Chip vs Moneybox - which is best? (2024)

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 can both link to your bank account (if you want them to), and 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.

They’re both pretty handy features to save a bit more than otherwise might think you could.

Overall though, as they’re based on mobile, the app experience needs to be great, and Moneybox comes out top on both Apple and Android phones, so we’re giving this one to Moneybox.

Winner: Moneybox

Chip vs Moneybox: savings accounts

Here’s where the two apps are a bit different.

Moneybox has one of the best savings rates in the UK, for a Cash ISA – that’s where you can save your money (up to £20,000 per year), and not pay any tax, ever!

To find out the exact interest rate, check on the Moneybox website¹ (it varies over time).

They also offer a wide range of ‘regular’ savings accounts that have great interest rates too, for instance an easy access account where you can withdraw your money the next day.

You can also ‘lock’ your money away for a period of time in exchange for a higher interest rate, and you’ll need to give ‘notice’ to get your money back out (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.

With Chip, there’s also a Cash ISA, but the rate isn’t quite as good as Moneybox, but they have a great instant access savings account with a great rate (it varies over time) – that’s where you can get your cash out the same day if you need to (but not tax-free). For the exact rate, check on the Chip website¹.

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.

It sounds cool, but it could be worth simply playing the lottery for the chance to win a much bigger prize.

Overall then, we can’t not give this one to Moneybox with the best interest rate out there!

Winner: Moneybox

Chip vs Moneybox: investment options

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.

Winner: Moneybox

Chip vs Moneybox: fees

Let’s talk about everyone’s favourite topic with investing, the fees. 

Before we get any further, there’s no fees for saving cash (e.g. with a Moneybox Cash ISA¹, or Chip Instant Savings Account¹) – so if you’re only interested in saving cash, and not investing, you can skip this bit – we’ll call this one a draw.

With investing, 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 cheaper (as you pay a monthly fee rather than a percentage of your investments).

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 – so not great.

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 £78 per year, so only really makes sense when you’re saving over £15,000 (and really, a lot more).

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. 

With a pension this reduces to 0.15% on anything you save over £100,000 (if you’re lucky enough to!).

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.

We said it was a bit complicated right? 

Overall then, as both apps are really designed for those just starting out saving, you’re probably not going to have saved up to £15,000 or more, which makes Moneybox the cheaper option (if you do, then Chip will typically work out lower cost).

Winner: Moneybox

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 Moneybox!

When it comes to what most people are interested in, saving cash, Moneybox has a leading interest rate for a Cash ISA, and you can save tax-free. Chip is pretty good too, but a lower rate.

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, Chip doesn’t quite compare.

If you're looking for a Lifetime ISA, Moneybox tops our list of best Lifetime ISAs. 

And, if you're after a Junior ISA check out Moneyfarm¹ too, or read our best Junior ISAs.

When it comes to pensions, there are better options out there, check out our best personal pensions, and particularly PensionBee¹ (here’s our 5 star PensionBee review).

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.

Overall, both are great, and both help you save more (and invest too), but if we had to pick a winner, it’s Moneybox.

If you want to learn more, and get the exact interest rates they currently have, head over to the Moneybox website¹ and Chip website¹.

We’ve also got a review on both too: here’s our  Moneybox review and Chip review.

Happy saving!