Chip autosave: how it works, what it costs and how to tune it

How does Chip autosave work?

Chip looks at your current account and moves small amounts into savings when it judges you can spare them. You connect your bank to Chip through open banking when you sign up. From then on, Chip can read your income and spending, and it uses that picture to decide when to save and how much.

Chip’s own description is simple: the app can study your spending habits and automatically move small sums into savings when you can afford it. In practice that means saves tend to be small and fairly frequent rather than one large monthly transfer. If your account looks busy or low, Chip should save less; if money has just come in, it may save more.

You choose which account receives the saves. Chip’s Instant Access page says you can autosave straight into that account, and you can also add money by hand at any time. Chip says that money moved by autosave shows as pending for a short time before it lands, and is held in a safeguarded client money account in the meantime. Our page on whether Chip is safe explains what that means.

If you want the general picture first, our guide to how autosave apps work covers the different approaches: algorithmic saving like Chip’s, round-ups and fixed rules.

What does Chip autosave cost?

On the free Basic plan, Chip charges 45p per autosave. On ChipX, autosaves are unlimited with no per-save fee, but ChipX costs £5.99 every 28 days or £65.05 a year. Recurring deposits are free on both plans.

The per-save fee is the part people often miss. It is not charged on the amount you save, so a £0.45 fee on a small save is a much bigger share than the same fee on a large one. If Chip moves £5 and charges £0.45, that is the same as paying 9% of the amount saved. On a £50 save it is under 1%.

The other way to think about it is against the interest you earn. On £1,000 sitting in the Instant Access Account at the standard rate of 3.00% AER, a year’s interest would be about £30. Pay for more than a few dozen autosaves in a year and the fees would eat a large part of that. Interest depends on your balance and the rate at the time; the 3.51% AER (variable tracker) headline includes a new-customer boost for 12 months, then the standard rate applies.

Worked monthly costs on the free plan

Multiply the number of autosaves in a month by £0.45. Here is what that looks like at a few typical frequencies:

At the top end, daily autosaves cost more each month than a ChipX subscription. That is the point at which ChipX can make sense even if you never use anything else it includes. Our page on whether ChipX is worth it works through the break-even, and the ChipX calculator lets you put in your own number of saves.

Another way to judge the fee is against how much autosave actually moves. Say Chip makes 15 saves in a month averaging £10 each. That is £150 saved for £6.75 in fees, or 4.5% of what was saved. If the same £150 had gone in as one free recurring deposit, the fee would be nothing. Whether the convenience is worth that gap is a personal call; for someone who would not otherwise save at all, it may well be.

You can see your autosaves in the app, so the simplest check is to count last month’s. If the number surprises you, the next sections cover how to bring it down.

My experience with autosave

The pattern of small, frequent saves is exactly what you would expect from how Chip describes the feature. It is also why the per-save fee is worth watching: frequency, not size, is what drives the cost.

How to tune or pause Chip autosave

You can change how much Chip saves, or pause autosave, in the app. Chip’s help pages point to the Savings Plans settings in the Profile tab. The exact menu names change from time to time as the app is updated.

Some practical ways to use those settings:

• Turn it down if it saves too often. A lower setting should mean fewer or smaller saves, which matters for the fee.
• Turn it up after a pay rise or when a bill ends. Autosave reacts to your account, but you know about changes before it does.
• Pause it around big months. Christmas, holidays, a car repair or moving house are good times to pause, then switch back on afterwards.
• Check where it saves. Make sure saves go to the account you want. If you are building towards the £50 referral bonus, the Easy Access Saver does not count, so point autosave at an eligible account instead.

Pausing autosave leaves your savings where they are. It just stops new automatic saves until you turn it back on.

How to avoid going overdrawn

Keep a buffer in your current account and pause autosave before large payments. Chip only sees the transactions that have already happened. It cannot know that your rent leaves tomorrow or that a big card payment is still pending.

• Leave a cushion in your current account that covers your next few days of bills and spending.
• Pause autosave in the days before a large one-off payment.
• If your income is irregular, start on a low setting and raise it once you have seen a month or two of saves.
• Remember you can move money back. Instant Access allows unlimited withdrawals with no penalty, so if a save leaves you short you can withdraw it.

If you want to know how quickly money comes back, our Chip withdrawals guide covers each account, including the limits on Easy Access.

Autosave and the referral bonus

If you joined Chip through a referral, the £50 bonus depends on your balance: you deposit £1,000 or more into an eligible account, then keep at least that much there for 90 days in a row. Autosaves add to your balance, so they cannot break the count. Withdrawals can: if your balance drops below £1,000 at any point, the 90-day countdown starts again from zero.

Two practical points. First, the Easy Access Saver is not an eligible account, so autosaves sent there do not help. Second, Chip’s referral terms talk about deposits in general and do not single out autosaves, so if you are relying on autosave alone to reach £1,000, a one-off deposit is the surer route. Our Instant Access vs Easy Access comparison explains the difference between the two accounts.

Recurring deposits: the free alternative

Recurring deposits are free on both plans. With a recurring deposit you choose a fixed amount and a schedule, such as £100 every payday, and Chip moves it for you. There is no per-transfer fee.

The difference is who decides. Autosave decides for you, which suits people who would not otherwise save and who do not want to think about it. Recurring deposits put you in charge, which suits people who already know what they can afford. Many people use both: a recurring deposit for the main monthly amount, with autosave on a low setting to sweep up a little extra.

Chip autosave vs Plum, Moneybox, Monzo and Chase

Chip is the one here that charges per save on its free plan; round-ups elsewhere are often free. That does not make Chip worse overall, since rates and accounts differ, but it is worth knowing.

• Plum offers Round-ups, Pay Days, Weekly Depositor and AI Auto Saver. Rainy Days, 52-Week Challenge, 1p Challenge and Naughty Rule need a paid subscription. Plum’s plans are Basic free; Plus £3.99, Boost £7.99, Max £14.99 a month, though Plum’s own pages disagree on the Max price. Details are on Plum’s automations page.
• Moneybox offers Round-ups and Payday boost. Round-ups save or invest the change from everyday spending. Moneybox says there is no fee for savings-only customers (see its fees page).
• Monzo offers free round-ups into a Savings Pot, for people who bank with Monzo. 1p Saving Challenge pays 5% AER variable on paid plans (0% on free). See Monzo’s instant access savings page.
• Chase offers free round-ups to the nearest £1 at 5% AER variable. Round-up account takes only debit card round-ups; one per customer. Details are on Chase’s round-ups page.

The honest summary: if you already bank with Monzo or Chase, their free round-ups are hard to beat on cost. If you want an app that sits on top of your existing bank and decides amounts for you, Chip and Plum are the closest matches, and Plum’s fuller set of rules needs a paid plan. Our head-to-head pages compare Chip with Plum and Chip with Moneybox in more depth.

Who Chip autosave suits

Autosave suits you if you find it hard to save deliberately, your income is fairly steady, and you are happy for Chip to make small moves in the background. On the free plan, it is best on a setting that makes a modest number of saves each month, so the fee stays small.

It suits you less if your current account often runs close to zero, or if you would rather pick a fixed amount yourself. In that case, set up a free recurring deposit instead and leave autosave off, or on its lowest setting.

If you are new to Chip, our Chip review covers the rest of the app. If you join through our Chip referral code, you and we each get £50 if you qualify: you must never have held a Chip account, the Easy Access Saver does not count, and £1,000 has to stay in an eligible account for 90 days in a row, or the countdown starts again.