CHIP Weirdness?

TiVo_Lad

I'm considering open a CHIP Instant Access Savings account post 11th Feb 2023 when they ditch the bonus and start paying interest properly. Having reviewed the updated Terms and Conditions (https://global-uploads.webflow.com/5d65390243727621f8413d93/63bec020044ddccaca12cf88_Chip Instant Access Terms and Conditions EFFECTIVE.pdf and https://global-uploads.webflow.com/5d65390243727621f8413d93/63bec0d02cb46385b96e8dd0_Chip Instant Access ClearBank Terms February 2023.pdf) it appears they're moving much more towards operating in a "traditional" way that we've come to expect of other financial institutions, but wanted to check with those that already use CHIP:

1. Are deposits that are sent via Faster Payments received and processed immediately? There's some wording in the T's and C's that talks about delays in pushing money to ClearBank, but I wondered whether this was their normal way of operating, or are they there as a "just in case" and ordinarily transfers would happen quickly (at worst overnight)?
2. Are withdrawals normally processed immediately (there appears to be a 5:30pm cut off, which is fine).
3. Any other weirdness that I need to be aware of?
   

I use Atom, Tandem and Zopa today (depending on their interest rates) and they work well with no real issues, but as I've seen comments in the Forums in the past about CHIP issues and unusual ways of working, I wanted to be sure CHIP was a good comparitor to the likes of Atom, Tandem and Zopa.

grumbler

I opened an account recently and for my first deposit only card deposit option was available. Possibly, it was because there was no bank account linked to my Chip account. My understanding is that 'linking' means open banking. Now, I have 'Deposit by bank transfer' option, but Chip ask me to enter the amount. It seems that they want to 'pull' money using open banking. And I see neither my account number nor a sort code for 'pushing' money from another bank.

BTW, the balance shows £5000, but the corresponding Friday's card deposit is still shown as 'processing'.

ETA: don't forget TCB, but I don't understand how they can track it because you install and use the app for applying.

Band7

There's two sides to CHIP - their instant access account and all their other stuff (which is full of gizmos I have no interest in). Most of their T&Cs refer to their other stuff.

Their instant access account is much simpler than their other stuff, and is already much like any other instant access account. Once they replace the Bonus with Interest, it's just a normal FSCS protected savings account. Deposits via Open Banking are more or less instant, and so are withdrawals, 24 x 7 (so they are much better than most other instant access accounts). If you choose to deposit by card, it takes 3 days before you get any interest - so this isn't an option I use. There is no option to make a Faster Payment from your current account to CHIP, and you can only link one current account. Changing linked account requires contacting CHIP, so choose wisely.

Other things to know:

• they cheekily turn on auto-saving for the instant access account by default. If you don't want this gizmo, which they charge you for, you need to pro-actively turn it off. I can't remember any longer how to do this but I managed to turn it off. so it isn't too difficult to do
  
  
• different banks seem to have different limits for CHIP / Open Banking (Truelayer). I can do £15,000 per transaction on Santander but somebody else said their limit at Barclays is just £2,000 or £3,000, can't remember the exact number. Santander still let you do up to £100,000 a day overall.
  
  
• My first attempt to pull £15k in from Santander resulted in my entire Santander account access to be instantly blocked, and some drama to get the block removed. I did describe it in the Easy Access thread if you want to know the details. I have since done lots of deposits and withdrawals between Santander and CHIP, with no further issues.

Even with the current Bonus drawback, CHIP is by a long way my favourite easy/instant access account, and they will stay so for as long as they are leading the pack interest-rate-wise

Band7

grumbler said:

  Now, I have 'Deposit by bank transfer' option, but Chip ask me to enter the amount. It seems that they want to 'pull' money using open banking. And I see neither my account number nor a sort code for 'pushing' money from another bank.

 

If you are not familiar with the pull-in via Open Banking, give it a try with a Pound or five, to get a feel for how it works.

There's no option for making a deposit by 'normal' payment from a current account.

I use a dedicated, secondary, current account as my linked account for CHIP as I don't like them snooping through my main current account. Other than that, I love the pulling-in via Open Banking because there's no faffing about with payees, and the money arrives at the right destination first time.

pecunianonolet

There is also a bit of cashback to get if you open and fund with 5k 
https://www.topcashback.co.uk/chip-loans/

Good hint to use a secondary current account to be linked with them to stop snooping. 

TiVo_Lad

The snooping via Open Banking is an interesting observation that I hadn't picked up on, so thanks all for that information.

There seems to be a suggestion that you can restrict what data can be accessed via Open Banking and was wondering whether you can tighten things up so they have enough access to perform transactions, but can't do anything further either by opting out via the CHIP app, or restricting it in the Current Account?

Band7

TiVo_Lad said:

 

There seems to be a suggestion that you can restrict what data can be accessed via Open Banking and was wondering whether you can tighten things up so they have enough access to perform transactions, but can't do anything further either by opting out via the CHIP app, or restricting it in the Current Account?

It depends on what the company who uses OB offers you. Some give you a mix between mandatory and optional data, others won't let you choose. 

CHIP collect a whole bunch of data. I can't remember whether I had a choice of what they collate but don't think they ask. They just grab what they can. Which isn't much from me, as I have a dedicated account for CHIP



General OB info: https://www.moneyhelper.org.uk/en/everyday-money/banking/open-banking-and-sharing-your-online-banking-information

Band7

Official FAQ for the instant access account: https://intercom.help/get-chip/en/articles/6704960-the-chip-instant-access-account-faq


I also found a blog with the limits per bank. So the £15k limit is a CHIP limit - but it's per transaction and you can do multiples in short succession.



On a general note: their FAQ and Blog is excellent, and there's also a CHIP community forum 

flaneurs_lobster

Band7 said:

TiVo_Lad said:

 

There seems to be a suggestion that you can restrict what data can be accessed via Open Banking and was wondering whether you can tighten things up so they have enough access to perform transactions, but can't do anything further either by opting out via the CHIP app, or restricting it in the Current Account?

It depends on what the company who uses OB offers you. Some give you a mix between mandatory and optional data, others won't let you choose. 

CHIP collect a whole bunch of data. I can't remember whether I had a choice of what they collate but don't think they ask. They just grab what they can. Which isn't much from me, as I have a dedicated account for CHIP



General OB info: https://www.moneyhelper.org.uk/en/everyday-money/banking/open-banking-and-sharing-your-online-banking-information

It doesn't mention the permission given to take payments from the account which is perhaps the most intrusive. 

k_man

flaneurs_lobster said:

Band7 said:

TiVo_Lad said:

 

There seems to be a suggestion that you can restrict what data can be accessed via Open Banking and was wondering whether you can tighten things up so they have enough access to perform transactions, but can't do anything further either by opting out via the CHIP app, or restricting it in the Current Account?

It depends on what the company who uses OB offers you. Some give you a mix between mandatory and optional data, others won't let you choose. 

CHIP collect a whole bunch of data. I can't remember whether I had a choice of what they collate but don't think they ask. They just grab what they can. Which isn't much from me, as I have a dedicated account for CHIP



General OB info: https://www.moneyhelper.org.uk/en/everyday-money/banking/open-banking-and-sharing-your-online-banking-information

It doesn't mention the permission given to take payments from the account which is perhaps the most intrusive. 

That isn't how this type of Open Banking payment works, it is less a pull, and more an initiated push.

Chip doesn't have permission to pull money, instead it uses an Open Banking connection (via a third party, Truelayer) to launch your bank banking app (or website) with Faster Payment details already completed (ETA: with destination account details obscured in an Open Banking token) which you then OK.

So it is still you, via your bank's app, that makes the payment.

Band7

k_man said:

That isn't how this type of Open Banking payment works, it is less a pull, and more an initiated push.

Chip doesn't have permission to pull money, instead it uses an Open Banking connection (via a third party, Truelayer) to launch your bank banking app (or website) with Faster Payment details already completed (ETA: with destination account details obscured in an Open Banking token) which you then OK.

So it is still you, via your bank's app, that makes the payment.

Except if you choose to use the auto-save gizmo. Whilst you still need to authorise that they can take money from your account, this works in the background, without you having to authorise these transactions individually. Somewhat akin to variable amount DDs but without the DD guarantee. CHIP are using Truelayer for autosaving, too.