Chip review: over a year saving with the Chip app

Verdict, up front

Chip is a good home for savings you want to leave alone but still be able to reach. The rates are competitive while the new-customer boost lasts and reasonable after it, the Smart Cash ISA is flexible, and the free Basic plan covers most of what a saver needs. It is not the right choice if you want a fixed rate, a branch, or a support team that replies quickly.

One disclosure before the detail. If you join Chip through this site’s link or code and qualify, Chip pays you and this site £50 each. That is our only income. Everything marked “From my account” is first-hand. Everything else comes from Chip’s own product pages and terms, with sources and checked dates at the bottom of the page.

What is Chip?

Chip is a UK savings app, not a bank. Chip is an app, not a bank: your savings are held with partner banks. You open and manage everything in the app, and the money you save sits with regulated banks behind it.

The company is Chip Financial Group Ltd, authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority (FRN 911255). Its ISA and investment business is run by Chip Financial Wealth Ltd (FRN 1005114). Chip says it has 500,000 registered users, though some of its own product pages still give a lower figure.

For the Instant Access, Easy Access and Prize Savings accounts, the bank holding your money is ClearBank, a UK clearing bank. The Smart Cash ISA works differently: your money is spread across a panel of UK banks including Barclays, Lloyds and HSBC. Who holds the money is what decides your FSCS protection, which we come back to below.

Chip’s savings accounts and rates

Chip has four savings accounts. Three pay interest; the fourth pays prizes instead. The headline rates include a 12-month new-customer boost, so always read the standard rate underneath.

Rates are variable. New-customer boosts last 12 months, then the standard rate applies.

• Instant Access pays 3.51% AER for 12 months, then 3.00% AER, with unlimited withdrawals with no penalty. It is the simplest account and the natural starting point for most people.
• Easy Access Saver pays 3.81% AER for 12 months, then 3.50% AER, but gives you 3 penalty-free withdrawals in each 12 months; from the 4th the rate drops by 2.10% AER. It suits money you genuinely will not touch.
• Smart Cash ISA pays 4.68% AER for 12 months, then 3.50% AER, tax-free, and is a flexible ISA.
• Prize Savings pays no interest. Instead, your balance enters a monthly draw. Chip claims 3.5x better odds than Premium Bonds (Chip's own claim), based on the odds of winning any prize per £10 held, compared with Premium Bonds in September 2025.

All of the interest-paying rates are variable trackers set below the Bank of England’s Bank Rate, currently 3.75%. When Bank Rate moves, Chip’s rates move with it. That cuts both ways: you benefit if rates rise and lose out if they fall, and there is no fixed-rate option if you want certainty. Our page on every Chip interest rate tracks the current figures and the gap to Bank Rate for each account.

What happens when the boost ends

Every new-customer boost lasts 12 months. After that, Instant Access pays 3.00% AER, Easy Access 3.50% AER and the Smart Cash ISA 3.50% AER. The boost is worth having, but it is the standard rate you will live with for most of the time you hold the account, so that is the fairer number to compare with other providers.

Chip’s standard rates are not bad on their own. Because they track Bank Rate rather than being set at Chip’s whim, they have a built-in link to the wider market: Instant Access sits furthest below Bank Rate, while Easy Access and the Smart Cash ISA sit closer to it. The trade-off is that a cut in Bank Rate feeds straight through. Set a calendar reminder for the day your boost ends and check whether the standard rate still beats what you could get elsewhere.

Is Prize Savings worth it?

It depends on what you want from the money. Prize Savings pays no interest, so you give up certain interest for the chance of a prize. Chip advertises £100,000 a month in prizes, with a top prize of £10,000, and you need a £10 minimum average balance to be entered. One detail to read carefully: prizes are added as a bonus and become cash only when you withdraw your whole Prize Savings balance. For most savers, an interest-paying account is the more predictable home, and our comparison of Chip Prize Savings with Premium Bonds sets out the odds properly.

Autosave: how it works in practice

Autosave is Chip’s original feature. It moves small amounts from your linked current account into Chip automatically, so you do not have to decide each time. You can also set up recurring deposits yourself, which are a fixed amount on a schedule.

The cost is the part to understand. On the free Basic plan, Chip charges 45p per autosave. Recurring deposits are free on both plans. ChipX includes unlimited autosaves. So on Basic, frequent small autosaves can add up: if autosave moves small sums several times a week, the fee becomes a meaningful share of what you save. If that worries you, a weekly or monthly recurring deposit gets money into savings with no fee at all.

Our full guide to Chip autosave covers how to tune the amount, pause it and work out whether the fee is worth it for your pattern of saving.

How fast are Chip withdrawals?

Fast, going by our own account below. Instant Access lets you withdraw whenever you like with no penalty, and Easy Access limits you to three penalty-free withdrawals a year.

The account you choose matters. Instant Access has unlimited withdrawals with no penalty. Easy Access has 3 penalty-free withdrawals in a 12-month period, and from the fourth, the rate drops by 2.10% AER. That would take it to 1.71% AER while the boost lasts, or 1.40% AER after. The Smart Cash ISA has unlimited withdrawals; flexible, so you can put money back in the same tax year.

One exception to the speed: Chip says referral bonus payments can take up to 5 working days to reach your bank when you withdraw them. Our page on Chip withdrawals has the detail on timings and limits for each account.

The Chip Cash ISA

Chip’s current Cash ISA is the Smart Cash ISA, paying 4.68% AER for 12 months, then 3.50% AER. It is a flexible ISA, so you can take money out and put it back within the same tax year without using up more of your £20,000 allowance.

Two details are worth knowing. First, your money is held across a panel of UK banks including Barclays, Lloyds and HSBC, rather than all at ClearBank. Second, transferring out or closing forfeits any unpaid interest, so if you plan to move the ISA elsewhere, check the timing first.

There is also an older product: the older Chip Cash ISA is closed to new customers. If you read older reviews that describe a different Chip Cash ISA, that is probably the one they mean. Our Chip Smart Cash ISA guide explains the current one in full.

How much interest have I earned with Chip?

That figure says more about the balance and the time than about Chip specifically: any account at a similar rate would have done much the same on the same money. Where an app like Chip can help is with the habit of saving, which is the part most people find hard. If you want to see what your own balance might earn, our savings interest calculator runs the numbers with current rates.

What does Chip cost? Basic vs ChipX

The Basic plan is free, and it is the plan Chris uses. ChipX costs £5.99 every 28 days or £65.05 a year, with a 28-day free trial.

For a saver, the main practical difference is autosave: Basic charges 45p per autosave, and ChipX includes unlimited autosaves. Because the monthly option is billed every 28 days, that is 13 payments a year (every 28 days), or £77.87. At 45p per autosave, you would need about 174 autosaves a year to break even on monthly billing, or about 145 on the annual plan. Fewer than that and Basic is cheaper.

Most savers will not reach those numbers, especially if they use free recurring deposits alongside autosave. We go through the sums properly in is ChipX worth it?

Is Chip safe?

Yes, in the ways that matter for savings. Chip savings are held with ClearBank and eligible deposits are protected by the FSCS up to £120,000 per person, shared across all your money at ClearBank.

The shared limit is the part to watch. Because the protection is per person per bank, one £120,000 limit across all your ClearBank-held Chip accounts and any other ClearBank account. If you already have a large balance with another app that also uses ClearBank, your combined total counts against one £120,000 limit. The Smart Cash ISA is held across several banks, so its protection works differently. Our full answer to is Chip safe? covers the FCA registration, the banks involved and how FSCS protection applies to each account.

What is Chip’s customer support like?

This is the weakest part of Chip in our experience. Support is through the app, and it has not been quick.

For most savers, slow support matters less than it would with a current account, because there is less to go wrong. But if your Chip balance is money you might need at short notice, it is one more reason to keep it in Instant Access rather than Easy Access.

What does Trustpilot say about Chip?

When we checked on 16 October 2026, Chip’s page on Trustpilot showed 4.3 out of 5 on Trustpilot from about 5,100 reviews. That is a solid score for a financial app. Scores like this move over time, and review sites tend to attract people with something strong to say in either direction, so it is best read as a general signal rather than a verdict. We do not reproduce individual reviews here.

Investing with Chip

Chip also offers a Stocks and Shares ISA, a General Investment Account and a pension. With investments, your capital is at risk. I do not use Chip’s investing, so I do not review it, and this site covers savings only.

The Chip £50 referral

If you are new to Chip, you and the person who referred you can each get £50. You need to have never held a Chip account before, deposit £1,000 into the Smart Cash ISA, the Instant Access Account or the Prize Savings Account, and keep at least that much there for 90 days in a row. If the balance dips below £1,000, the countdown starts again. The Easy Access Saver does not count. The bonus is paid at Chip's discretion.

Our Chip referral code page goes through every condition, with a worked example of the reset rule and what to do if the bonus does not arrive.

Final verdict

Chip is a good, low-effort home for savings. It does the boring part of saving for you, the money comes back quickly when you need it, and the Smart Cash ISA is a flexible home for tax-free savings.

Go in with your eyes open. The headline rates are boosted for 12 months, so judge Chip on the standard rate as well. Autosave costs money on Basic, so decide whether you want it or a free recurring deposit instead. And support is slow, so it is better suited to savings you want to leave alone than to money you will be checking on daily.

If you want a fixed rate, a provider you already bank with, or a different set of features, our guide to the best savings apps in the UK and our Chip alternatives page cover the honest options.