Help us judge the best providers – have your say in our new awards

Founder of Boring Money Holly Mackay explains the importance of giving customers a voice

Trying to pick the right online service to hold your investments is a minefield. With more and more digital services fighting for the right to hold your Isas and pensions, people often write to me suffering from “paralysis by analysis”.

That’s why this spring my company, Boring Money, is teaming up with The Telegraph to launch the Consumer Investment Awards. We want to know about your experience of pension providers. Which investment services do you love? Which drive you nuts with Vivaldi and endless call waiting?

I’ve been tracking these services for years and hold more than 25 accounts in the name of research. I find the customer experience behind the scenes is often very different from the public promises of ease, wealth and helpful people to answer your phone call within seconds.

However, this is still just my experience. It’s far more meaningful to gather feedback from a wider survey of customers and to celebrate excellence alongside calling out dud service.

agers he y gineers th hures.

e financial communication. Poor communication matters. It is the single biggest bugbear consumers have with pensions and investments. A recent survey we conducted with 6,000 UK adults revealed that 40pc of Britons would find investment services more appealing if the providers talked about things in simple English. A trusted brand to invest with was second in the wishlist. Performance clocked in fourth, with only about 30pc of people saying that returns of 15pc a year would entice them to invest. (For the record, I would bite someone’s arm off for those guaranteed returns.) That clearer communication is a higher priority than exceptional performance shows how much people hate jargon. Lots of us have a pension through our workplace, taking the decision over a provider out of our hands. However, 14p 14pc of these people top up their wor workplace pension savings wit with a personal DIY pension. We’re in interested to know your experience of the online pension options, w which typically offer a better service. se Of course, it’s not just ju new brands rev revamping the e experience. Our s shortlist includes some g global giants, such as A Aviva, too. We want to know who you think is the best online investment provider. We have drawn up a shortlist of 10 providers, which are all awarded a four out of five star rating from us and/or have at least a 70pc recommend score by Boring Money readers. But what do you think?

As well as the best overall provider, we’re particularly interested to dig further into both service and value for money. Quantifying value is a devil of a job – cost is only one factor in this equation. Let us know your view.

We’d love your help in order to build a better picture of who is doing a good job for customers. Without feedback from the end users, shabby service can persist and excellence can remain hidden.

Voting will close on April 29 and the winners will be announced on June 6, online and at an event in London. We’ll share our findings with you to help shine a spotlight on excellence and to give readers a better feel for what to expect from different services, beyond any one individual’s opinion.

Take part by voting in our survey, open until April 29; Holly Mackay, below