Control of children's savings - how does it work?

Hobo17 · 16 November 2009 at 12:30PM

Husband and I are looking at setting up a savings account for my 9 year old step daughter. Looking at the accounts, it seems that up till the age of 7 accounts are held in trust and the parent controls withdrawals. How does it work after the child is 7? We want to use the account for SD to save for more expensive toys etc - so there will be withdrawals at various points, but we want these to be overseen by us. We just want to make sure that SD doesn't talk her mother or someone else into letting her empty the account and spending it all on sweets

Thanks for any help :beer:

bryanb · 16 November 2009 at 12:33PM

Sounds as though you need a joint account-both to sign

Hobo17 · 16 November 2009 at 12:42PM

Thanks - do you mean my husband or i would need to have the account jointly with my stepdaughter?

martinman3 · 16 November 2009 at 2:22PM

You will need to be specific about which bank/building society child account you are referring to as each can have different terms and conditions when it comes to trustees retaining control.
Some give full control to the child at a certain age whether the trustee wants this or not, some allow trustee to retain control until about 21.

Newbie2saving · 16 November 2009 at 2:35PM

I am interested in finding a savings account which can remain in trust until my child turns 21, do you know which bank or building society provide this? Thanks.

Hobo17 · 16 November 2009 at 2:50PM

martinman3 wrote: »

You will need to be specific about which bank/building society child account you are referring to as each can have different terms and conditions when it comes to trustees retaining control.
Some give full control to the child at a certain age whether the trustee wants this or not, some allow trustee to retain control until about 21.

I wasn't really referring to any specific accounts as we haven't picked one yet, just based that from the information i found browsing the web generally. Which ones allow the trustees to retain control the longest?

Primrose · 16 November 2009 at 4:48PM

I think the Post Office trust fund will allow trustees to remain in control until the child is aged 21 but you can probably get better interest rates elsewhere.

martinman3 · 16 November 2009 at 11:55PM

Of the top paying instant access child accounts which can be operated by an adult.

Loughborough BS Young Savers + 2.20% AER, operated by adult until child aged 16
http://www.theloughborough.co.uk/savingsdetail.php?recordID=31

Chelsea BS Ready Steady Save 2.00% AER, operated by adult until child aged 16
http://www.thechelsea.co.uk/savings/invest_kids_intro.html

Norwich & Peterborough BS Family Young Saver 2.00% AER, operated by adult until child aged 18
http://www.nandp.co.uk/savings/easy-access/family-young-saver/

Skipton BS Leap 1.80% AER, operated by adult until child aged 26, however, child given control at age 8 and can remove adult as operator of account.
http://www.skipton.co.uk/savings_and_investments/childrens_savings/leap_account/

Yorkshire BS One Day 1.75% AER, operated by adult until child aged 21
http://www.ybs.co.uk/savings/childrens/one_day/index.html

Northern Rock Little Rock 3.00% AER, operated by adult until child aged 16.
http://www.northernrock.co.uk/savings/branch-and-postal-accounts/little-rock-instant-access/

Halifax Save4it 1.05% AER, operated by adult until child aged 17 when becomes Saver Reward.
http://www.halifax.co.uk/savings/save4it.asp

The above only applies where the account is opened in trust for the child, not in their own name.
Always check that this information is correct before making a decision on which account is suitable.

It is worth mentioning that some organisations, Skipton BS, Leeds BS and Yorkshire BS allow many of their adult accounts to be opened in trust for a child. For these accounts there would be no age when control of the account had to be passed to the beneficiary (as far as I know). Their fixed rate products are certainly worth considering, although the OP needed access and their child specific accounts offer better rates than any of their instant access accounts opened in trust.

Hobo17 · 17 November 2009 at 1:22PM

Thankyou - exactly the information i was after! :beer:

Control of children's savings - how does it work?

Comments

Confirm your email address to Create Threads and Reply

🚀 Getting Started

Categories

Is this how you want to be seen?

Get our FREE Weekly email full of deals & guides - and it’s spam-free