Plum app review: The AI assistant that helps you save money

Great for setting your money aside easily and automatically

It can take up to 24 hours to access your funds

Plum is a smart money management app designed to automatically set aside money without you even thinking about it. It was founded in 2016, and started as a Facebook Messenger chatbot. Plum then launched the app (available on Android and iOS) which is designed to make managing your money easy, but it’s also effective for those who struggle to put that bit extra away. And the basic version is free.

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Finder Award

• Plum automatically sets money aside for you
• Helps you switch and save money on bills
• Withdraw funds whenever you need
• Analyse your spending to help you own your budget

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How does Plum work?

• Bank account access: Plum users give it access to their bank accounts in a read-only view using the latest biometric security measures.
• Plum adapts to you: Plum’s smart software analyses and understands patterns in your income and spending habits to recognise the most effective way for savings to be made.
• Auto-deposits: Once Plum calculates a suitable amount to be put aside each week, this amount is automatically transferred through direct debit into your Plum account to be held until you withdraw it.
• Notifications: The Plum app can send you notifications about the amounts you’ve put aside, daily or weekly balance updates, and bills you could switch to save money.
• Flexibility and accessibility: You can withdraw or deposit more money, keep a record of your deposited amount and even invest your savings directly through the app.
• Spending insights: Plum keeps you informed with customisable updates to monitor your account activity.

Investing with Plum

Plum also gives you the option to invest some, or all, of your deposited money. You can choose between a range of investment funds, kept in a stocks and shares ISA or a general investment account. You should consider carefully which of these portfolios (you can choose multiple) is best for you, depending on your expertise and risk appetite. You can start investing with just £1.

What can you invest in with Plum?

Through the Plum app, you can choose how much to invest in a range of investment funds, or automatically allocate a set percentage of your auto-deposits to go towards those funds. Examples of the investments funds available include “Tech Giants” (which includes shares of tech leaders such as Apple, Facebook and Google), or “Slow & Steady” (a mix of bonds and stocks).

Here are the portfolios available:

How do I withdraw my Plum investments?

In terms of withdrawals, you can withdraw your investments as often as you wish, although it can take up to 5 days for the money to return to your account.

If you do decide to invest, keep in mind that your capital is at risk and that you could get back less than you invested.

What investment accounts are available with Plum?

You can choose between 3 accounts:

• Plum ISA
• Plum general investment account
• Plum self invested personal pension

Plum general investment account

This account is a standard investment account. There aren’t any tax benefits, so people usually choose this one if they’ve used their ISA allowance already.

You can invest in the same portfolios as with the other accounts. You may be liable to pay tax on profits over £3,000 in each tax year.

Plum self invested personal pension

Plum has recently launched its SIPP, which lets you save up for your retirement. It’s designed to be automated and flexible. You can pay into your SIPP the same way as with its other products, and you can move existing pensions into your Plum SIPP.

The main benefit is that you can see all of your accounts in one place and invest in its wide range of funds. SIPP investors can choose from 8 funds designed for those investing for retirement.

Pensions can’t be cashed out until you turn55, but you do get tax relief from the government, which Plum applies for on your behalf.

Plum ISA

With Plum’s ISA you can use your annual ISA allowance, which means that you can invest up to this amount each tax year without paying any tax on your profits. The allowance for the 2024/2025 tax year is £20,000.

Plum’s fees and limits

It’s free to start setting aside money with Plum. The free Plum Basic plan includes the app download and registration, as well as unlimited deposits and withdrawals, and the automatic deposit feature and bill analysis.

But there are fees for investing your money with Plum:

• Investment fee. This is £1 per month after your first month (it’s the fee for using Plum Plus, the minimum plan you’ll need to subscribe to if you’d like to use Plum’s investment features). There is no monthly investment fee for SIPP holders.
• Fund management and provider fee. The fund management fee is between 0.06% and 0.90% a year, depending on which fund you choose. Additionally, there is a 0.15% annual provider fee. Both fees average to an annual fee of 0.48%. If you invest £1,500, Plum will cost you an average of £18 a year, regardless of how many buy or sell orders you make.

As well as Plum Basic (free) and Plum Plus (£1 a month), there’s a third tier called Plum Pro, which costs £2.99 per month after a 30-day free trial. As well as the investment features you get with Plum Plus, you can unlock additional functionalities, such as cashback at certain retailers, a monthly spending “diagnostics” report and the “rainy day saver”. We go into more detail about Plum Pro below.

What is Plum Pro?

This is the premium Plum account tier, which costs £2.99 per month after a 30-day free trial.

With Plum Pro, you’ll get all the functionality available with Plum Basic and Plum Plus, as well as the following features:

• Rainy day savings rule – literally an option you can choose to put more money aside on the days when it’s forecast to rain
• 52-week saving challenge – this weekly, year-long savings option would see you put aside £1 more than the previous week
• Pay days – this setting can be configured to deposit an additional lump sum into your Plum account when your salary first hits your bank
• Diagnostics – a monthly report that shows your spending grouped by categories
• True balance – calculates how much of your available balance is safe to spend once any regular bill payments have been accounted for
• Cashback – this rewards you with up to 11% back when you use the app to shop with one of Plum’s partner brands
• Splitter tool – to automatically apportion your deposits between different Pockets
• Interest Pockets (see our section below)

Plum’s new Interest Pockets

In September 2020, Plum unveiled a new Interest Pockets feature, which enables its customers to earn interest on the money that they set aside in the app for the first time. When users create a new Pocket (which is a savings pot for a specific goal), they are now given the option to choose between a regular Pocket and one that pays interest.

Subscribers of the Plum Plus and Plum Pro plans can open an easy access Interest Pocket that currently pays interest of 0.55% AER. Plum Plus subscribers can open a single Interest Pocket, while those paying for Plum Pro are able to create multiple Interest Pockets.

In November 2020, easy access Interest Pockets were also extended to Plum Basic users, although the interest rate available to them is currently 0.35% AER.

Money set aside in Plum’s new Interest Pockets will be held on trust with the Investec banking group, which means these funds will be protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.

Compare savings accounts from Plum

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Name	Product	Account type	Withdrawals	Open with	Deposit protection	Interest rate	Open via	Incentive	Table product description	Apply link
Plum – Plum Cash ISA Plum – Plum Cash ISA		Cash ISA	Instant access	£1	protected	3% AER variable	Open via: mobile app			Go to site View details		loading Fetching your data...
Plum – Plum Cash ISA Plum – Plum Cash ISA		Cash ISA	Instant access	£1 - £99	protected	5.17% AER variable (Includes a bonus )	Open via: mobile app			Go to site View details		loading Fetching your data...

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What is Plum’s “Naughty Rule” savings feature?

The “Naughty Rule” is a new feature which automatically sets money aside every time you buy something from a retailer you consider a “guilty pleasure”. Initially available on Plum’s Ultra subscription plan and to Plum Premium customers, the “Naughty Rule” covers a selection of the 50 most popular retailers used by Plum customers.

When you purchase something “naughty” from one of the specified retailers, Plum will automatically put aside a set amount into your savings. You can set the amount of money to be set aside, ranging from £1 (“Mildy Mischievous”) to £10 (“Very Villanous”).

Once the “Naughty Rule” has been fully enabled, Plum will make one extra saving per day when you spend at one of your chosen retailers.

Is Plum safe?

Apart from money deposited in Interest Pockets, funds held in a general Plum account are not specifically covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (which protects deposits of up to £85,000), as the company is not a licensed bank. But Plum is authorised and regulated by the FCA as an e-wallet money agent of PayrNet (a subsidiary of Railsbank), which allows it to provide users with an e-wallet. Customer funds are held in a pooled account at a UK bank chosen by PayrNet and are protected by safeguarding rules.

Plum also considers its users’ safety and security a top priority – and here are some of the ways Plum works to keep you safe:

• Plum never stores, or accesses, your bank login details.
• Plum receives read-only access to your transaction data, so has very limited information.
• Plum only receives money through a direct debit, which you can cancel at any time.
• Plum uses symmetric cryptography (AES) to store any sensitive data.
• Plum uses state-of-the-art password algorithms.
• Plum uses 256-bit TLS encryption to communicate between the browser and its servers.
• Plum is a registered data controller and always acts in compliance with the Data Protection Act.
• Plum runs its servers on Amazon’s cloud, which is trusted by some of the biggest financial institutions in the world.

What does the Plum app look like?

How does Plum make money?

Plum was heavily funded through its startup phase by crowdfunding campaigns. However, now it’s established it looks to create its own revenue through two main revenue streams:

• Charging fees for its investment options (including its monthly subscription fees for Plum Plus and Plum Pro).
• Finding its customers better deals on their bills and getting an introductory fee for facilitating any switches.

Finder spoke to Plum to learn more.

Pros and cons of Plum

Customer service information for Plum

Bottom line

Saving is not an especially fun task, and while we all want to be doing it, doing the actual maths and remembering to transfer the money every week or every month requires a lot of commitment. So why not have it done automatically by Plum?

It’s a very smart concept, although there are a few drawbacks to consider. The main one is that Plum’s general account does not pay any interest. So your money won’t be growing unless you open an Interest Pocket, or you decide to invest your funds, which of course entails a whole different set of risks and issues. Get started by downloading the app.

Frequently asked questions

• Where are my Plum savings held?

  Your money is held in accounts by Plum’s partner PayrNet (a subsidiary of Railsbank), an EU-licensed e-money provider. Your Plum account is virtual and has no account number or sort code, the only way to access it is through Plum.

• Can I use Plum to save if I am in my overdraft?

  Yes! You will need to arrange this by setting a buffer under ‘Overdraft Deposits’ directly in the Plum app.

• How do I sign up?

  You can sign up for a Plum account directly through the app.

• Are there any alternatives to Plum?

  Yes, there are a number of alternatives to Plum.