Chip AI

joeharris230499

Is chip a safe place to save? Been reading many bad reviews and want to be sure I won’t be scammed out of my money. 

tafelmoneysaver

What are you trying to achieve with Chip?

A number of high street and online banks offer auto-sqve options without the £1.50 monthly fee

joeharris230499

Not after the auto save at all, just want to cap the account out at £10k to get the best interest rate 

tafelmoneysaver

For clarity, I've no experience of the platform but at £1.50 per month and 0.75% platform fee to chase 1.25% APR wouldn't be enough for me to switch.

Edit: fixed many typos

eskbanker

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/savings-accounts-best-interest/#chip

The money you put in is fully UK savings-safety protected but the interest you get isn't. Chip has partnered with ClearBank to run its Chip+1 account. As ClearBank has a full UK banking licence, money held there gets the normal UK savings safety protection like other savings. 

With the interest, Chip's actually giving you a marketing bonus for saving. And while your balance will update each time interest is paid out, the cash doesn't go into the ClearBank account – it's held separately, in a ring-fenced high-street bank account.

If you want to protect the interest, you'll need to withdraw ALL your savings and interest, then redeposit it all into your Chip+1 account to get the protection (it's not possible just to withdraw the interest and pay that back in).

tafelmoneysaver

eskbanker said:

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/savings-accounts-best-interest/#chip

The money you put in is fully UK savings-safety protected but the interest you get isn't. Chip has partnered with ClearBank to run its Chip+1 account. As ClearBank has a full UK banking licence, money held there gets the normal UK savings safety protection like other savings. 

With the interest, Chip's actually giving you a marketing bonus for saving. And while your balance will update each time interest is paid out, the cash doesn't go into the ClearBank account – it's held separately, in a ring-fenced high-street bank account.

If you want to protect the interest, you'll need to withdraw ALL your savings and interest, then redeposit it all into your Chip+1 account to get the protection (it's not possible just to withdraw the interest and pay that back in).

That is much clearer than the description on their website :-)

joeharris230499

Thank you everyone, one other question, does anyone have any experience with chip know if I could put £10k in straight away and turn off auto save just to get the most out of the interest?

thegentleway

Takes a few days for the money to go in and you can’t turn off the auto save, just pause it for a while

joeharris230499

thegentleway said:

Takes a few days for the money to go in and you can’t turn off the auto save, just pause it for a while

Thanks, so effectively I can just use it as a savings account and get 1.25% interest on £10k every 90 days?

thegentleway

joeharris230499 said:

thegentleway said:

Takes a few days for the money to go in and you can’t turn off the auto save, just pause it for a while

Thanks, so effectively I can just use it as a savings account and get 1.25% interest on £10k every 90 days?

Pretty much. Although there is a £1.50 fee every 28 (which most savings accounts don’t normally have) so interest rate is more like 1.05% on £10k