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The Chip Glossary
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Written by Ryan
Updated over a month ago

A complete list of Chip terminology!

Accounts statements

These are for your savings accounts and can be found in the Profile tab in the app. Statements detail interest or bonus accrued as well as all your withdrawals and deposits each month.

Autosave

This is a save calculated using open banking technology by our AI and taken every four days into an account or fund of your choice. You can amend your autosave settings in the Profile tab by clicking on the Savings Plans section. Autosaves are charged at £0.45 per save if you're on the Chip basic plan and are free if you're on ChipX. You can read more about how autosaves work here

BlackRock

Many of the investment funds we offer are managed by the fund manager BlackRock. BlackRock is the world’s largest asset manager. They invest your money across multiple different assets, with the aim of earning returns. You can read more about BlackRock here

Capital at risk

You will see this message concerning investment funds:

​'Remember your Capital is at Risk and past performance is not a reliable guide to future returns. The value of your investment can go down as well as up and you might get back less than you originally invested.'

Risk is inherent to investing. Generally the higher the returns the greater the risk to your money. We display this message in regards to the investment funds offered to make it clear that investment funds are not the same as savings accounts and that when investing in a fund, you may get back less than you put in. You can read more about risk on our help page here.

​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.

Card/Bank connection

We ask that you connect both your card and bank account on the Profile tab in the Chip app. This way, you'll be able to utilise all of the Chip features and functions and be able to deposit and withdraw with ease. You can read more about card/bank connections here

Chip Cash ISA

An ISA (Individual Savings Account) is an account that allows tax-free savings or investments up to a sum of £20,000 per annum (the allowance refreshes with the new financial year).

Powered by ClearBank, the Chip Cash ISA is a tax-efficient ISA offered by Chip. This is a flexible ISA that can be accessed on the Chip app in the Savings tab. The Chip Cash ISA has a tracker rate. This means the gross interest rate is variable and tracks below the current Bank of England base rate. You can read more about the Chip Cash ISA here.

Please note that Chip does not provide tax advice or financial advice and tax treatment depends on individual circumstances and may be subject to change in the future.

Chip Easy Access Account

Powered by ClearBank, the Chip Easy Access Account provides near-instant deposits and withdrawals and can hold a balance of up to £85,000. All this while the funds you deposit are protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) up to £85,000*.

The Chip Easy Access Account allows for 3 penalty-free withdrawals in each 12-month period. If you exceed 3 withdrawals in a 12-month period, your interest rate will be reduced for the remainder of those 12 months. Please note that transfers to other Chip Savings Accounts (such as the Prize Savings Account, Chip Cash ISA and Chip Instant Access Account) also count as withdrawals from the Chip Easy Access.

This account has a tracker rate. This means the gross interest rate is variable and tracks below the current Bank of England base rate. The reduced rate is variable and also tracks below the current Bank of England base rate.

You can read more about the Chip Easy Access Account here.

Chip Instant Access Account

Powered by ClearBank, the Chip Instant Access account provides near-instant deposits and withdrawals and can hold a balance of up to £1 million. The Chip Instant Access Account has a tracker rate. This means the gross interest rate is variable and tracks below the current Bank of England base rate.

You can read more about the Chip Instant Access Account here

Chip+1 Account

This is a legacy savings account. If you currently hold a balance in this account, you can click here for more information on what to do. Our Chip+1 account is now closed to both new customers and new deposits.

ClearBank

ClearBank is a purpose-built, technology-enabled clearing bank. ClearBank enables its partners to offer real-time payment and innovative banking services to their customers. ClearBank provides both the Prize Savings Account and the Chip Instant Access Account. ClearBank legal information can be found here

Compound interest

The Chip Instant Access Account, Chip Easy Access Account and the Chip Cash ISA all offer compound interest. This means you earn interest on your interest.

The FCA

The FCA (Financial Conduct Authority) is a financial regulatory body in the United Kingdom that operates independently of the UK Government. Chip is regulated by the FCA and you can find us on the FCA register. You can find out more about the FCA here

The FSCS and FSCS protection

The FSCS (Financial Services Compensation Scheme) provides protection for customers of failed financial services firms. All of our savings accounts are FSCS protected up to £85,000. For more information, you can click here

Fund

An investment fund is a pool of capital that belongs to multiple different investors. Rather than each investor making decisions on how their assets are invested, a fund manager will oversee the fund and decide on which investments to make.

Chip offers an investment platform on which you can buy and sell a range of investment funds. We’re offering funds from the largest fund manager in the world, BlackRock. All of our funds (including a fund description) can be found in the Funds section in the Invest tab on the app.

General Investment Account (GIA)

The GIA is one of two ways in which you can purchase units in your selected investment fund(s). Unlike with the Stock and Shares ISA, users are welcome to hold a GIA with multiple providers and there is no maximum balance you can hold. You can access the General Investment Account by clicking on the Invest tab on the app. You can read more about how our investment platform works here

Goals

Goals are Chip's way to help you stay motivated while you save and keep track of your progress with a visual representation. Please bear in mind that Goals are just a visual aid and that your entire balance is still within your selected Chip savings accounts. You can read more about Goals here

Investment statements

When you invest in a fund, Chip will provide you with quarterly valuation statements for your investment funds. Here you will see the portfolio value, as well as any growth and fees on your account. You can access these on the app in the Profile tab.

Min. bank balance

If you don't want your autosaves to take your bank balance below a certain amount, you can set a minimum bank balance. The app will stop making autosaves for you when your bank account balance is about to fall below this amount. You can set and amend this by going to the Profile tab and clicking Savings Plans > Auto-save settings > Min. bank balance.

Open banking

Open banking is the secure way in which Chip accesses your financial data. Chip uses a provider called Truelayer to connect your current account to Chip through an ‘Open Banking API’. You can read more about how Open Banking works here

Overdraft Saving

If you would like to continue to save while you're in your overdraft, you just need to turn on your overdraft saves. Just head to the Profile tab, then select Savings Plans > Auto-save settings > Overdraft Saving. Here you can set a limit that you're comfortable with.

Plans

We offer two plans at Chip:

  • Chip is our free plan that gives you access to all of our FSCS-protect savings accounts, the Stocks and Shares ISA and General Investment Account, and some of our investment funds.

  • ChipX is our premium membership plan that allows you access to exclusive investment funds. You're also free from paying any autosave or platform fees when you're on this plan. This is charged at either £4.99 every 28 days (paid annually at £65.05), or £5.99 if paid in instalments every 28 days.

You can find a breakdown of our plans on our pricing and fees page here. To change or view your membership plan just head to the Profile tab and select Your membership > Change or view plans.

Platform fees

These fees are standard 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 and they are charged monthly. These fees only apply if you're on the Chip basic plan and if you hold a balance above £1 in any investment fund.

If you’re on the free standard plan, you will be charged a platform fee of 0.25% (£1 monthly minimum) for the Stocks and Shares ISA and the General Investment Account.

Please note that annual management fees still apply.

Prizes

The returns from the Prize Savings Account come in the form of prizes. We offer one £10,000 grand prize and hundreds of smaller prizes from £10 to £100.

Prize Savings Account

Powered by ClearBank, this is a non-interest-bearing account offering over £10,000 in prizes. Instead of buying tickets to enter, your entries are determined by your average balance. As long as you have an average balance of £100 or over for the month, you'll be entered. Every £10 you hold in the account counts as an entry into the draw. This account can be found in the Savings tab on the app. You can read more about how the Prize Savings Account works here

Recurring Save

This is a type of save set up by you to be taken on a weekly, fortnightly or monthly basis. You can choose the amount of the save and what day of the week you want it to be taken. You can set up a recurring save by going to the Profile tab in your Chip app and selecting Savings Plans > Recurring Saves > Add a Recurring Save. You can read more about Recurring Saves here

Referrals

Chip often runs campaigns offering cash rewards for referring new users to Chip. Our referral scheme is not currently active; however, when it is, you can refer a friend in the app by going to the Profile tab and clicking Promos & Referrals > Add a friend to Chip. Here you can see the referral criteria and your unique referral code.

Seccl

Seccl Custody Limited acts as the custodian for the money held in a Stocks and Shares ISA or General Investment Account with Chip. Seccl are FCA regulated and you can read more about them here

Secure Login

You can help protect your account by setting up secure login on your Chip app. You can activate this by going to the Profile tab and clicking on Secure login. Once set up, you will require a PIN, FaceID, or fingerprint to be able to access your app. Having secure login set up also means you will be logged out automatically whenever you close the app.

For security purposes, you should not store a record of your PIN on your phone or any other device which can access the Chip app.

Stocks & Shares ISA

An ISA (Individual Savings Account) is an account that allows tax-free savings or investments up to a sum of £20,000 per annum (the allowance refreshes with the new financial year).

The Stocks and Shares ISA is a tax-efficient ISA offered by Chip. This is a flexible ISA which means that you have the freedom to withdraw money from it and then pay it back in at a later date (within the same tax year), without it counting towards your annual £20,000 ISA allowance. You can access the Stocks and Shares ISA in the Invest tab on the app. You can read more about the Stocks and Shares ISA here

TrueLayer

TrueLayer is our trusted payment provider which, through open banking technology, allows us to securely connect to your bank account. By partnering with TrueLayer, we're able to offer faster processing times, and deposits via bank transfer are more secure. You can read more about TrueLayer here

Units

When you put your money into an investment fund, you are not simply depositing cash you can easily access, you are actually buying units of that fund. When you want to withdraw from a fund, you need to sell your fund units. When withdrawing, you can select how many fund units you want to sell and we’ll give you a cash value estimate based on the day’s fund unit price. It's worth bearing in mind that the units will be sold within the next 2 working days, so the funds you receive may be slightly lower or higher than the estimate given.

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