Chip wins this one! Although Moneybox has a wider range of investment accounts (such as Lifetime ISA and a pension), Chip has an great savings account with one of the top savings rates out there. Plus, a better range of funds to invest in and becomes cheaper as you save. Chip wins!
Looking to save and grow your money by investing it? Sensible. Your future self will thank you for it.
Let’s take a look at Chip vs Moneybox and see which is right for you.
Overall, they’re both great apps that offer saving accounts and easy to understand investing (one of the best ways to save and grow your money). But which is best? Let’s find out.
Chip vs Moneybox: ease of use
As Chip and Money are both apps on your phone, it’s super easy to get started and start saving. Two ticks there.
They’re both available on Apple and Android. And in terms of the apps themselves, Chip has a rating of 4.5 out of 5 on Apple, but only 3.5 on Google.
Moneybox has a rating of 4.8 on Apple and 4.8 on Google too.
They both link to your bank account, however Chip will work out how much you could save and send this money to the Chip app automatically. While Moneybox rounds up your spare change when you spend it and sends the left over amount to their app to save and invest.
With this in mind, you’ll probably save a bit more money with Chip. With Moneybox you'll have to manually add money if you want to build up your savings to a good level, and we know this can be hard! So, we’re giving this round to Chip, it’s easier to save more.
Winner: Chip
Chip vs Moneybox: savings accounts
Here’s where the two apps are a bit different.
Chip has one of the best savings accounts in the UK – it's always one of the top savings rates. If you only want to save cash (not invest), it's likely you won't find a better option. Visit the Chip website¹ to find out the current interest rate.
Chip also has a really cool Prize Savings Account. With this, when you save money, you could win £10,000 every month. All you have to do is have £100 in your savings account, and you’ll get more entries with more savings. Pretty great right?
There’s also £2,500 per month in additional prizes given out as £10 each. And you can win more than once. Learn more about the Prize Savings Account on the Chip website¹.
With Moneybox there’s more options, they have several accounts. The main account is a simple savings account where you earn interest, however you can also choose to ‘lock up’ your cash for a certain period of time in exchange for a higher interest rate (these are called notice accounts).
You can choose 32 days, 45 days, 95 days or 120 days, and each one has a higher interest rate. (You can’t take the cash out before this). However, the interest rate is typically lower than Chip's easy access savings account.
Overall both good savings options, but Chip wins this with their high savings rates.
Winner: Chip
Chip wins!
Chip has one of the top savings accounts in the UK (highest savings rate). Learn more on the Chip website.
Investing on both platforms are similar, you have the choice of investing in investment funds, which are groups of investments combined (normally stocks and shares, which is where you own a tiny part of the company).
With Chip, there’s a wide range of investment options, and these can have a theme, such as clean energy or healthcare companies. And there’s even options to invest in gold or cryptocurrency companies. But our favourite is ethical investments (no harm on the environment).
Nut About Money tip: if you’re looking to invest in crypto, check out the best crypto exchanges.
There’s 3 easy investment options with Chip too, for those who aren’t quite sure what they’re doing. Which are: cautious, balanced and adventurous. And these are all managed by experts for long-term growth (where they will grow your money over the long timeframe).
You can invest within a standard account, or you can invest within a Stocks & Shares ISA and get lovely tax-free benefits (highly recommended).
With Moneybox, it’s pretty similar. You have a wide range of investment funds to choose from, however they are slightly broader, and you won’t find themed investments such as crypto companies. They are more based around the top companies in either the UK, US or across the world.
Moneybox also offers 3 easy investment options, just like Chip. These are called ‘Starting Options’ and are also called cautious, balanced and adventurous. These can also be socially responsible too, which means they don’t harm the planet (or the people in it, us!).
So, very similar! However, Moneybox has a much wider range of account options. There’s a standard account and a Stocks and Shares ISA, just like Chip, but there’s also personal pension, a Junior ISA (save for your kids) and a Lifetime ISA (save for your first home).
Saving and investing within a personal pension (self-invested personal pension), can give a massive boost to your retirement income in the future – as saving is tax free, and you get a 25% bonus from the government.
Nut About Money tip: if you’re just looking to open a pension, there could be better options for you. Check out our best personal pensions and 5 star rated PensionBee¹ (here’s our PensionBee review).
A Lifetime ISA is perfect for saving for your first home – you get a 25% bonus from the government too, and saving is tax-free.
And a Junior ISA helps save for your kids future, with everything tax-free.
With all those accounts, Moneybox is the clear winner here! Although if you only want to invest within a Stocks and Shares ISA, you might want to consider Chip¹, as they might have more of the investment funds you might want.
Winner: Moneybox
Chip vs Moneybox: fees
Let’s talk about everyone’s favourite topic, how much it cost. Unfortunately it can get pretty complicated with investment apps but we're here to simplify it as much as possible.
Overall, they’re relatively similar cost wise. However, once you start saving some fairly big numbers, for instance more than £15,000, Chip becomes much cheaper (as you pay a monthly fee rather than a percentage of your investments).
If you are just looking to save your cash, all the savings accounts are free with both apps!
When it comes to investing, Chip’s basic account is free, but you won’t be able to open a Stocks & Shares ISA. And you'll only have access to the 3 core investment options.
However, with the ‘free’ plan, you’ll pay 0.5% on the total of your investments per year (with a minimum of £1 per month).
The real benefits with Chip is their ChipX plan – you’ll get the full range of investment options and the tax-free ISA. It costs £4.99 per month, and the 0.5% fee on your investments is removed.
With Moneybox, you’ll first pay £1 per month for your account, and then you’ll pay 0.45% on the total of your investments per year.
And for both platforms, you’ll pay a fee for the investment fund itself, which can range from 0.06% to 1% – it all depends on which funds you want to invest in.
Chip stays the same price even when you save more, whereas Moneybox fees will increase. So for that reason, we’re giving this round to Chip.
Winner: Chip
Chip vs Moneybox: customer reviews
To get a good idea of the customer service and what customers really think, we looked at customer reviews. And to do that, we’ll use the popular reviews website, Trustpilot.
Chip has a rating of 3.9 out of 5, from over 1,000 reviews. That's okay. Well, it’s great according to Trustpilot. A lot of the reviews are very positive and they think the app is great. However, there’s a few issues with customers not understanding money will come out of their bank account automatically (that’s the savings feature).
With Moneybox, the rating is 4.5 out of 5. From over 1,000 reviews. That’s really great. Lot’s of the reviews are about how good the Lifetime ISA is, and making saving for your first home super easy (and the government bonus of course!).
There’s a pretty clear winner here then, that’s Moneybox.
Winner: Moneybox
Chip vs Moneybox: the winner
It’s close, but we’re giving this to Chip!
Although Moneybox is great for savings and investing, and has a wider range of investment accounts, such as a pension, Lifetime ISA and Junior ISA (in addition to the Stocks & Shares ISA, which Chip has), overall it doesn’t quite compare to Chip.
If you're looking for a Lifetime ISA, Moneybox tops our list of best Lifetime ISAs. However, if you're after a Junior ISA check out Moneyfarm¹ or read our best Junior ISAs article.
Chip has a wider range of investment funds, with more specific options, such as cryptocurrency companies, whereas Moneybox has more general options, with just large funds.
And as your savings and investments grow, Chip also becomes cheaper than Moneybox, as it has a flat monthly fee, rather than a fee based on your total investments.
And, when it comes to saving cash, Chip has a near unbeatable savings rate – and you can get your money back in minutes.
Plus, Chip will build up your savings quite a bit quicker, by working out how much you can afford to save and send this over to your savings account. Moneybox will just round up your spare change.
Overall, both are great, and both help you save more (and invest too), but if we had to pick a winner, it’s Chip.
