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Automatic savings apps
What they are, how they work & our top picks
An autosaving app uses clever tech to work out what you can afford to save, then automatically moves money from your bank account to a virtual savings account. The idea is that you start building up savings without really noticing the cash is going. We've everything you need to know and our top picks below.
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Who's this guide for? Anyone wanting to try an automatic savings app that can help you get into the savings habit.
Not what you want? Other related guides...
App-based banking | Best bank accounts | Top savings accounts
What are autosaving apps?

These 'autosaving' apps try to squirrel away some of your cash without you noticing – useful if you find it difficult to put money aside or don't know how to start saving.
Some calculate how much you can afford to save each week and automatically move money into a separate savings (or investment) account, while others 'round up' your purchases to the nearest pound and save the change for you. In theory, these features should help you save without having to think about it, leading to higher savings building up.
If you're feeling the pinch, you can always tell the app to save less, or withdraw the money back into your current account if you need it.
Yet while these apps can help you save more, most interest rates they offer can be beaten elsewhere – to max returns on existing savings, see our Top Savings Accounts guide.
Autosaving app need-to-knows
To help you decide if an autosaving app is right for you, it's worth getting your head around the following need-to-knows...
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Top autosaving apps
If you want to try an app to help you get saving, our top picks are below. Do note Plum and Moneybox also offer investments as well as savings, so make sure you're signing up to a savings plan – if that's what you want. If you do want to invest, these apps aren't usually the cheapest way (see Investing for beginners for more).
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Automatic savings apps – our review
If you're looking to save little and often, most would be better off with a straightforward regular savings account, which would pay more interest. However, if you've tried that and it doesn't work for you, or you don't know how much you can afford to save, it's worth trying one of these apps.

Our top pick is Plum's Basic plan, as it's fee-free and you get its full autosaving tech. You give it 'read-only' access to your current account via Open Banking (most major banks are supported) and it uses its algorithm to analyse your spending and work out how much you can afford to save.
It does this every four or five days, automatically transferring the money over. You can ramp up or down how much it saves each time, make manual saves and/or pause autosaves.
You also have the option to round up purchases made from your linked bank account to the nearest pound. It then saves the difference (for example, 80p on a £2.20 spend), which it collects weekly.
Your savings are initially held in your Plum account paying no interest, but you can open an easy-access 'interest pocket' at 1.5% or transfer it out of the app into a top savings account for higher rates.

Alternatively, the Chase bank account offers a similar 'round-up' option to Plum, but you need to spend on Chase's debit card to benefit from this. However, it moves any round-up amount to an easy-access account paying a whopping 5% – though it moves the 'round up' balance to another account (of your choice) each year, so the 'round ups' start from scratch. You can also activate 1% cashback on almost all spending for a year.

If you like the sound of 'round-ups' but don't want to move your spending to Chase, Moneybox has the same functionality and offers a choice of savings accounts to deposit the cash. Its 'Simple Saver' pays 1.4% with one penalty-free withdrawal per month, but if you're a first-time buyer (or want to be one day) it's worth looking at its Lifetime ISA which is one of the top pick in its own right.
Top fee-free autosaving apps
Provider | Features | Interest rate (AER variable) |
Min/max deposit | Max FSCS protection |
Plum Basic* | Autosave and round-ups | 1.5% on easy-access 'interest pockets' | No min/ no max | £85,000 on interest pockets, shared with Investec |
Round-ups | 5% – though the total gets moved to another account (of your choice) each year | No min/ no max | £85,000, shared with JP Morgan | |
Moneybox | Round-ups | 1.4% on its one-day notice 'Simple Saver' (can withdraw once per month) | £1/ £85,000 | £85,000, shared with Shawbrook Bank |
Important: The Financial Services Compensation Scheme protection listed is for the interest-paying accounts stated above. Money deposited outside of these may not be covered, or the protection provided by or shared with a different bank. For example, money you deposit in Plum is instead ring-fenced in a different bank account (it uses the Bank of England), so if there are problems with Plum, your money's safe. This would be the case in this scenario as long as the bank itself still existed.
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