Use your child - best child savings account

Supergrot

Hi
my son has £1300 in a Nationwide childrens account earning little interest.
I'm thinking of closing it and opening him a Halifax regular saver so we can move in £100/month and get 6% (or similar).
I can't find any savings account for him that would allow us to put in his lump sum and set up a standing order to move this money monthly. Any suggestions?
Thanks

jonnyb

Supergrot wrote: »

Hi
my son has £1300 in a Nationwide childrens account earning little interest.
I'm thinking of closing it and opening him a Halifax regular saver so we can move in £100/month and get 6% (or similar).
I can't find any savings account for him that would allow us to put in his lump sum and set up a standing order to move this money monthly. Any suggestions?
Thanks

If you don't already have an account with alliance and leicester, try this :
I have an account with them in my name that pays 6% apr up to £2500. Each month I move £100 of my son's lump sum savings from their into the Halifax regular saver.
The A&L account is not tax free as it is in my name, but at 6% I don't really care.

jane_xphile

I have £5000 (plus last year's interest) to re-invest for my 15-year-old son in trust until he is 18. I did have it in the PO one-year bond (Bank of Ireland) and would now like to find a good three-year bond - nothing quite seems to hit the spot. So many good deals specify over 16 or over 18. Any suggestions would be gratefully received.

martinman3

jane_xphile wrote: »

I have £5000 (plus last year's interest) to re-invest for my 15-year-old son in trust until he is 18. I did have it in the PO one-year bond (Bank of Ireland) and would now like to find a good three-year bond - nothing quite seems to hit the spot. So many good deals specify over 16 or over 18. Any suggestions would be gratefully received.

I believe that the highest paying 3yr fixed rate bonds which can be held in trust all seem to pay 4.00 %AER.
Halifax Guaranteed Reserve min £500
http://www.halifax.co.uk/savings/guaranteed_reserve.asp
Cheshire BS 3yr bond min £100
http://www.thecheshire.co.uk/investment-saving-account/fixed-rate-bonds/index.asp
Derbyshire BS 3yr bond min £100
http://www.thederbyshire.co.uk/bonds.aspx
Britannia 3yr bond min £1000
http://www.britannia.co.uk/_site/channels/savings/savings-bonds/3yr-fixed-bond/index.html

Note that Nationwide have a 3yr bond at 4.15% AER which could be opened by your son in his own name.

**Patty**

I'm looking for some serious help with my children's savings/investments.

They have each a normal High St savings account. Used to be a Bradford & Bingley but now merged into a Abbey/Santander. The interest is minimal and i'd like to move it to somewhere with preferably more than 1%! Paying in is fairly sporadic but roughly 4 times a year. They each have somewhere in the region of £500 in there. I've been looking at the Halifax Save4it.....this seems to be the best option for them as i would prefer an account with a passbook.

Secondly, a few years ago, they each were left a sum of money betwen them. This was divided so as when each child reached 18, they would all roughly end up with the same amount. BUT......since interest rates have plummeted , i have become concerned that the account where it's stashed is no longer competitive. It's curently in a smart2save with the Nationwide. It was originally designed to help each one through University but the eldest is now nearly 15 and because it hasn't grown enough in the last 2 years....we'll be lucky if it pays the first 2 years of fees!
Where (cos i have no idea) can i put it so as it will produce the maximum return for them? I think there's somewhere around £8 k in the eldest's and the younger 2 children have a proportionatly smaller amount.

*breathe* Thanks

goonerforlife

Re the Halifax Childrens Regular Saver

Thanks to this site I opened up a Halifax Childrens Regular Saver for each of my kids just over a year ago. Today, I went into the Halifax to close down the accounts as the site advice says "As the 6% rate only lasts a year, ..." but the Halifax employee I spoke to reckoned that the rate stayed at 6% for regular payments.

My gut feeling is that she is wrong and the site is right but I wanted to flag this to see whether it could be checked. If the site advice is wrong, the advantage would be not having to open another account in a family memeber's name (as I have done) to continue getting the 6% rate.

Thanks
GfL

A.Jones

goonerforlife wrote: »

Re the Halifax Childrens Regular Saver

Thanks to this site I opened up a Halifax Childrens Regular Saver for each of my kids just over a year ago. Today, I went into the Halifax to close down the accounts as the site advice says "As the 6% rate only lasts a year, ..." but the Halifax employee I spoke to reckoned that the rate stayed at 6% for regular payments.

My gut feeling is that she is wrong and the site is right but I wanted to flag this to see whether it could be checked. If the site advice is wrong, the advantage would be not having to open another account in a family memeber's name (as I have done) to continue getting the 6% rate.

Thanks
GfL

If they are like their normal regular savings accounts for adults, then they are right. The problem is they will move the money out of the regular saver and into a very low rate (0.1%) account at the end of each year. So you get 6% on the money you invest during the year, but only 0.1% on the money you paid in in previous years. If this is the case, keep the regular saver, but empty the linked savings account.

martinman3

goonerforlife wrote: »

Re the Halifax Childrens Regular Saver

Thanks to this site I opened up a Halifax Childrens Regular Saver for each of my kids just over a year ago. Today, I went into the Halifax to close down the accounts as the site advice says "As the 6% rate only lasts a year, ..." but the Halifax employee I spoke to reckoned that the rate stayed at 6% for regular payments.

My gut feeling is that she is wrong and the site is right but I wanted to flag this to see whether it could be checked. If the site advice is wrong, the advantage would be not having to open another account in a family memeber's name (as I have done) to continue getting the 6% rate.

Thanks
GfL

I should point out that because of the way regular savers work, ignoring any interest on the feeder account, if you have a lump sum you are effectively getting approximately half of the quoted rate on the whole amount over the year which would be 3%.

You can get 3% AER on the Northern Rock Little Rock Instant Access Account.
http://www.northernrock.co.uk/savings/branch-and-postal-accounts/little-rock-instant-access/
For most people with a lump sum the 6% regular saver may not be worth the effort now, it depends how much is in the feeder account and what rate it is getting.

Or if you still like regular savers then maybe you could use the NR account, in child's name with R85 and interest paid gross, as the feeder account but you would have to get it into the Halifax account somehow. I will leave that for you to work out.

glasgowexile

i am looking to open a new account for my daughter.

i wanted to make an initial deposit with the money we got when she was born and then regular payments.

however halifax - my first destination - say this can't be done. the regular saver has to be opened and funded by DD. are all kids account like this? i know that the banks have to be guided by tax rules regarding the max deposit but the design of the accounts doesn't seem to suit new parents. i am sure most parents will get quite a bit of cash from people.

any suggestions for what i should do?

mazza14_2

Hi

New to this so please forgive my ignorance. I have saved my childrens' child benefit ever since they were born, one now 13 yrs and the other 9 years. This is in a local building society a/c which is now quite substantial. Looking at some of the threads I think that perhaps I could have saved it in a better place re; tax etc. The b.soc, Skipton seems a little shaky locally so I wanted advice on moving their accounts to a reliable, secure bank/b.soc. I want to save their child benefit and have never had access to it as we want them to benefit from the full amount at 18. Sooo, where should I invest it?

Many thanks for any help and advice.