What are goals?
Goals are Chip's way to help you stay motivated while you save and keep track of your progress with a visual representation.
When you set up a goal, Chip will keep track of your saving and let you know how close you are to achieving the amount determined by you. You'll see a "Completed" section in the goals tab where you can see everything you've successfully saved for in the past!
Does my money move into the goal?
No, your entire balance is still within your selected Chip accounts. Goals are an entirely visual way of keeping track of your saving targets without having to move savings out of interest-bearing accounts etc. Think of them as a sort of progress bar rather than a separate account or pot.
Since goals are purely visual, you're free to delete them at any time and this will not have any impact on your savings or balance. Additionally, any money towards your goal is not an additional balance. Your total balance as seen at the top of the home page will always be the accurate number.
How does Chip know how long it will take me to hit my goal?
Chip looks at your average spending and saving patterns to predict how long it will take to save up a certain amount. If you are new to Chip, it uses the last 90 days of spending data to work out how much you’re likely to save. The countdown might change as your automatic saving reacts to your spending behaviour.
Setting up a goal
To set up a goal, head to the Goals tab at the bottom bar of the app. Next, you'll see the option to "Create a goal" at the top of the page. Start by naming your goal or choosing one of the prewritten names, then tap Next. Here you can specify the amount you want to save. Once you click next, if you have existing savings you'll be prompted to choose how much you'd like to allocate to the goal, so you don't have to start from £0. Once done, the goal has been created!
On the next page, you can choose to amend further settings, such as your target date, the goal photo and your automatic save allocation.
Target Date: If you choose a target date then Chip will let you know whether you are on track to complete your goal by this date based on your spending habits.
Allocation: The allocation percentage you choose will determine what percentage of your saves will contribute towards your goal. This means that if you have multiple goals, you can have saves contribute towards more than one. This is set to 20% by default.