Use your child - best child savings account

jennifernil

sp1946 wrote: »

Does anyone have any idea what is happening?
I have had Halifax regular savers for my 3 young grandchildren for a number of years. On the anniversary of the date they were opened the money has been transferred to their Save4it accounts. The monthly standing order continues to be paid into the Regular Saver A/c's until the next anniversary, etc. Two of the accounts are just about to reach the anniversary date again but this time I have been told that the money will be paid into Bank of Scotland Young Saver accounts, accounts which will have the same sort code & account numbers as the current Regular Saver accounts. Any standing orders already set up to pay into the Regular Savers will automatically go into the Young Saver accounts. The problem is that the Halifax Regular Saver is paying 6% but the Young Saver is paying 2%. My Halifax Regular Saver acounts will no longer exist &, since I live in Scotland, I would need to go into a Halifax Branch to open new Halifax Regular Savings accounts. My nearest Halifax branch is about 130 miles away! I cannot understand why this is happening nor if it would be treated differently if I had a home address in England. Any help/explanation will be gratefully received.
:mad::mad::mad:

Home address doesn't matter, the problem is that you have no easy access to a Halifax branch. We are in the same boat and plan to open new accounts when on holiday in England.

Unless you can get to a branch you cannot open a new account, as BOS can no longer open new Halifax accounts, and all children's accounts are branch opening only.

First, cancel your standing order, the 2% rate can be beaten.

Northern Rock pay 3%, again you open in branch, ordinary passbook account. For a regular saver, Principality 4.5%, open by post. If they have money to lock away, there are a few places offer fixed term, fixed rate accounts.

http://moneyfacts.co.uk/compare/savings/childrens-account/high-street/


http://www.moneysupermarket.com/savings/childrens/

iainfitzy

Is Money Supermarket the best place to look at the different accounts?

Unfortunately being in Scotland - BOS are not doing the 6% regular saver account.

Also we have a lump sum - only about £1000. Would it be better to open a Junior ISA or fixed bond for this and let it run and yearly review and set up a regular savings account?

With the regular savings account (principality for example) I presume we would only be able to put in £1800 per year. So anything else we would need to put into a junior ISA or an equiavlent?

CathB

Thanks to others for posting on this forum - totally couldn't understand it when I just checked my children's saver and realised interest was only 2% not the 6% I was expecting as in previous years - very sneaky of Halifax!

I did think of opening a 6% ISA but then when you read the smallprint - it excludes children from 2002-2009 as they could have had a CTF - now that is not fair! Having seen several friends go off the rails at 18, there is no-way I will automatically allow my savings for my child be easily lost - I also have seen the disgraceful drop in the value of the government ISA's due to 'admin fees'. We chose one and let the govt pick the other I think so little of them. So for Halifax to exclude certain children from a high-interest ISA which the CTFs are not matching is totally unfair - how are they allowed to get away with it? Has anyone else seen this clause?

Anon

CathB wrote: »

Thanks to others for posting on this forum - totally couldn't understand it when I just checked my children's saver and realised interest was only 2% not the 6% I was expecting as in previous years - very sneaky of Halifax!

I did think of opening a 6% ISA but then when you read the smallprint - it excludes children from 2002-2009 as they could have had a CTF - now that is not fair! Having seen several friends go off the rails at 18, there is no-way I will automatically allow my savings for my child be easily lost - I also have seen the disgraceful drop in the value of the government ISA's due to 'admin fees'. We chose one and let the govt pick the other I think so little of them. So for Halifax to exclude certain children from a high-interest ISA which the CTFs are not matching is totally unfair - how are they allowed to get away with it? Has anyone else seen this clause?

It is the government that have set it up this way, rather than Halifax being mean. I agree it is unfair that you cannot get anywhere near this rate with CTFs.

As an update, I called in to Halifax due to my children's regular savers expiring and thought it would be a simple process to set up new ones. Think again. I was told that I would need to make an appointment to come back to complete new applications for each account and provide documents etc (birth certificates, address etc). This is despite the branch being empty with staff standing round doing nothing, despite having accounts already set up in their names and linked to my account, despite it taking three attempts when I first set up the accounts because they kept losing the copies of identity documents and denied receiving them.

I gave up - I have neither the time nor the inclination to jump through hoops when they already have all this information and (you would think) could simply change the accounts back to regular savers (they changed them, not me!). Do Halifax want customers? If so, sort out your systems and make it easy (yet still secure!) to set up accounts.

Rant over.

Anon

sarah52012

Hi,

Can someone just give me some clarity on the rule that applies to the £100 per parent interest limit...

I have a halifax reg saver for my son and am depositin £80 per month. At the end of the term I will either re-open a similar account or go elsewhere depending on what accounts are available.

I understand that the interest he earns from the money will be tax free as long as it doesnt go over £200 per year (myself and my husbands £100 allowance) What i dont understand is whether the rule applies for just the money I have deposited in the last tax year or whether it is accrued over the years. My son is not quite 1 years old so will have no chance of going over the interest limit this year but if we carry on saving this amount per month then the amount of interest he is earning by the time he is, say 5 years old, will inevitably be over £200 a month.

Does this mean it will be taxed in future or does the rule just apply to the interest made on the money paid in in that specific tax year?

I hope this makes sense - i am not very financially literate!

Froggitt

It doesnt matter when the money was deposited.....just look at the annual interest statement.

I think though a Junior ISA allows you to invest as much as you like without impacting the limit. Not sure but Im certain someone will confirm or otherwise.

xylophone

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/MoneyTaxAndBenefits/ManagingMoney/PlanningYourPersonalFinances/DG_10013916

GrandmaM

I have had two of these for grandchildren for a number of years. We live in Scotland - because the BoS and Halifax have separated their accounts we can no longer have one of these accounts. They can only be opened in branch - and apparently there are no Halifax branches in Scotland.


No information was sent to us about the separation of accounts, we have savings accounts, isas and shares in the Halifax - we thought we would have had some info before it happened. Only found out when I went into what was nearest HBoS bank to renew the regular saver.


Not at all happy about the situation and think there must be lots of others in same situation.

tutankamun

my 5 yr old daughter has 1000 pound in a santander account which is paying a dreadful rate of interest, I want to shift her balance to another account but don't know which one is best to go for, any help greatfully received, thanks in advance, x

Rosmerta

My kids have had NS&I investment Accounts since they were born, and birthday/Christmas money has been added (although not a regular monthly amount)
This account is changing to a postal-only account (we used to just go to Post Office to add the cash/cheques) and I'm not sure what the best options is - I don't want their money tied up for years, not will there be regular monthly payments (its usually twice a year!)
Any suggestions would be welcome - perhaps Post Office's own Instant Saver?? :huh: