You opened Chime's app at 9pm wondering where £1,300 went this month. Chime shows you roughly. Delphina shows you exactly, plus whether you are on track for retirement. Here is the honest difference.
Chime is a US neobank offering a spending account with no monthly fees, an optional savings account, and the SpotMe feature that lets you overdraw up to $200 with no fee. The app shows you a spending breakdown by category, a running balance, and notifications when you get paid or when a payment goes out. It is a banking app with some spending visibility, not a dedicated budgeting platform.
Delphina is built for the UK. You upload your UK bank transactions, the platform categorises them, and you see your monthly position by category. The platform also projects forward to retirement.
Chime is strong on the banking basics. There are no monthly fees, no minimum balance, no foreign transaction fees, and the SpotMe feature covers small overdrafts without a fee. For US households earning paycheques that come in chunks, the early-pay access (up to 2 days early on direct deposits) is a meaningful cashflow feature.
Chime also has no hidden charges. The fee structure is simple and the app is easy to use. For someone who wants a no-frills US checking account with basic spending notifications, Chime does the job.
Delphina is built for the UK. It is built for UK accounts, uses UK categories by default, and turns the budget into a steering tool. Set a weekly cap on eating out, and Delphina tells you on Sunday whether you are on track or £87 over.
Delphina also plans beyond this month. A UK saver with £148,000 in pensions, £35,000 in ISAs, and £1,800 a month going into savings gets a specific projection in Delphina: their retirement date and the monthly action that closes the gap.
| Feature | Chime | Delphina |
|---|---|---|
| US no-fee checking account | ✓ | ✗ |
| Long-term UK retirement forecasting | ✗ | ✓ |
| UK State Pension forecast | ✗ | ✓ |
| FIRE number and date projection | ✗ | ✓ |
| Goal-based monthly action list | ✗ | ✓ |
| Daily UK-specific category caps | ✗ | ✓ |
| SpotMe overdraft feature | ✓ | ✗ |
| FDIC-insured deposits | ✓ | ✗ |
| Connects to existing UK accounts | ✗ | ✓ |
| Annual Cost | No monthly fees | Free tier available |
Connect your main UK current account to Delphina this week. Within a fortnight you will know your real monthly spend on the categories where most people leak money, plus a specific UK retirement number.