Summer is finally here and there’s a buzz in the air - and in our BeeHive! We were busy bees last month, working to bring exciting new features to your account as well as stacking up those award wins. Here’s what we got up to in June.

We’ve automated your tax top ups from HMRC

We’ve recently made improvements to the way your tax top ups from HMRC are added to your account. Now, whenever you make a personal contribution to your pension, we’ll automatically add your 25% tax top ups from HMRC so you can see the funds in your account straightaway.

This means you’ll no longer need to wait eight weeks for these to credit your account, and will be able to see a more accurate view of your balance whenever you log into your BeeHive. Don’t forget, most savers can contribute £100 to their pension from a personal bank account, and get a £25 top up from HMRC, to a maximum of £40,000 in the current tax year.

We’re keeping your pension safe

Keeping your savings safe is paramount to us at PensionBee, so we’ve updated our website to highlight the security procedures we use to protect your money. PensionBee is directly authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, and we’re also a member of the Association of British Insurers, working on better standards in the pensions industry.

Plus, our pensions are managed by the world’s largest money managers – State Street Global Advisors, HSBC and BlackRock – so you know your money’s in experienced hands. They invest your money and your pension is kept completely separate from our own funds.

If our money managers fail, your pension will be protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme up to 100%. We’ll also pursue any compensation on your behalf. Should PensionBee fail, your money manager will continue to invest your pension. We don’t manage your money, so your savings would be safe.

We protect your data with full encryption, secure data protection practices, and we will never share your personal information without your permission. You can find out more about our security policies on our website and our FAQs, or get in touch with your BeeKeeper if you have any questions.

The awards keep coming…

We’re pleased to announce that PensionBee was named ‘Diversity and Inclusion Champion’ at the Computing Tech Marketing & Innovation Awards, in recognition of our work campaigning for diversity and representation in the pensions industry.

We’re immensely proud that half of our team consists of women and we have around 40% BME representation at PensionBee – an achievement that’s unheard of in our sector. We’re working hard to prove that pensions can be a good career for anyone looking to be on the cutting-edge of product development and innovation, while challenging the perceptions of what people in pensions should be.

We also won two awards at the Investment Marketing and Innovation Awards: ‘Most Innovative Direct Consumer Proposition’ and ‘Open Innovation’. The first accolade acknowledges our simple online user journey which has transformed pension transfer processes to give you complete control and clarity over your pension.

The second award recognises our innovative use of Open Banking in an industry that hasn’t changed or adapted with advances in technology in decades. We plan to share our APIs with even more banking marketplaces and aggregators in the near-future to put pensions back where they belong – at the forefront of your finances.

Keep an eye out for our next update on our blog. We’re always working on new features to make our customers happy, so if you have any ideas or suggestions, please let us know in the comments section or over on social media, and we’ll feed it back to the team.

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Personal finance blogger and mum of three Lynn was keen to start saving into her pension again after taking some time off work to set up her business. Lynn needed an easy, flexible self-employed pension as she entered her 40s.

PensionBee’s self-employed solution

Lynn consolidated her old pensions with PensionBee, finding our transfer process simple and painless. We just needed some basic details about her old pensions, like her provider name and policy number, and then we did all the work - no paperwork, no fuss.

One of the things I really love about PensionBee and being self-employed is that I’ve got flexibility to put whatever I choose into my pension each month.

Now, Lynn can make contributions into her pension straight through our app, with no minimum or fixed contribution amount. With a fluctuating self-employed income, this means that Lynn can save an amount that works for her each month, whether it’s £1000 or £100.

Achieving long-term financial goals

In previous jobs, Lynn didn’t opt in to her workplace pension scheme, a financial decision she regrets as she gets closer to retirement. Now that she’s saving into her PensionBee plan, Lynn feels reassured as she tracks the performance of her savings on the app.

It feels incredible to have that visibility. It gives me a sense of reassurance that I know exactly what’s going on with my money.

It’s always better to start saving for retirement early, but since transferring to PensionBee, Lynn finally feels in control of her pension savings. She’s reaching her financial goals and getting back on track for a comfortable retirement.

Find out what other PensionBee customers have to say over on our YouTube channel, or take a look at customer reviews on Trustpilot.

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Whether you’re loving or loathing the heat, it’s safe to say that the ‘Great British Summer’ is finally here. In between the awards ceremonies and the sunshine, our team has been working hard to make managing your pension even easier. Here’s what we’ve been up to this July.

We’ve made it even easier to see your pension balance grow

We’ve made a few changes to the ‘Balance’ tab in the BeeHive so it’s now even easier for you to understand your transactions. As part of this we’ve changed how your tax top ups are displayed so it’s more straightforward to see which tax top up relates to which contribution.

You’ll also be able to see more information on your rewards, from the name of the person you successfully referred to the corresponding tax top up. Remember, you can recommend PensionBee to your friends, and as soon as they successfully transfer a pension, we’ll automatically add £50 to your pension and £50 to theirs too (£40, plus a £10 tax top up). Full terms and conditions can be found on our website.

We’ve invested over half a billion pounds on your behalf

We’re proud to announce that we have now surpassed £500m in pension money, with a further £400m on its way. That means you’ve trusted us with almost a billion pounds of your retirement savings!

Thanks to you, PensionBee has become a key challenger and disruptor in one of the oldest industries – in just a few years. We don’t take the trust you’ve placed in us lightly and will keep campaigning for change and listening to your feedback, so we can continue to bring you a leading pension product.

Our app’s just turned 1

Can you believe it’s already been a year since we launched our mobile app? The app was designed to help you to manage your pension with ease, with 24/7 access to your balance and the ability to view past performance and make contributions – all from the palm of your hand.

We’ve got lots of exciting updates planned over the next few months so watch this space. If you haven’t already, download the PensionBee app from the Apple App and Google Play Stores.

Don’t forget you can also see your PensionBee balance in some other leading money management apps including Starling, Yolt, Moneyhub, Money Dashboard and Emma.

Keep an eye out for our next update on our blog. We’re always working on new features to make our customers happy, so if you have any ideas or suggestions, please let us know in the comments section or over on social media, and we’ll feed it back to the team.

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Summer might be winding down, but we’re as busy as ever! We’ve been working hard on more new features and continue to stack up those award nominations. Read on to find out what we got up to in August.

We’re enhancing our Analytics tab to make retirement planning better

We’re working on some updates to the Analytics tab in your BeeHive to to help our customers better plan for retirement. We’re building a new retirement planning tool to make it simpler to see how much money you’re likely to receive at retirement and how long your pension could last, based on your current contributions. The new calculator will let you know whether you’re on track or whether you’ll need to boost your savings to reach your long-term goals.

It can be tricky to figure out how much you need to save for retirement, which is where our handy tools come in to help make planning for your future straightforward and easy to understand. And remember, it’s never too late to start saving! If you’re in your 40s or your 50s, there’s still time to build a decent pension pot for a comfortable retirement.

PensionBee shortlisted for two Technology Product Awards 2019

We’re proud to announce that we’ve been shortlisted for two Technology Product Awards in 2019: ‘Most Innovative Use of AI / Automation - SMEs’ and ‘Technology Hero of the Year’, for our CTO, Jonathan Lister Parsons.

Innovation is one of our PensionBee values and we’re incredibly passionate about making use of exciting technology to create a seamless, modern pension service that serves our customers any time, any place. Our CTO Jonathan works tirelessly alongside the rest of our tech team to make your pensions experience simple and convenient.

We’ve also been shortlisted for a Schroders UK Platform Award in the ‘Leading Digital Platform’ category, an accolade we’re immensely proud to have won back in 2018.

Keep an eye out for our next update on our blog. We’re always working on new features to make our customers happy, so if you have any ideas or suggestions, please let us know in the comments section or over on social media, and we’ll feed it back to the team.

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We’ve been working hard this September to bring you some exciting new features, including a new retirement planning tool and improved withdrawals for over-55s. Read on to find out what we’ve been up to this month.

We’ve enhanced our ‘Analytics’ tab to give you a clearer picture of your pension situation, now and in the future

If you’ve logged into your BeeHive in the last few days you may have noticed the improvements we’ve made to the ‘Analytics’ tab. We’ve replaced your old performance chart with an interactive retirement planning tool, to help you better visualise the level of savings you might need for retirement.

Instead of focussing on past performance, your new retirement planning tool is forward looking, and helps you see how much you have now, compared to your target, at a glance. The new tool will let you know whether you’re on track for a comfortable retirement or whether you’ll need to boost your savings to reach your long-term goals.

There are three key elements to the new ‘Analytics’ tab:

• Retirement Planner - a brand new tool that lets you see the level of savings you might need based on your long-term goals
• Transfer and Contribution breakdown - a new snapshot of what’s in your pension pot, based on how much you’ve transferred, contributed and received from HMRC in the form of tax top ups
• Past performance - a refresh of the old analytics chart that now simply shows the growth of your pension pot over time

We’ve increased the efficiency of withdrawals for over-55s

A few months ago we announced that whenever you make a contribution to your pension we will automatically add your 25% tax top ups from HMRC, so that you can see the funds reflected in your pension balance straightaway. We’ve now introduced the same improvement for withdrawals so instead of your money taking several weeks to reach your bank account, it will soon take a matter of days.

On average it will take around 10 working days for you to receive your money, as long as there are no issues verifying your bank details. Plus, if you’re making repeat withdrawals to the same bank account(s), you’ll now be able to select your bank details from a drop down menu without needing to input the same information each time.

Remember, you can only start withdrawing your pension after your 55th birthday, and therefore won’t be able to benefit from these new features until then.

Our CEO, Romi, is to help establish the government’s Pensions Dashboards

The way we manage our pensions is changing, with the government planning to introduce an online dashboard that lets you see all of your pensions together – from your old workplace pensions to the State Pension – in the next few years.

While the project is still in its infancy, last week it was announced that our CEO, Romi, would be joining the Pensions Dashboards IDG Steering Group alongside nine others from a diverse range of companies including Which? and Moneyhub. The group has been chosen to represent the interests of consumers, fintechs and the pensions sector, and will be working on the practicalities of establishing pensions dashboards services and making them available to the general public.

As you know, PensionBee is already successfully using technology to help customers like yourselves find and combine their pensions, giving Romi valuable insight into the process. Romi’s appointment will help ensure that consumers have a louder voice in the creation of pensions dashboards and that the end product delivers a service that’s fit for purpose.

Keep an eye out for our next update on our blog. We’re always working on new features to make our customers happy, so if you have any ideas or suggestions, please let us know in the comments section or over on social media, and we’ll feed it back to the team.

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Setting yourself a retirement goal is a great way to take control of your retirement planning. A realistic and achievable goal could help you see whether you’re on track to achieve the kind of retirement you want, and to encourage you to stay on track! Here are three easy steps to setting a good retirement goal.

1. Budget

Before you can start planning for your retirement, you’ll need to know what your finances look like in general. You’ll want to start with a budget, which will help you to see where you’re spending and where you can save. Begin by listing your essential monthly expenses, including rent or mortgage payments, bills, food, transport costs, and any other regular payments. You should also list any existing contributions you make into your savings accounts, pension, and other investments.

Next, make a record of all your non-essential purchases each month, like eating out and takeaways, new gadgets, subscriptions, and drinks at the weekend. You can find the cost of these expenses by checking your bank statements. Many modern banking accounts, like Monzo and Starling Bank, automatically categorise your payments, so it’s even easier to identify where you’re spending.

Once you’ve listed all of your expenses, it’s time to calculate your income. Subtract the cost of your monthly expenses from your monthly income to see what you have left at the end of the month. You might need to make some changes to your spending habits in order to save more into your pension. Consider which non-essential purchases you can cut back on or stop entirely; maybe you’re still paying for a subscription service you haven’t used in six months! Working out a healthy budget that works for you and your lifestyle will enable you to set a realistic retirement goal because you’ll be able to see what’s achievable for a comfortable retirement.

2. Think about the future you

Once you’ve set up a good budget, it’s time to start planning for the kind of retirement you want. Have a think about what sort of lifestyle you would like to have in your 60s, 70s, and 80s, and how much this is likely to cost you. In 2016/17, the average UK couple had an annual retirement income of £29,952, which covers all the essentials like a home and bills, as well as small luxuries like the occasional holiday.

It can sometimes be difficult to envision our lives in retirement, so start with the basics and think practically. Think about where you’ll live and what your day-to-day expenses are likely to be. Take a look at your budget to see how much you’re currently spending on food and transport, and consider how these habits might change in the future. For example, the cost of your weekly shop may reduce once your kids have moved out and you’re no longer preparing meals for a large family. Plus, you’re likely to be commuting less once you’ve retired! Remember to factor in the increasing cost of living, and think about your income streams. You might receive an income from your pension alongside other investments or a part-time job.

Once you’ve got a rough idea of your ideal retirement income, you can use our pension calculator to see how much you need to be saving in order to meet your goal. Our calculator will tell you whether you’re on track or whether you need to be saving more. You can adjust your retirement age and how much you’re contributing to land on a realistic target that you can work towards.

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3. Get on top of your pensions

After you’ve worked out how much you need to save in order to meet your retirement goals, you’ll need to start fortifying your savings. First, it’s a good idea to track down any old or lost pensions to see if you can boost your savings. Consider combining your old pensions as bringing all your pension savings together could make it easier to manage them. Plus, you might be able to save on fees which, left unchecked, might eat away at your old pots.

Check to make sure you’re enrolled on your workplace pension scheme, which is an easy way to top up your retirement savings. Contributions will be taken straight from your paycheck so you don’t have to worry about forgetting to save, plus employer contributions can boost your pot with free money!

Finally, consider saving any extra cash into your pension, for example after a bonus or inheritance. You can use our pension calculator to see how this can help your progress towards your retirement goal. Remember, most people are eligible for a 25% tax top up from HMRC on pension contributions, which can really help to build a solid pension pot.

We want to help you to make sense of pensions so we’ve put together our Pensions 101 series over on our YouTube channel to explain how pensions work and how to get on top of your retirement savings. Take a look and let us know your thoughts in the comments section.

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This month we’ve been reflecting on the feedback you give us, and how we can incorporate your ideas to continue delivering a leading pension product. Read on to find out what we’ve been up to in October and the changes we’ve made in response to our customers’ feedback.

Our approach to sustainability

Reducing our impact on the environment and investing responsibly are subjects that are close to all of our hearts and you can read more about sustainable investing in our blog. As our customers, we feel it’s important that you know what our approach to the environment is, and how we plan to campaign for the issues that matter to you most.

We believe pension providers have a key role to play in the transition from the carbon economy to one based on 100% renewable energy sources, and should promote positive climate change activities in the companies that your pension funds are invested in.

We’d love to hear your thoughts on this topic, and if you’ve got a question on the sustainability of your pension plan, we’ll put it directly to your money manager when we film your next plan update. Get in touch by emailing: engagement@pensionbee.com.

Your analytics chart is back

Following the launch of our new retirement planning tool, you asked us to bring back the old analytics chart, and we listened! To see the past performance and growth of your pension pot over time, simply log in to your BeeHive and click on the ‘Analytics’ tab, where you’ll find it below the new retirement planner and transfer and contribution breakdown chart.

We’re speaking out about slow pension transfer times

Last week the Telegraph and the Sun published our analysis of more than 50,000 pension transfers, looking at the fastest and slowest providers. There was a huge variation between firms, with some taking just 12 days to transfer a pension, and the worst taking an unbelievable 404 days.

Outdated legislation from 1993 allows pension providers to hold your savings hostage for up to six months before honouring your wishes and completing a pension transfer. We know this can be incredibly frustrating for our customers, which is why we’re renewing our campaign for a pension switch guarantee.

Thankfully lots of things have changed in the past 26 years, and it’s time for pensions to be brought into the 21st century. We’re calling on the government to create new legislation that will allow savers to easily and safely change their pension provider, in the same way we can change our bank or energy provider in a set number of days.

Keep an eye out for our next update on our blog. We’re always working on new features to make our customers happy, so if you have any ideas or suggestions, please let us know in the comments section or over on social media, and we’ll feed it back to the team.

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As things start to wind down for the festive season, there’s been no let-up at PensionBee. From hosting our first ever hackathon event, to putting the hard questions to your money managers on your behalf, read on to find out what we got up to in November…

How we’re engaging your money managers on sustainability

Last month, we discussed our approach to sustainability and why we believe pension providers have a key role to play in the transition from the carbon economy to one based on 100% renewable energy sources. In the weeks since, we’ve continued to put pressure on your money managers to answer your questions about the inclusion of certain companies, both in your quarterly plan update videos and also in writing.

Our CEO, Romi, recently wrote an open letter to Sacha Sadan, Director of Corporate Governance at Legal & General, querying Shell’s inclusion in the Future World Plan. While Legal & General are yet to publicly respond in full, they told the Guardian that they believe the oil company could do more and they were pushing for greater transparency on how Shell’s production plans aligned with the Paris agreement. We’ll let you know once we hear more, but in the meantime you can read Romi’s letter in full and stay up to date with the latest news in on sustainability.

Introducing Scam Man & Robbin’

At the end of November we held our eagerly anticipated Pension Scams Hackathon event which brought together some of the most innovative “pentech” (pension technology) companies in the UK, and challenged them to work together to create a concept for an online game that increases awareness of pension scams.

Cross-company teams from PensionBee, Nutmeg, AgeWage and Smart Pension had just six hours to deliver the concept for a game which met three assessment criteria: virality, engagement and relevance. At the end of the day, concepts were judged by three pensions industry experts: Michelle Cracknell CBE, Non-Executive Director at PensionBee and former CEO of the Pensions Advisory Service; Margaret Snowdon OBE, President of the Pensions Administration Standards Association and Chairman of the Pension Scams Industry Group; and Stephanie Baxter, Deputy Personal Finance Editor at The Telegraph.

The winning concept, ingeniously called Scam Man & Robbin’, casts the player in the role of vigilante ‘Scam Man’, who’s main objective is to protect people’s pensions, blowing the whistle on anything he thinks could be a scam.

Inspired by one of the world’s most-loved superheroes, Scam Man & Robbin’ aims to challenge common misconceptions which may initially seem positive about a pension scheme, such as guaranteed high returns or a friend’s recommendation, but may in fact be the hallmarks of a scam.

We’re excited to start working on the game, and you can expect to see Scam Man & Robbin’ sometime in early 2020.

We’re ending the year on a high

Last week PensionBee was named ‘Online Business of the Year’ at the Growing Business Awards, which celebrated the strength, vision and resilience of fast-growing SMEs and entrepreneurs.

The judges praised us for being ‘ahead of the curve’ and highly aware of our ‘social responsibility to grow sustainably and maintain a high level of service and innovation’.

We’re also thrilled to announce that our CEO, Romi, was named ‘Entrepreneur of the Year’ at the 2019 City AM Awards earlier in November, seeing off stiff competition from business leaders in industries as diverse as fintech and medical services to energy and manufacturing.

Keep an eye out for our next update on our blog. We’re always working on new features to make our customers happy, so if you have any ideas or suggestions, please let us know in the comments section or over on social media, and we’ll feed it back to the team.

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This article was last updated on 13/12/2022

2019 was a big year for PensionBee: we launched a bunch of new features, made some important product improvements, and celebrated a ton of award and industry wins! Here are some of our highlights from last year.

We launched some new features

Back in January, we launched three new pension plans: our Shariah, Preserve, and 4Plus plans. These plans offer specific investment approaches that could be suitable for different investment goals. For instance, our Shariah Plan invests your money in accordance with Islamic principles on finance, which may make it suitable for anyone looking to invest more responsibly. Our Preserve Plan reduces risk in order to preserve your savings as you approach retirement age.

In December 2022, we launched our new-look “Refer a Friend scheme“ which makes it even easier to refer your friends via our web and mobile apps. Remember, you’ll get a £100 (£80 from PensionBee and £20 tax relief from HMRC) added to your pot for each friend that opens an account with us and adds £100 or more to it. And with up to 50 friends you can refer, you could earn up to £5,000 in pension contributions!

And we improved some existing ones

This past year, we’ve also made some significant product improvements, including introducing a new retirement planner that lets you see the level of savings you might need based on your long-term goals. We also made it easier for you to see how much you’ve transferred and contributed to your pension pot, and how much you’ve received from HMRC in the form of tax top ups, and how your pot has grown over time.

We also became the first pension provider to adopt the new Simpler Annual Statement. The Simpler Annual Statement is designed to help consumers understand and compare their pension pots with different providers more easily, including clear and simple information on pension charges.

We’ve been celebrating our wins

2019 saw us win a slew of awards alongside a heap of nominations recognising our product innovation, dedication to customer service, and commitment to an inclusive and diverse workplace.

It’s not just trophies that we’ve been celebrating, though. We’re so grateful to all the support and feedback that we’ve received from our customers this past year, which has enabled us to consistently improve our product, expand our team and office, and continue to push the pensions industry into the 21st century (and a new decade!) Halfway through 2019, we reached £500 million in assets under administration and received our 1,000th Trustpilot review! As always, a huge thank you to our wonderful customers for trusting us to make pensions simple and engaging.

2020 has been no less busy so far, as our team has been hard at work pushing out a new look and getting stuck into a new year of pensions innovation, love, and hard work. Keep an eye out for our billboards that have just been unveiled across the country and let us know what you think on social media! We can’t wait to see what this next year will bring.

Keep an eye out for our next update on our blog. We’re always working on new features to make our customers happy, so if you have any ideas or suggestions, please let us know in the comments section or over on social media, and we’ll feed it back to the team.

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We’ve been working hard to banish the January blues and help the nation get their pensions back on track. From unveiling our bee-eautiful new logo to advertising PensionBee to commuters up and down the country, we’ve started as we mean to go on, kicking off 2020 (and the new decade) with a bang! Read on to find out what we’ve been up to in January.

We’re taking a more transparent approach to pensions investments

In early January, we surveyed close to 2,000 customers in our Tailored Plan about their views on sustainability in the context of profitability. The aim was to understand how you, our customers, want your money invested with PensionBee and to what extent you want us to take the social outcomes created by companies into consideration in the investment process.

One of our core ambitions as a pension provider is to lead the pensions industry to a better place than where we found it, which means investing sustainably and helping you to plan for a happy retirement are a key focus.

Over the coming weeks and months, we’ll be considering your responses and exploring potential changes to our investment offering in light of this. As always, we’d love to hear your thoughts on the matter: you can get in touch by emailing engagement@pensionbee.com. Thanks to everyone who took part in the survey. To learn more about the results, read our summary here.

Introducing our brand new logo

At the beginning of the year we unveiled our new logo and brand refresh, to better reflect our identity and values. We believe bees evoke thoughts of happiness, warmth and hard work, and a stronger emphasis on the ‘bee’ puts our values of love and quality right at the center of our brand.

The redesign follows our fifth birthday in December, and marks our transition from young startup to a leading online pension provider. In the past five years our offering has evolved from a core pension consolidation service to a full service pension provider, providing hassle-free contributions and withdrawals, planning tools and responsible investing. Our new logo is a clearer representation of the mature brand PensionBee is today, without losing the playful tone you’ve come to expect from us.

We’ve been making a buzz at commuter stations across the UK

If you travel to work via National Rail it’s likely you’ll have seen some of the thousands of billboards we’ve placed in commuter stations across the UK. 2020 will be a big year of growth for us with more billboards, TV and radio than ever before so watch this space!

Keep an eye out for our next update on our blog. We’re always working on new features to make our customers happy, so if you have any ideas or suggestions, please let us know in the comments section or over on social media, and we’ll feed it back to the team.

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Last month we worked hard behind the scenes enlisting the help of you, our beloved customers, to give us your feedback on everything from our plans to our app. We’ll have lots of exciting announcements to share with you in the coming months, but for now read on to find out what we got up to in February.

We’re making improvements to our app

Since the start of the year, we’ve been working on regular app releases as part of our ongoing efforts to bring you a leading pension product. From reducing loading times to fixing those niggling little things you may not have even noticed, we’re continually enhancing our app to make it even easier for you to manage your pension.

This month we’ll be focussing our efforts on improving the way you pay money into your pension, and would like to thank the customers who’ve kindly volunteered to give us feedback. We’re working towards establishing a customer testing group to participate in surveys, focus groups, prototype testing and much more, so watch this space!

Why our values are at the heart of everything we do

At PensionBee we bring our values of simplicity, honesty, quality, innovation, and love to life by thinking about our customers, our local community and the planet in everything we do. We believe pensions are for everyone, and one of the things we’re most passionate about is achieving wider representation in the pensions industry.

In February we became an accredited Living Wage Employer, which means we have solidified our commitment to paying our staff the London Living Wage. The Living Wage is a set amount calculated annually by the Resolution Foundation, based on the best available evidence about living standards in the UK.

We’re proud to be an equal opportunity employer, that’s committed to improving gender diversity and paying our staff a fair wage so they too can look forward to a happy retirement.

PensionBee scoops three Boring Money Awards

We were recognised at the Boring Money Best Buys 2020 Awards in three categories: ‘DIY Pensions’, ‘Beginner investors’ and ‘Sustainable investors’. We’re thrilled to be named as one of the best providers of online investing services based on everything from our call response times and communications to our customer reviews.

Keep an eye out for our next update on our blog. We’re always working on new features to make our customers happy, so if you have any ideas or suggestions, please let us know in the comments section or over on social media, and we’ll feed it back to the team.

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Throughout March we worked hard to ensure that we’ve been on hand to support you just as we normally would, while also transitioning to remote working to protect our colleagues and the wider community.

Several of our customers have been in touch via phone, email, live chat and social media in the past month to share their views on the current situation and ask questions about their pensions. We’re always here to help and welcome your feedback so if you have any comments, queries or concerns don’t hesitate to get in touch. We’re available via the usual contact methods, and our opening hours remain the same.

While it may have been unsettling to see fluctuations in your balance during the past month, as long-term investors we have to take the rough with the smooth, and be patient during the downturns. It’s important to remember now more than ever, that downturns don’t last forever and markets and pension balances will eventually recover.

Whatever’s going on in the world around us, we’re committed to bringing you a leading pension product. Read on to find out about the projects and initiatives we worked on last month.

We’re launching a fossil fuel free pension later this year

In March, we announced our plans to launch the UK’s first mainstream fossil fuel free fund, in partnership with Legal & General. We came to this decision after surveying customers in our Future World Plan, who told us that they wanted the option of completely excluding oil from their pensions – even if that meant a potential reduction in profitability.

We strongly believe that everyone should have control over where their money’s invested, and are proud to be the first provider to offer a fund like this. With your help, we want to shape the future of sustainable pensions, giving savers the option of using their investments to transform the world they live in for the better of the planet, society and their retirement.

It’s almost the end of the current tax year...

That means you only have a few days left to use up any unused allowance for the 2019/2020 tax year (up to 100% of your earnings, to a limit of £40,000 for most people). You can also carry forward unused allowances from the previous three years.

Most basic rate taxpayers will automatically get a 25% tax top up on all of their personal pension contributions, while higher rate taxpayers can claim a further 25% through their Self-Assessment tax returns, and top rate taxpayers can claim an additional 31%.

If you would like to make an additional lump sum contribution, then it would make sense to do this by bank transfer so as not to miss the 5 April deadline.

Your bank might take some days to process your payments so if you’d like your contribution to reach your pension by 5 April, don’t leave it until the last minute.

We’re finalists for two UK Pensions Awards and two European Pensions Awards

PensionBee has been shortlisted in two categories at this year’s UK Pensions Awards: ‘DC Pension Provider of the Year’ and ‘Diversity and Inclusion Excellence’.

We’ve also been shortlisted for two awards at the 2020 European Pension Awards: the ‘European Pensions Innovation Award’ and the ‘Diversity Award’.

We’re also pleased to announce that our CEO, Romi, has been named as a “Standout 35 Winner” in the 2019 Innovate Finance Women in FinTech Powerlist.

Keep an eye out for our next update on our blog. We’re always working on new features to make our customers happy, so if you have any ideas or suggestions, please let us know in the comments section or over on social media, and we’ll feed it back to the team.

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We’re delighted to share some of the new initiatives we’ve been working on recently. From continuing to set the standard on how pension providers communicate with their customers, to launching our very own computer game to tackle pension scams, read on to find out why April was a month of pension innovation.

We’ve added pounds and pence charging to our Simpler Annual Statements

Last year we were proud to be the first pension provider to adopt the new Simpler Annual Statement template for most customers, which provides a short and clear overview of your pension. At the time, Pensions Minister Guy Opperman remarked: “I am 110 per cent committed to simpler statements and am pleased to see PensionBee adopting the simpler annual statement. I look forward to the rest of industry doing the same thing in 2019”.

In an effort to simplify your annual statements further, for 2020 we’ve displayed all charges in pounds and pence, and are again the first provider to do so.

It’s our goal to make pensions as simple as possible, and providing complete transparency on how your plan is performing, and how much you’re paying in fees, are central to this.

We encourage you to read your Simpler Annual Statement and use it to compare fees across all of your old pensions. A fee saving of just 1% per year could increase a pension’s value by close to 40% over the long-term.

One of the easiest ways to control how much you spend in fees is to consolidate your old pensions into one pot. And, with two bank holidays coming up this May, there’s no better time to look for any old pension paperwork and track down lost pensions.

Introducing Scam Man & Robbin’, the pension scams game

We’ve brought together brilliant minds from the pensions technology sector to tackle the online problem of pension scams, which have increased since the onset of coronavirus. Alongside technology partner, JMAN Group, we’ve developed a five-minute online game that educates consumers about pension scams.

Last month, we were thrilled to announce the launch of Scam Man & Robbin’, casting the player in the role of ‘Scam Man’, a vigilante whose main objective is to protect people’s pensions from scams. Scam Man must correctly identify six of the most common pension scams by shining his torch on them to destroy them, as well as collecting six corresponding bonuses that can help protect savers’ pensions.

Visit scam-man.com to play and learn more about how to protect you and your loved ones from pension scams. As always, we’d love to hear your feedback, so don’t forget to tweet us your thoughts along with your high score!

We’ve partnered with Lumio

In April, we announced a partnership with Lumio, a money management app that helps you maximise your savings. PensionBee customers can now see their pension balance from within the Lumio app.

This partnership is another great example of how Open Banking can help you take control of your finances, by displaying your tomorrow money alongside your today money. Don’t forget, you can also integrate PensionBee into your Starling, Yolt, Moneyhub, Money Dashboard and Emma apps.

Keep an eye out for our next update on our blog. We’re always working on new features to make our customers happy, so if you have any ideas or suggestions, please let us know in the comments section or over on social media, and we’ll feed it back to the team.

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Last month we focussed our efforts on incorporating your feedback into our product roadmap, planning all of the exciting projects we’ll be working on for the rest of the year. From the launch of our fossil-fuel free fund this summer to new initiatives to help the self-employed and over 55s make the most of their savings, we can’t wait to share our latest innovations with you over the coming months.

In the meantime, read on to find out what we achieved in May and learn how you can get involved to help us raise awareness of pension scams.

We’re making improvements to our app

Last month, we made some updates to the infrastructure of our app to ensure it runs as smoothly as possible. We also updated the ‘Resources’ section, which is where you’ll find lots of useful information about your pension, from your annual statement to quarterly performance updates. In addition, we’ve made some improvements to the way contributions are set up, making it even easier for you to top up your pension in a few clicks. You can keep up-to-date with our latest app releases by following us on Twitter.

We’ve received over 2,000 reviews on Trustpilot

This time last year we were thrilled to announce that we’d reached 1,000 reviews on Trustpilot and this May we reached another milestone, receiving our 2,000th review.

We’re delighted to further cement our position as a leading pension provider, and will continue to work hard to maintain the trust you’ve placed in us, through the coronavirus crisis and beyond.

We want to hear from you!

We’re always looking to hear from our customers so we can find out what you think about everything from your PensionBee experience through to the things that motivate you to take control of your finances. We’re offering a £50 Amazon voucher or £50 pension contribution to anyone selected to participate in a 30-60 minute phone interview.

Following the launch of Scam Man & Robbin’, our online game that educates savers about pension scams, we’re looking to find out if any of our customers have ever been approached by a pension scammer. We hope to build case studies that we can share with the national media, so we can increase awareness of scams among the general public and prevent people from losing their hard-earned savings. Separately, we’re also keen to hear from savers aged 55-70 who have experiences of struggling with debt.

If you’d like to share your story with us, and would be happy for your name and photograph to be printed in a national newspaper (such as The Times or The Sun), please get in touch by emailing engagement@pensionbee.com with a summary of your experience.

Keep an eye out for our next update on our blog. We’re always working on new features to make our customers happy, so if you have any ideas or suggestions, please let us know in the comments section or over on social media, and we’ll feed it back to the team.

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At PensionBee, we want our customers to be pension confident! We’re always innovating, to create a pension product that’s not only simple to use and meets our customers’ needs, but makes them feel on top of their retirement plans. Today we’ve launched a new brand campaign to highlight how we’re helping savers be pension confident. Read on to find out more about our Pension Confident campaign and the wonderful customers who’ve shared their experiences of being with PensionBee.

What it means to be Pension Confident

Having multiple pensions dotted around can cause anxiety and stress when it comes to sorting your retirement savings. With our app and our handy online tools, like our pension calculator, we’re making it simple to manage your pension savings.

Juan, 51, joined PensionBee back in 2016. Juan runs his own PR company and needed a modern way to manage his pensions. “It’s the easiest way to deal with your money without the headaches of dealing with the traditional, old-style pension providers,” he says.

We want to help our customers go beyond ticking pensions off the ‘to-do’ list, and help our customers feel confident about both their savings and their retirement. We know that life doesn’t stop at age 55 and we’re proud to have created a product that enables our customers to feel excited about their retirement plans. Juan says, “I don’t plan a traditional retirement. I think I’ll still be doing some work in my late 60s and early 70s.”

Juan appreciates being able to easily manage his savings as he approaches retirement, as he’s able to change how he manages and accesses his money as his circumstances change. With our flexible drawdown, our customers can plan a retirement that makes them look forward to the future.

From pension mess to pension confident

Mum of three, Lynn Beattie, 42, runs MrsMummypenny, a personal finance blog, and needed an easy, flexible self-employed pension as she entered her 40s. She says, “My pension situation before I joined PensionBee was a complete mess.”

Priya Kanabar, 31, is a childminder and fitness instructor, with little spare time to spend sorting out pensions. After starting her business a few years ago, she realised that she needed to get her pension in order. “I had no idea where to start,” she says. “So I had no pension.”

With flexible one-off and recurring contribution options and no minimum contribution amounts, PensionBee provides peace of mind for self-employed savers. After bringing all her pensions into one place, Priya feels like “this whole weight is lifted off my shoulders, and that makes me feel very confident.”

PensionBee helped Lynn to bring all her old pensions into one place, where she can see how much her savings are worth, and calculate how much she needs to save for a comfortable retirement. Lynn says, “I’m looking forward to when I’m actually going to retire. PensionBee has just helped me to feel more confident.”

Finding pension confidence with PensionBee

We’ve taken on board feedback from our customers and developed useful features to help you enjoy managing your pension money, at every step of your saving journey. From our pension calculator to our drawdown calculator, to flexible contributions, and investment plans to suit every savings need, we’re constantly striving to create a product that makes all of our customers feel pension confident.

Nana, 53, is a taxi driver who signed up for PensionBee in 2019 after seeing an ad. He loves using the PensionBee app, saying, “I have the app on my phone. You can assess it 24/7 and everything is transparent. I can log in and see my pension increasing every month.”

Our Pension Confident customers enjoy using PensionBee to plan and save for their future. Most of all, they appreciate the human support provided by their personal BeeKeeper. Our BeeKeepers are on hand to help you with any queries and to track the progress of any pension transfers. Priya says, “The thing I love most about PensionBee is the support. There’s never a time where you think, ‘I don’t know what’s going on.’”

We believe that everyone can become pension confident, and we’re proud to help our customers become excited about their pension savings, and their retirement plans. Nana says, “I can see that the future looks great for me. PensionBee has made me confident.”

Watch our Pension Confident customers share their experiences with PensionBee in the video below.

You can hear more from our Pension Confident customers over on our YouTube channel. Let us know how PensionBee helps you feel Pension Confident by leaving a comment or getting in touch on Twitter!

Risk warning
As always with investments, your capital is at risk. The value of your investment can go down as well as up, and you may get back less than you invest. This information should not be regarded as financial advice.

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This June, we’ve spent a lot of time thinking about how we can promote diversity in response to the Black Lives Matter protests that have been taking place around the world. At PensionBee we believe our diversity is one of our biggest strengths and are incredibly proud to have achieved gender parity, and around 40% ethnic minority representation, which is unheard of in the pensions and wider financial services industry.

We believe we have a responsibility to speak out against racism and fight for race equality at every opportunity, and encourage our peers to help us make the sector more representative of society and you, our wonderful customers. Over the coming weeks, we’ll announce the longer-term steps we’d like to take to address this issue and, as always, we’ll invite you to share your views.

For now, read on to find out what else we were working on in June.

Yolt customers can now see their PensionBee transaction history within the Yolt app

We’ve recently enhanced our 2-way API integration with Yolt, the free app that lets you do more with your money. PensionBee customers can now see their pension transaction history within the Yolt app, making it even easier for you to keep track of your saving.

Thanks to Yolt you can have all of your financial information in one secure place, giving you a clear view of your tomorrow money alongside your today money.

Yolt gives you more control over your money, enabling you to stay on top of your finances and make smarter choices so you can look forward to a happy retirement. Click here to find out more.

We’re finalists for two Diversity in Finance Awards

We’re delighted to announce that PensionBee has been shortlisted in two categories at the FT Adviser Diversity in Finance Awards: ‘Employer of the Year’ and ‘Diversity Marketing & Recruitment Campaign of the Year’. These nominations recognise our commitment to achieving wider representation in the pensions industry by campaigning for change and challenging the stereotypes that you need to look a certain way to succeed, whether that be a prescribed gender, age or ethnicity.

Earlier this month we also learned that our CEO, Romi, had been named in IndustryWired’s list of ‘top 10 ingenious women in European fintech’. Selected for her efforts shaping the industry and paving the way for women across the world, Romi features alongside Anne Boden, CEO of Starling Bank and Meri Williams, former CTO of Monzo Bank among others.

Join our PensionBee user community

We’re always trying to improve your experience so we can continue to bring you a leading pension product, but we can’t do it alone! We’re looking for volunteers to help provide feedback on everything from exciting new products to existing features. If you’d like to participate in surveys, focus groups, prototype testing and much more, you can become a PensionBee HoneyMaker.

Keep an eye out for our next update on our blog. We’re always working on new features to make our customers happy, so if you have any ideas or suggestions, please let us know in the comments section or over on social media, and we’ll feed it back to the team.

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July was another busy month at PensionBee HQ, which saw us introduce a host of brand new product features to help even more of our customers achieve their savings goals. We’re passionate about making pensions simple so that everyone can look forward to a happy retirement, but as our recent research suggests, increasingly the over 55s need additional guidance to ensure they’re in the most suitable investment products for their retirement needs. Read on to learn more about how we’re already acting on our findings, and discover the new innovations that took place in July.

We’ve made it even easier for you to save for a happy retirement

Over the past couple of months we’ve been working hard to incorporate your feedback and simplify the process of making contributions to your pension. If you’re the director of a limited company, it’s now much more straightforward to add a contribution from your business, and you can add as many contributors and employers as you wish.

We’re also making it easier to keep track of your savings by showing you how much you’ve added to your pension during the current tax year. The next time you log into the BeeHive via our website, head to the ‘Contributions’ tab to see how much you’ve saved - if you’re an app user you’ll be able to see this new feature very soon! Don’t forget, if you’re below your savings target you can set up a contribution to your pension via bank transfer in a few clicks.

We’ve teamed up with Legal & General to offer pension annuities

We’re pleased to announce that we’ve partnered with Legal & General to introduce pension annuities to our customers aged 55 and over. A pension annuity can pay you a guaranteed income for the rest of your life, and you can choose to use some or all of your pension savings to buy an annuity when you retire.

An annuity is just one of the options open to savers upon retirement, alongside drawdown which lets you access your pension savings whenever you need to, while keeping the rest of your savings invested in a way that’s specially designed to provide an ongoing retirement income.

Visit our new pension annuities page to learn more and find out how you can get the best rate.

We want to help savers over 55 better manage and spend their pensions

In July we launched a new research report, looking at the experiences of people drawing down their pensions in the UK. After surveying almost 1,000 savers aged 55-70, who were either making plans to access their pension or were at the point of withdrawing, we learned that they faced three common challenges.

The coronavirus pandemic has made decisions about accessing pensions harder, with savers feeling more worried. For many, pensions have become disconnected from retirement, leading savers to access their pension early – paying too much tax and losing out on potential returns. We discovered that a desire for control can prompt a withdrawal, with savers often moving their money to a savings account or other investments.

In the coming months we’ll be exploring ways we can help this group of savers better manage and spend their pensions in retirement so look out for lots of content and some exciting innovations. In the meantime you can read our full report here.

Keep an eye out for our next update on our blog. We’re always working on new features to make our customers happy, so if you have any ideas or suggestions, please let us know in the comments section or over on social media, and we’ll feed it back to the team.

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August was a busy month at PensionBee HQ, where we celebrated not one but two awards nominations! We also launched a shiny new homepage, showcasing the four customers who feature in our new Pension Confident ads, to coincide with the campaign’s roll out on billboards and bus shelters across the country. Read on to find out what else we were working on in August.

We’re helping savers across the UK be Pension Confident

In the past few weeks you may have spotted our new Pension Confident TV ads featuring four of our lovely customers: Lynn, Juan, Priya and Nana. We’ve just extended the campaign to thousands of bus shelters and billboards across the country, so if you haven’t seen them yet, chances are you will in the coming weeks. If you spot one of our ads next time you’re using public transport, don’t forget to tweet us a picture!

We’re finalists at the 2020 WSB Awards

We’re delighted to announce that PensionBee is a finalist in the ‘Pension Provider of the Year’ category at the Professional Pensions Workplace Savings and Benefits Awards, which recognise the best pension and benefit providers in the UK.

We’ve also been shortlisted for BusinessCloud’s ‘100 FinTech Disrupters’, a ranking of the UK’s most exciting fintech companies, for the second year in a row. The winners will be determined by a combination of reader votes and selections from an expert judging panel.

We want to hear from you!

We’re always keen to hear from our customers so we can learn from your experiences, and this month we’re looking to hear from mothers aged 35-44 who are passionate about the environment, and would be happy to take part in a focus group with one of our partners, ShareAction.

ShareAction is a registered charity that promotes responsible investment and aims to improve corporate behaviour on environmental, social and governance issues. If you’d be interested in sharing your views, please get in touch by emailing engagement@pensionbee.com.

Keep an eye out for our next update on our blog. We’re always working on new features to make our customers happy, so if you have any ideas or suggestions, please let us know in the comments section or over on social media, and we’ll feed it back to the team.

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September is always busy at PensionBee HQ and this past month hasn’t disappointed. In early September, we were delighted to announce that we surpassed a significant milestone – we now administer over £1bn of pension savings on your behalf. Thank you for entrusting us with your hard-earned savings and inspiring us to continue delivering a leading pension product!

As we look towards the end of the year, there’ll be some exciting announcements about our Fossil Fuel Free Plan, as well as a host of other new initiatives and product improvements coming down the line.

For now, read on to find out what else we worked on in September.

We made some changes to the way you can set up employer contributions

Over the past few months we’ve highlighted the changes we’ve made to simplify the process of making contributions to your pension, enabling you to add as many contributors and employers as you wish. We’ve now taken it one step further, making it even easier for employers to pay into your pension.

You can now make arrangements for your employer to pay into your PensionBee pension, without them needing to confirm the amount or regularity of the contributions in advance. As part of the new process we’ll ask you to confirm your eligibility for tax relief, as your employer can now make both employer and member (employee) contributions into your pension. For the member contribution, we’ll claim a 25% tax top up from HMRC on your behalf.

Simply follow the process of adding a new contribution in your BeeHive if you’d like to set up this arrangement, and your employer will be emailed some instructions to follow.

We celebrated our busiest month for award wins yet

We’re thrilled to announce that in September, PensionBee was named ‘Employer of the Year’ at the FT Adviser Diversity in Finance Awards. We’re especially proud to win this award in recognition of our policies and initiatives that encourage diversity in the workplace, and intend to keep campaigning for wider representation in the pensions industry.

PensionBee has also won the award for ‘Pensions Innovation’ at the inaugural Finder Investing & Saving Innovation Awards, which celebrated the most innovative providers across the areas of saving, stocks and shares ISAs, pensions, share dealing, and CFD and forex trading.

We’re pleased to have also been named in the ‘FinTech50 2020’ list of 50 European fintechs to watch, for the third year in a row, and ranked number 38 in BusinessCloud’s list of ‘100 FinTech Disrupters‘ for 2020. The winners were determined by a combination of 5,000 reader votes and an independent judging panel, so if you voted for PensionBee, we thank you!

Last but not least, our founders, Romi and Jonathan, were featured in Business Leader Magazine’s list of ‘Top 32 Fintech Leaders‘.

Our CTO, Jonathan, discussed how we’re revolutionising pensions with technology

Hear our CTO, Jonathan Lister Parsons, discussing the technology behind PensionBee’s mobile app and the impact of coronavirus on the pensions industry on Cleevio’s Digital Innovation Chat podcast.

Keep an eye out for our next update on our blog. We’re always working on new features to make our customers happy, so if you have any ideas or suggestions, please let us know in the comments section or over on social media, and we’ll feed it back to the team.

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Read on to find out what else we were up to last month, and why our core value of love has been shining through.

We made it even easier to get in touch with your BeeKeeper

We’re always working hard to bring a leading pension product and ensuring parity between our website and app is a key part of this. Last month, we introduced a support function to the app, so you can easily find all the details you need should you want to contact us.

Next time you log in, look out for a question mark icon in various parts of the BeeHive. When clicked you’ll see email and phone contact details, plus some handy FAQs to help you find the information you’re looking for faster.

We’re campaigning for more transparency in pensions

We’re passionate about increasing transparency in pensions, so savers can better plan for their retirement. Whether that’s by campaigning for a ban on exit fees or advocating for the inclusion of charges in mandatory simpler annual statements, we want the pensions industry to work together to help put savers back in control of their money.

In October, we co-authored a report with the UK fintech industry body Innovate Finance and Open Banking data network Plaid. Together we’re advocating for Open Banking technology to be used more widely in pensions so savers can see a complete picture of their financial health and access digital tools that will help them make smarter financial choices.

In 2018 PensionBee became the first pension provider to utilise the Open Banking APIs for pensions, enabling our customers to see their live pension balance displayed alongside their live current account balance in some of the UK’s most popular money management apps including Starling, Money Dashboard, Yolt, Emma and Moneyhub. To this day we’re still one of only a handful of pension providers that allows customers to share their data with other FCA regulated companies. To find out more and read the full report visit the Innovate Finance website.

We’re officially the UK’s best pension provider

Last month, we were delighted to be crowned ‘DC Pension Provider of the Year’ at the industry’s most prestigious awards, the UK Pensions Awards. Recognised for our high level of innovation, performance and customer service, we saw off competition from some of the biggest names in pensions including Aviva, Scottish Widows and Legal & General.

To further cement our position as the a leading online pension provider, we also collected the award for ‘Pension Provider of the Year’ at the Workplace Savings and Benefits Awards, following a high commendation in the same category last year.

We’re aiming to end the year on a high and this month, we hope to be named as Spectator Magazine’s ‘Economic Innovator of the Year’, with the European Pensions Awards following close behind in early December, where we’re shortlisted in two categories: ‘Diversity’ and ‘European Pensions Innovation’. We’ll be sure to let you know how we get on via social media and our blog.

Keep an eye out for our next update on our blog. We’re always working on new features to make our customers happy, so if you have any ideas or suggestions, please let us know in the comments section or over on social media, and we’ll feed it back to the team.

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