Chip Prize Savings Account review: I saved £100 and won £25
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Chip, the savings and investment app, often offers some of the most competitive interest rates around.
Usually its instant access savings account offers rates that are far above many high street banks, which is why it’s been on Money Talk’s Best Buy list for as long as I can remember.
But for some savers, the Chip Prize Savings Account might be a better fit.
Relatively new to the market, it’s one of the many prize draw savings accounts out there.
In 2022, I saved £100 with Chip as an experiment – here’s how it went.
How does the Chip Prize Savings Account work?
The Chip Prize Savings Account sort of works like NS&I’s Premium Bonds.
You have to deposit a minimum of £10 into the account, and maintain this balance throughout the month to be entered into the monthly prize draw.
The winners are randomly selected using a third-party software at the end of the month and you can win more than one prize.
The very important small print
While each £10 saved equates to one entry into the prize draw, how many entries you get each month actually depends on your average balance for that month, calculated at 11.59pm on the last day of the calendar month.
So the more money you save, and the earlier you save it, the more entries you get.
And of course, more entries mean more chances of winning.
Here’s the example Chip gave:
If you deposit £1,000 on the first day of a 30 day month and hold it for an entire month, the average balance for the month would be £1,000 gaining you 100 entries in the prize draw.
If you deposit £1,000 on the 20th day of a 30 day month, your average balance will be calculated off 20 days of a £0 balance and 10 days of £1,000.
This would give you an average balance for the month of £354.84 which would get you 35 entries in the draw.
Is your money safe?
Any money you deposit into the Chip Prize Savings Account is protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) up to £120,000 as the money is actually held by its partner, ClearBank.
However, you’re actually only allowed to deposit up to £85,000 into the account – the previous protection cap.
Another thing to bear in mind is that if you do win, the money is shown as “prize” on your account. It doesn’t become “money” until you cash it out.
That means prizes don’t count as additional entries into the prize draw, nor is it protected by FSCS.
In other words, if you’re lucky enough to win, cash out that money as soon as possible.
How much can you win?
Chip constantly changes the structure of its Prize Savings Account, which means the value of the top prize and the smaller prizes have changed a lot in recent years.
The biggest prize has been as high as £250,000, while the smallest was just £5.
Currently Chip is committing to at least one £10,000 grand prize and 250 smaller prizes of £10.
It may also offer additional prizes on top of this but there’s no guarantee that will happen.
What are the odds of winning?
Under the current format, the odds of winning with a Chip Prize Savings Account can swing wildly from one month to the next.
The actual odds will depend on how much money you have saved, and how much money other people have saved.
It can also depend on whether Chip decides to introduce additional prizes.
Because of this, Chip only releases odds of winning from past draws.
Between January and September 2025, it gave the odds of winning anything for every £10 held as 1 in 964.
For September 2025 along, the odds of winning anything was 1 in 623 for every £10 held.
For comparison, NS&I currently gives the odds for winning in Premium Bonds as 1 in 22,000 for every £1 saved. Again, this is variable.
Are there any downsides?
Like NS&I’s Premium Bonds, no interest is paid on the money you save with Chip.
It means that if you don’t win anything, you’re basically losing money due to inflation.
That said, many of those in the financial independence, retire early (FIRE) movement uses Premium Bonds as a safe place to put their emergency fund because the prizes are tax-free.
Using the same logic, there’s no reason not to use the Chip Prize Savings Account in the same way.
Don’t let your account go dormant!
One thing to note is that you’re only ever allowed to have one Prize Savings Account.
If you empty out your account and don’t do anything with it then it’ll be considered dormant after six months.
Once it becomes dormant, Chip has the right to close the account and you will not be able to open another one.
My experience with Chip Prize Savings Account
At the beginning of November 2022, I saved £100 into the Chip Prize Savings Account.
This was the minimum balance you can have and still be entered into the draw at the time.
For context, interest rates were pretty mediocre.
At the beginning of November 2022, the Bank of England Bank Rate was still 2.25%, rising to 3% by the middle of that month.
It meant that after saving £100 for a year, I would only have earned about £3 in interest.
Happily, my investment into Chip Prize Savings Account turned out to be much more profitable.
After 12 months, I won a single prize of £25 in the August 2023 draw.
It was the equivalent of 25% return – much more than I’d have ever managed with a regular savings account.
It was a pleasant surprise actually. I never expected to win, and to be honest I had to double check it wasn’t a scam.
Final thoughts on the Chip Prize Savings Account
I kept the £100 in the Chip Prize Savings Account for a time but ultimately withdrew the whole thing because Chip lost my trust.
In July 2024, I cashed out the £25 prize to crystallise my winnings.
Months later I spotted that Chip had actually taken the money from my Prize Savings Account instead of withdrawing the prize.
It meant that my £25 prize never fell under FSCS protection, and I had less than the £100 balance required to qualify for future draws.
I felt cheated.
I could have complained to Chip but honestly, for such a small sum, it didn’t seem to be worth my time.
Besides, many savings accounts now pay pretty decent interest rates, especially if you opt for a regular savings account.
Would I recommend the Chip Prize Savings Account?
To be honest, I have mixed feelings about the Chip Prize Savings Account.
If I hadn’t felt cheated by Chip, I would probably have kept that £100 saved just to be in with a chance of winning.
But it’s telling, I think, that I never deposited more than £100.
The reality is I like the certainty of getting interest for my savings too much.
Another thing that bothers me is that Chip changes the prizes so regularly. As a saver, it feels like I need to constantly decide whether it’s a good deal or not.
That said, if I had so much cash that I’ve filled my ISA allowance for the year, and I’ve filled up my Premium Bonds allowance, I may just consider it as an alternative to a traditional savings account.
This post was originally published in November 2023. It was updated in December 2025.
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