges during the accumulation phase (when you're building up the pension fund) fall into three categories. You need to consider the administration charge that the provider charges for the plan itself; dealing fees incurred when you buy and sell various investments; and the charges on the underlying funds in your SIPP.
Research from Kepler Trust Intelligence puts Interactive Investor at the top of the cheapest SIPP provider list in terms of admin fees for portfolios worth £100,000 or £150,000.
However, because the provider charges fixed fees for its SIPPs, it is not so competitive for smaller pension pots. For a SIPP worth less than £28,752 for Pension Essentials customers (or £62,352 for Pension Builder customers), AJ Bell comes in cheaper than Interactive Investor.
Comparing SIPP: the top SIPPs for customer service
Despite being edged into second place on price, AJ Bell is ranked highest among SIPP providers for customer service. Groves bases this mainly on its “easy-to-use app” and provision of customer support both online and via phone, though she also references the range of stocks and shares that can be bought on the platform.
“It should also be commended on the quality of its research, together with its regular webinars and podcasts, and scores particularly highly for customer service with a rating of 4.8 on Trustpilot, the highest among our group,” adds Groves.
The overall rankings for different SIPP providers according to Kepler are:
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Provider
Score out of 5
Interactive Investor
5
AJ Bell
5
Fidelity
4.5
Charles Stanley Direct
4.0
Hargreaves Lansdown
4.0
Bestinvest
4.0
Source: Kepler Trust Intelligence
Meanwhile, Which? recently announced its best SIPP providers for 2025 after surveying nearly 3,000 SIPP customers.
The consumer group awarded a Which? Recommended badge to: Barclays Smart Investor, Fidelity, AJ Bell, Halifax Share Dealing, Interactive Investor and Vanguard.
It gave Barclays and Fidelity the highest customer satisfaction score of 82%. In terms of Barclays, it noted: “It received the joint-highest customer score in our analysis this year, but with balances of less than £200,000 incurring a platform fee of 0.25%, plus an annual admin charge of £150, Barclays is relatively expensive for smaller pots.”
For Fidelity, Which? commented: “Its charges are somewhere in the middle of the companies we review, irrespective of the value of your SIPP. If you have more than £250,000 in your pot, the fee falls from 0.35% to 0.2% on the full amount.”
In terms of Interactive Investor and AJ Bell, which both scored five out of five in the Kelper analysis, Which? said the two companies often feature in its top SIPPs list, and highlighted their competitive fees.
How much can I contribute to a SIPP?
Like any pension, SIPPs carry financial benefits in the form of tax relief on your contributions.
These take the form of a 25% government top-up on any contributions you make, provided that these don’t exceed £60,000 (including employer contributions) or 100% of your earnings each tax year.
Note that if you earn more than £260,000, including bonuses and employer pension contributions, your pension allowance will taper down by £1 for every £2 of adjusted income.
This means the highest earners are left with an annual pension allowance of just £10,000.
Craig Rickman, pension expert at Interactive Investor, points out that if you pay higher rates of tax, you might be able to claim an extra 20% or 25% of the total contribution (your payments plus the government top-up) via self-assessment – “helping to trim your annual tax bill and put more money towards your future”.
Here’s a breakdown of the tax benefits available:
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Header Cell - Column 0
Basic-rate taxpayer
Higher-rate taxpayer
Additional-rate taxpayer
How much each person pays into their SIPP
£8,000
£8,000
£8,000
How much the government adds
£2,000
£2,000
£2,000
How much can be claimed back via a tax return
£0
£2,000
£2,500
Total SIPP tax relief
£2,000
(20%)
£4,000
(40%)
£4,500
(45%)
Total amount each person pays out for their £10,000 SIPP contribution
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Dan is a financial journalist who, prior to joining MoneyWeek, spent five years writing for OPTO, an investment magazine focused on growth and technology stocks, ETFs and thematic investing.
Before becoming a writer, Dan spent six years working in talent acquisition in the tech sector, including for credit scoring start-up ClearScore where he first developed an interest in personal finance.
Dan studied Social Anthropology and Management at Sidney Sussex College and the Judge Business School, Cambridge University. Outside finance, he also enjoys travel writing, and has edited two published travel books.
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