Chip and savings app FAQs

Chip is a UK savings app run by Chip Financial Group Ltd. Chip is an app, not a bank: your savings are held with partner banks. The easy-access accounts and Prize Savings are held with ClearBank, and the Smart Cash ISA is provided by Chip Financial Wealth Ltd. You can save into Instant Access, Easy Access, the Smart Cash ISA or Prize Savings, and let autosave move money for you. To join you must be 18 or over, UK tax resident, and signing up in the app. Chip says it has 500,000 registered users.

New customers get 3.51% AER on Instant Access for 12 months, then 3.00% AER. Easy Access pays 3.81% AER for 12 months, then 3.50% AER. The Smart Cash ISA pays 4.68% AER for 12 months, then 3.50% AER. Prize Savings pays no interest. All are variable trackers that sit below Bank Rate, currently 3.75%. Rates are variable. New-customer boosts last 12 months, then the standard rate applies.

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. Chip Financial Group Ltd is on the FCA register (FRN 911255). Two exceptions worth knowing: bonuses are not FSCS protected, and Prize Savings prizes are not covered either. Chip is an app rather than a bank, so the protection comes from the bank holding your money, not from Chip itself.

The Basic plan is free, but autosaves cost 45p per autosave. Recurring deposits you set up yourself are free on both plans. ChipX, the paid plan, costs £5.99 every 28 days or £65.05 a year, with a 28-day free trial, and includes unlimited autosaves. Whether ChipX is worth it depends on how often autosave runs for you.

Autosave moves small amounts from your linked current account into Chip automatically, so you save without thinking about it. You can change how much it saves, or pause it, in the app. On the Basic plan each autosave costs 45p per autosave, so frequent small saves add up; ChipX includes unlimited autosaves. If you prefer a fixed amount, recurring deposits are free on both plans.

Instant Access allows unlimited withdrawals with no penalty. Easy Access allows 3 penalty-free withdrawals in a 12-month period; after that the rate drops. The Smart Cash ISA allows unlimited withdrawals; flexible, so you can put money back in the same tax year. Chris, who writes this site, says his withdrawals have reached his bank within minutes. Referral bonus withdrawals can take up to 5 working days.

Chip also offers a Stocks and Shares ISA, a General Investment Account and a pension. With investments, your capital is at risk. This site covers savings only, so we do not review or recommend Chip's investment accounts, and Chris has never used them.

Join through a referral link or the code CHIP-XUD314, deposit £1,000 or more into the Smart Cash ISA, the Instant Access Account or the Prize Savings Account, and keep at least £1,000 there for 90 days in a row. You must have never held a Chip account before, and everything has to be done within 120 days of being referred. You and the person who referred you then each get £50.

The savings accounts that count are the Smart Cash ISA, the Instant Access Account or the Prize Savings Account, and you can split the £1,000 between them. The Easy Access Saver does not count, even though it pays more than Instant Access, and neither does the Chip Pension. Chip's terms also list its investment accounts; this site covers savings only.

If your balance drops below £1,000 at any point, the 90-day countdown starts again from zero. That includes a short dip for a withdrawal. Because the whole process must be finished within 120 days of being referred, a reset late on can mean you run out of time. The safest approach is to deposit a little more than £1,000 and leave it alone for the full 90 days.

No. The bonus is only for someone who has never held a Chip account before, and that includes accounts you have since closed. If that is you, the bonus is off the table, so compare Chip's standard rates against other apps on their own merits. Our alternatives page covers the options.

It is added to your Chip Instant Access Account (or Prize Savings Account if you do not have one) once all the conditions are met, so at least 90 days after your deposit. The bonus itself does not earn interest, and bonus withdrawals can take up to 5 working days to reach your bank. The bonus is paid at Chip's discretion, and Chip can change or end the offer at any time.

Yes. The link applies the code for you, but if you sign up on another device you can type CHIP-XUD314 in the app within 14 days of downloading. If you use the link, download the app within 30 days of entering your email and sign up with the same email. Chip's terms require app version 4.56.0 or later.

AER stands for Annual Equivalent Rate. It shows what you would earn over a year if interest is added and left in the account, so you can compare accounts that pay interest monthly with ones that pay annually. A tracker rate moves with Bank Rate, so the AER on a tracker account changes when the Bank of England changes rates.

It is a temporary extra on top of the standard rate, usually for new customers. Chip's boosts last 12 months: for example, the Smart Cash ISA pays 4.68% AER, made up of the 3.50% AER standard rate plus a 1.18% AER boost. When the boost ends you drop to the standard rate, so that is the figure to compare for the long term.

A flexible ISA lets you take money out and put it back in the same tax year without using up more of your allowance. The ISA allowance this tax year is £20,000. Chip's Smart Cash ISA is a flexible ISA. With a non-flexible ISA, money you withdraw and pay back in counts against the allowance a second time.

Interest in a Cash ISA is tax-free. Outside an ISA, the Personal Savings Allowance lets basic-rate taxpayers earn £1,000 of interest a year tax-free and higher-rate taxpayers £500; additional-rate taxpayers get no allowance. Some people on low incomes can also use the starting rate for savings. Interest above your allowance is taxed at your usual rate.

Most savings apps are not banks, so your money is held with a partner bank and the FSCS protects eligible deposits at that bank, up to £120,000 per person per bank. The limit is per bank, not per app, so if two apps use the same partner bank, they share one limit. For Chip, that means one £120,000 limit across all your ClearBank-held Chip accounts and any other ClearBank account.