Mastering the art of saving is essential if you want to be in control of your finances.
Whether it’s an emergency cash stash in case the boiler breaks, a fun fund to pay for a holiday or a serious pot to save for the deposit on a flat, we’re all saving for something. And most of us wish we saved more.
There are countless apps and online tools to help us with every aspect of personal finance, from budgeting to choosing a mortgage – except saving. For some reason there’s always been a serious lack of tech to help people put money away. That is, until now.
Meet Chip
The first automatic saving app has just launched in the UK. It’s called Chip and it helps with saving in two main ways:
- it works out exactly how much you can afford to save that week, based on your spending; and
- it moves the money for you automatically.
Chip is a pretty nifty app for people who don’t want to spend hours working out their budget and who struggle with the discipline of actually putting money away. It’s a chatbot, which means you open it like you would WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger and speak to Chip like a friend. It definitely makes you smile, with more emojis, GIFs and hashtags than you can shake a stick at.
So, how does it actually work?
- When you create an account, you give Chip read-only access to your current account. That means it can see your transactions
- The algorithm uses your spending data to work out how much money you can afford to save that week.
- When Chip makes a saving for you, it tells your bank to instruct a Direct Debit payment from your current account to your Chip savings account.
You can go into the app and select from a range of pre-set instructions. There’s ‘savings’, to check your balance, ‘spending’, to see how much you’ve spent that month, and ‘live chat’ to speak to a real person.
You can also tell Chip to ‘save more’, ‘save less’, ‘pause’ or manually ‘save’ up to £150 per day. You also have the option to ‘withdraw’ your money any time, and move it back into your current account.
Special interest rate for early users
Chip is brand new, and that means there are some amazing incentives for people who arrive early to the party. The team behind the app are offering a base interest rate of 5% for the first 5,000 people who sign up, with the chance to earn an extra 1% for every friend you refer. That’s up to 10% interest on your savings for a whole year – not even in the same ballpark as most of the big banks.
To take advantage of this deal, you need to click here and enter your phone number. You’ll get a text from Chip with a link to download the app with the special 5% interest rate.
What about security?
Of course, with any financial product or service it’s important to make sure it’s secure before handing over any personal details. We’ve done the research on Chip to save you the job of trawling through the fine print.
- FCA-regulated – Chip is an authorised agent of Prepaid Financial Services, which has an e-money license and is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.
- Hosted by Barclays – your Chip savings account is actually an E-Wallet hosted by Barclays.
- Bank-grade security – your data is encrypted with bank-grade security and Chip does not store your details.
You can read the full details of Chip’s terms of use and security measures on the website.
The verdict
It’s no substitute for a pension, but Chip is great for people trying to build an emergency cash fund or other short-term savings. It’s easy to use and we really like the chatbot interface. With the promotional interest rate, saving with Chip is a no-brainer – click here to download the app.
