Chip have not paid interest, why do Money Saving Expert recommend them?

wiseonesomeofthetime

Despite my gut feelings, I plumped for a Chip Instant Access Savings account in April and have a decdent amount in there at the moment. However!

Today I received my second interest payment, as expected, but not the amount I expected.

The app showed interest earned up to yesterday as a bit over £13. 

Today I was paid £9 ish interest, with £4 ish still shown as pending.

Can anyone with knowledge and experience of how Chip works explain to me (a) is this normal, and (b) if so, why please?

I have tried searching FAQs within the app, or even Chat, and got nowhere.

TIA

masonic

wiseonesomeofthetime said:

Despite my gut feelings, I plumped for a Chip Instant Access Savings account in April and have a decdent amount in there at the moment. However!

Today I received my second interest payment, as expected, but not the amount I expected.

The app showed interest earned up to yesterday as a bit over £13. 

Today I was paid £9 ish interest, with £4 ish still shown as pending.

Can anyone with knowledge and experience of how Chip works explain to me (a) is this normal, and (b) if so, why please?

I have tried searching FAQs within the app, or even Chat, and got nowhere.

TIA

In simple terms, it is because there is a delay between interest arising and it being paid. Today's interest does not cover the period to 5th June, some of this falls into the next monthly period.

wiseonesomeofthetime

masonic said:

wiseonesomeofthetime said:

Despite my gut feelings, I plumped for a Chip Instant Access Savings account in April and have a decdent amount in there at the moment. However!

Today I received my second interest payment, as expected, but not the amount I expected.

The app showed interest earned up to yesterday as a bit over £13. 

Today I was paid £9 ish interest, with £4 ish still shown as pending.

Can anyone with knowledge and experience of how Chip works explain to me (a) is this normal, and (b) if so, why please?

I have tried searching FAQs within the app, or even Chat, and got nowhere.

TIA

In simple terms, it is because there is a delay between interest arising and it being paid. Today's interest does not cover the period to 5th June, some of this falls into the next monthly period.

Thanks @Masonic

Appreciated

boingy

Sidestepping the petty bickering that fills most of this thread, I think the reason for many of the poor Trustpilot reviews is people expecting interest on the first day of the month rather than on the 4th working day of the month. 

I checked my first month of Chip with a fairly basic spreadsheet and the interest was within a few pence of the amount they paid. The T&Cs state that it can take up to three days for deposits to reach Clearbank and start to earn interest so it's hard to calculate exactly. I'm surprised I got as close as I did. All good I reckon. 

AmityNeon

wiseonesomeofthetime said:

Today I received my second interest payment, as expected, but not the amount I expected.

The app showed interest earned up to yesterday as a bit over £13. 

Today I was paid £9 ish interest, with £4 ish still shown as pending.

Can anyone with knowledge and experience of how Chip works explain to me (a) is this normal, and (b) if so, why please?

Chip interest periods run from the last day of month 1 to the second-last day of month 2, and interest is paid on the fourth working day of month 3.

Interest paid today, 6th June, covers 30th April to 30th May.
Interest to be paid on 6th July will cover 31st May to 29th June.

Exodi

wmb194 said:

lumens said:

According to the "Top savings accounts" page, Chip is the best easy-access savings account with a rate of 3.55%. However, there are dozens of reviews on TrustPilot showing that interest is not being received, that customer support isn't reachable, and that people are unable to get their money back: trustpilot.com/review/getchip.uk

Can MSE either get Chip to fix their systems, or stop recommending them? 

Take everything on TrustPilot with a massive pinch of salt and that goes triple for financial services firms as they only ever seem to attract the reviews of people with complaints and misunderstandings.

Can not understate how true this is, and I'd say it extends to pretty much the whole service sector. As an example of a different sector, some of the popular airlines in the UK off the top of my head:

Easyjet 1.4/ 5 - https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/www.easyjet.com
British Airways 1.4 / 5 - https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/www.britishairways.com
Emirates 1.8 / 5 - https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/www.emirates.com
Virgin Atlantic 1.8 / 5 - https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/virginatlantic.com
Lufthansa 1.2 / 5 - https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/www.lufthansa.com
Ryanair 1.4 / 5 - https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/www.ryanair.com
Qatar 1.5 / 5 - https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/www.qatarairways.com

(for completeness TUI and Jet2 actually have relatively good ratings, but I suspect this is probably attributable to their other services).

If you took Trustpilot at face value, you'd assume no airline has ever successfully flown a plane. In reality, most customers experience no issues (but herein lies the problem, no-one is motivate to create good reviews stating "flight went as expected").

masonic

Quite right. You'll also see a marked difference between those companies who pay for the value added services Trustpilot sells to massage the figures vs their competitors who do not.