NOW: Pensions charges are £2 a month for administration plus 0.3% a year on the pot in its investment plans, according to its own charges page.
That is the current price list on NOW: Pensions' website, read on 20 October 2026. It is a fixed monthly fee with a percentage on top, so what it comes to depends heavily on how much you have saved with NOW. If NOW is one of several pots you hold, write each scheme's name into this page's form; a representative of an FCA-authorised adviser firm then rings, free, to go through them. The value of investments can fall as well as rise, and you may get back less than was paid in.
What changed in 2025
Two things moved last year, and an older statement or article may still show the previous picture. NOW's costs and charges page says that on 1 September 2025 "our Administration Charge increased from £1.75 to £2.00 a month". Over a year that is £21 becoming £24 (£1.75 x 12 against £2 x 12), a rise of £3.
The second change was in presentation, not price. The 0.3% investment charge has not changed, but until 12 May 2025 it came out of the unit price of the funds rather than appearing on its own. Since now:u launched on that date it has been listed as a separate line. A statement from before that date will not show the line, though the rate is unchanged.
The Chair's statement for the year to 31 March 2025, a PDF dated 21 October 2025, was written before the rise took effect. It records the £1.75 in force during that year and says a move to £2.00 was planned for the third quarter of 2025. On 20 October 2026 it was still the latest statement on NOW's website.
The current charges, line by line
The costs and charges page and the booklet printed on 18 June 2026 give the same figures.
| Charge | Amount | How it is taken |
|---|---|---|
| Administration | £2 a month, £24 a year | from the account each month, with a small-pot exception below |
| Investment management, investment plans | 0.3% a year of the pot | from the account each month |
| Investment management, DIY funds | 0.25% to 0.55% a year, by fund | from the account each month |
| Transaction costs | varies by fund | inside the investment's buying and selling price |
The investment plans include the lump sum plan, the plan you are placed in automatically on enrolment. In the do-it-yourself range the booklet lists the global equity fund at 0.25%, the emerging market equity fund at 0.35% and the global high yield bond fund at 0.55%. The £2 is per member, not per contract, so a worker paying in from two jobs pays it once.
The small-pot exception is worded in three ways. The charges page says no administration charge is taken "if it would make the value of your now:pensions savings £100 or less", while the booklet says "less than £100". The FAQ on the same page says the charge applies only if you have more than £100 after it is taken off. For a pot within a few pounds of £100, NOW can say which test it applies.
Employers pay separately. NOW's employer page lists no set-up fee and a monthly service charge of £36 plus VAT when working directly with NOW, or from £12.50 plus VAT through a payroll bureau, and notes that a particular organisation may have a bespoke arrangement.
Transaction costs are the stamp duty, broker commissions and buy and sell spreads of trading. They are built into the price at which investments are bought and sold, so they appear on no statement line.
Transaction costs in the Chair's statement
The statement for the year to 31 March 2025 gives two figures for the growth fund. Its charges table on page 14 shows 0.158% for the growth fund and 0.023% for the retirement countdown fund; the transaction-cost table on page 15 gives the growth fund a combined 0.049%, or 4.9p for every £100 invested. NOW can explain how the two relate. The statement also records that the scheme pays no performance-based fees.
A year of NOW charges at five pot sizes
The £8,000 row is the turning point: there the £24 equals 0.3% of the pot (£24 / 0.3%). Below it the fixed fee is the bigger part of the bill; above it the percentage takes over, and the £24 shrinks as a share. The figures are this site's arithmetic on the investment-plan charges above, not NOW's, for a pot that stays the same size for twelve months, leaving out transaction costs and DIY fund rates.
| Pot | 0.3% part | Plus £24 administration | As a share of the pot |
|---|---|---|---|
| £1,000 | £3 | £27 | 2.70% |
| £5,000 | £15 | £39 | 0.78% |
| £8,000 | £24 | £48 | 0.60% |
| £25,000 | £75 | £99 | 0.40% |
| £100,000 | £300 | £324 | 0.32% |
Putting NOW beside older pots priced in other ways takes some working out. An FCA-authorised adviser, whom you can ask for via the form on this page, could do that comparison with you.
Where the 0.75% limit comes in
The NOW: Pensions Trust is a master trust authorised by The Pensions Regulator, so its default fund falls under regulation 6 of SI 2015/879, the occupational-scheme cap, rather than the FCA rule for workplace personal pensions (pension charges and fees covers both). Because NOW pairs a fixed fee with a percentage, the plain 0.75% limit is not the test; a lower percentage ceiling applies once a flat fee is charged, as the Smart Pension page explains for that scheme's similar structure.
NOW's charges page does the sum for its own default, the lump sum plan. With an administration charge of "more than £20 but less than £25 a year", it says, "the most we could charge for investment management in the lump sum plan is 0.4% a year", against the 0.3% it takes. That limit is "only required for the lump sum plan", though NOW applies the same £2 and the same £100 floor on every option. The trustee's view, in the Chair's statement for the year to March 2025, is that the charges are "lower than the government charge cap".
Moving a pot into or out of NOW
NOW's charges page says "We don't charge you to transfer pension savings into or out of now:pensions", while the pension provider a pot is going to "could make a charge". An old scheme's own exit terms and any protected benefits are the usual things to check first, as NOW's FAQ warns. Mechanics are in how to transfer a pension, the cost side in pension transfer fees.
NOW's charges also run on after contributions stop, and the £24 bites hardest on the smallest pots in the table above, which is the situation pension consolidation addresses. If someone rings or messages out of the blue about moving a pension, the FCA's pension scams page says a cold call about your pension is "illegal and probably a scam".
NOW: Pensions charges: questions people ask
What type of pension scheme is NOW: Pensions?
A defined contribution master trust. The June 2026 Statement of Investment Principles describes a scheme many employers take part in, where what you get depends on the money saved in your own account, with no guaranteed performance. It is an occupational, trust-based scheme, not a personal pension, the kind of scheme auto-enrolment uses.
Do I still pay NOW charges if I have left the employer?
Yes. NOW's charges page says its costs apply whether or not you are still paying in, and the Chair's statement makes the same point about leaving an employer.
Where can I see what NOW has taken?
In the now:u app or online, under Transactions and then Charges, where account charges and investment charges are separate lines. Your annual benefit statement shows the yearly total.
Does NOW charge when I start taking money?
The charges pages list the administration, investment and transaction costs above. Ask NOW before you start whether anything else applies to your choice of income; choices are in pension drawdown, and free guidance comes from Pension Wise.
Is NOW: Pensions a good provider?
Charges are one part of that question, and the part set out here; service, investment returns and how an employer's scheme is run are others. For how other workplace schemes price, see Nest, The People's Pension and Smart Pension; the field is looked at in workplace pension providers.
Your next step
The Charges list in now:u shows what has actually left your account, month by month, split into account and investment charges. If you would like to go over those lines with someone qualified, an FCA-authorised adviser will phone you, free, when this page's form reaches them.
Sources: NOW: Pensions, Costs and charges explained, Clear competitive charges for employers, Annual Chair's Statement page and Statement of Investment Principles page (pages read 20 October 2026); Chair's Statement for the year ending 31 March 2025 (PDF created 21 October 2025); Statement of Investment Principles, adopted 22 June 2026; Explaining our costs and charges (booklet, 18 June 2026); legislation.gov.uk, SI 2015/879 regulations 5 and 6; FCA, pension scams; all accessed 20 October 2026.