Keen to start saving and investing? Good decision – your future self will thank you for it! Let’s take a look at Chip vs Plum and see which is best for you.
Chip and Plum are both apps on your phone, and both help you save more money by connecting to your bank account and working out how much spare cash you can save – this spare cash will be transferred over to their app and either save it or invest it for you, all automatically.
They’re both pretty great, and perfect to help you save money, but which is best? Let’s dive in!
Chip vs Plum: ease of use
Both are available as an app on your phone (Apple and Android devices), so 2 big ticks there.
They both link to your bank to figure out how much you could save, and automatically save that for you, or invest it if you choose.
In terms of the apps themselves, Chip is rated 4.5 out of 5 on Apple, but only 3.5 on Google.
Plum is rated a bit more with 4.7 out of 5 on Apple and 4.6 on the Google Play store. Pretty good!
They’re both super easy to use and straightforward. It’s hard to pick a winner here, but let’s go by the reviews of the apps – with higher ratings for Plum.
Winner: Plum
Chip vs Plum: accounts for cash savings
Here’s where it gets pretty interesting.
With both Chip and Plum, you’ll be able to save cash in return for interest payments, and pretty good interest rates. You can check the latest rates on the Chip website¹ and the Plum website¹.
However, with Chip, they have a cash saving account that gives you the chance to win £10,000 per month, every month. How great is that?
Just add money to your account and a prize draw takes place every month, one lucky winner will get £10,000. There’s also £2,500 worth of additional prizes too. As long as you have £100 saved in your account, you’ll be entered, and the more money saved, the more chances you have of winning.
Learn more about the Prize Savings Account on the Chip website¹.
If you don’t fancy that account, they also have a standard savings account that pays a set amount of interest, and to earn more interest, you can ‘lock’ your money away for 90 days (you can’t withdraw it).
With Plum, you’ve got a single account that offers an okay rate of interest. And it’s ‘easy access’ which means you can withdraw your cash whenever you need it (although you might need to allow a few days).
Within the Plum account you can then create ‘pockets’ to save for specific things such as a holiday. And there’s other features to help you save more such as automatically save more money when it rains (for a rainy day fund).
But overall, it’s simply an account that pays interest, just like any other savings account.
The chance to win £10,000 every month? We have to give this one to Chip!
Winner: Chip
Chip vs Plum: investment options
The core investment options with both are investment funds – which are a group of investments combined together, such as stocks and shares (where you own a tiny part of the company).
With Plum, there’s 21 funds to choose from, with a range of different themes. Such as technology companies, healthcare companies, or just British or American companies. There’s also 3 options for ethical investing (investments that don’t harm the planet), which we love.
You can also buy stocks and shares from over 1,000 individual companies too. So you could add a specific company, such as Apple, to your portfolio (all of your investments combined together), in addition to the funds.
With both, your money will be a risk, which means the value of your investments can go up and down over time.
Nut About Money tip: if you are looking to trade stocks and shares frequently, it’s often best to use an investment platform).
You can invest via a standard account (no tax benefits), or a Stock and Shares ISA (tax-free), and also a pension (self-invested personal pension), which is a sensible idea to boost savings for retirement, the government will even give you a 25% bonus for free!
Nut About Money tip: check out PensionBee¹ for pensions too – they make pensions super easy and handle everything for you. Here’s our PensionBee review to learn more.
With Chip, there’s also a range of funds to choose from, which have themes too, such as clean energy and healthcare. You can even invest in gold and crypto companies.
Nut About Money tip: if you want to invest in crypto directly, check out the best crypto exchanges.
Chip also makes things a bit easier if you don’t know what you’re doing. There’s also 3 simple options: a cautious, balanced or adventurous option – which are all managed by experts for long-term growth.
However, you can’t buy individual stocks of companies, and there’s no pension option. Just a standard account or a Stocks & Shares ISA.
It’s a close call, especially with the investment fund options. But with the ability to buy individual stocks and shares and to invest in a pension, we’re giving this to Plum.
Winner: Plum
Chip vs Plum: fees
Fees can often be a bit complicated with investment apps. And Chip and Plum are no different unfortunately!
First of all, let’s start by saying all of the cash savings accounts have no fees! Whoop. Including the Prize Savings Account¹ from Chip (the £10,000 prize one).
With Chip, there’s a free account to get started with investing, but you won’t be able to open a Stocks and Shares ISA, and there’s only the 3 core investment options.
On this 'free' plan, you’ll pay 0.5% on however much money is invested (with a minimum of £1 per month).
However, the real benefits are with the ChipX plan, which is £4.99 every 28 days, and you get everything – a tax-free ISA, and the full range of funds. Plus, the 0.5% fee on your investments is removed.
With Plum, there’s also a free account, but you can’t invest in investment funds, only individual stocks (and only a limited range). To access the full range of funds you need to sign up to a plan with a monthly fee (there’s 3 plans: £2.99, £4.99 and £9.99 per month).
Each plan has slightly more features, and only with the £9.99 per month plan can you get access to the full range of funds and individual stocks.
There’s also fees on the amount you invest, which is 0.45%.
With both Chip and Plum, there’s also fees within the investment fund itself. And this depends on which fund(s) you choose and can range from 0.06% to 1.06%.
That was confusing right? The main cost they both charge is the monthly fees. If you just want to save and invest, Plum is cheaper at £2.99 per month (plus investment fees). So, we’re going to give this one to Plum.
However, each plan is slightly different and suits different people, so we recommend having a look at all the features on both the Chip website¹ and Plum website¹.
Winner: Plum
Chip vs Plum: customer reviews
To get an idea of customer service and how customers are enjoying both apps, let’s look at the customer reviews. We’re going to use the popular reviews website, Trustpilot.
Chip has a rating of 3.9 out of 5, from over 1,000 reviews. That’s okay, in fact it’s classed as great by Trustpilot. Lot’s of the reviews are positive and mention how good the app is, however there are a few negative reviews from some people not understanding that it will take money from your bank account to help you save (if you allow it to).
With Plum, it has a score of 4.4 out of 5, from over 4,200 reviews. That’s excellent. Customers love Plum and are praising the auto saving feature.
Plum has run away with it this round, well done Plum!
Winner: Plum
Chip vs Plum: the winner
So there we have it, Plum is the overall winner!
Both apps are great at helping you save more, and they both help you invest your money if you want to (so your money could grow much more in future).
They’re both super easy to get started and the apps themselves are great on both Apple and Android.
And both offer an easy way to build up your savings, and earn a good interest rate on your cash savings.
Overall however, if you’re looking to invest your money rather than just save cash. Plum comes out on top.
Plum is slightly cheaper than Chip each month (although you can upgrade to a higher priced option if you want even more features), and Plum offers the ability to buy individual company stocks and shares, alongside investment funds.
Plus, with Plum, you can invest via a personal pension, alongside a Stocks & Shares ISA. We highly recommend saving within a pension to boost your retirement income (only money you don’t mind being locked away). You’ll also get a 25% bonus from the government on everything you put in (with all pensions).
However if you’re only looking to save for a pension, there are better options out there. Check out PensionBee¹ and our best personal pensions for the full range of options.
So overall, for us, Plum is the winner here! But Chip is a close second, and there’s really not too much between them. We recommend checking them both out and see which one you prefer.
Here’s the Plum website¹ and the Chip website¹ to learn more and get started.
Happy saving!
