In this article we look at the eligibility and costs of Chip Investments.
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​Please note: Chip can't provide financial advice so you may want to seek guidance from a qualified professional if you are unsure or have detailed questions around investing. Your capital is at risk.

Subject to our usual eligibility criteria (see more at getchip.uk/terms) the investment funds will be available to all Chip customers on the Chip and ChipX plans.
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You need to have fully connected your bank to Chip using Open Banking permissions before you can open an investment account and move money into an investment fund.
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​What do I need to open an investment account?
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You can start investing with as little as £1. The only thing you’ll need to hand is your National Insurance number.
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You won’t need to enter any other details, as you will have already fully connected your bank to Chip and entered your address and other details we need to pre-approve you for investing before we make Chip investment funds available to you.
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​Why do I need to enter my National Insurance number?
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If you want to open an investment account, your National Insurance number is required by HMRC for tax purposes to open an ISA, and we also need it to fulfil our regulatory obligations to identify you. We reserve the right to request additional information to verify your identity.
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It’s up to you which type of Investment Account you want to open.
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Stocks and Shares ISAs are tax efficient, which means you don’t need to pay tax on any interest, dividends or capital gains on money invested into an ISA. However, currently you can only put £20,000 into an ISA in any given tax year (which generally runs from April to April). The Government determines ISA allowances and that allowance may change in future.
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Just note there are eligibility criteria to open an ISA, and if you’ve already opened and deposited into a Stocks and Shares ISA in this tax year, you can’t open a second one. We explain more about ISAs here.
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GIAs do not offer any tax free allowances and you can put as much money as you like into a GIA. They are generally used by individuals who have already maxed out their ISA allowance for the year, or have an existing ISA of the same type with another provider (which they have already contributed to in the current tax year).
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The platform fee is what you pay to Chip so we can bring investment funds to you in an accessible and easy to manage account.
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Platform fees are a standard charge across the industry, and most retail investment platforms and banks will have them. They take the form of an annual percentage on the value of your investments including any growth, but are charged on a monthly basis.
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It’s called a platform fee because it’s what we charge to use our ‘platform’. Provided your balance in any investment fund is above £1 and you're on the free Chip plan, we will charge a platform fee.
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You will be able to see when a platform fee has been taken in your contract notes, and will have full visibility on the amount paid in your Quarterly Valuation Report.
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Please note that from 12 October 2022, fee changes are applicable. For more information on what's changed, please click here.

You can access the platform on our free Chip plan or ChipX (£5.99/28 days or £4.99/28 days if paid annually). To read about the benefits of each membership plan, please see our pricing page here.
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We reserve the right to amend these fees with two months’ notice. Please note additional fund management charges apply, charged directly by the relevant fund manager, but these will vary from fund to fund.
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