£250 governement gift to New Baby

outdriveman

Hi

Where is the best place to Invest the £250 payment from the government to My first child.

Thanks in Advance for any advice given

Cheers

Steve

zoelouise88

Hi i think its better to have a look around as when i invested my sons 2years ago HSBC & Natwest were good but with the way things are atm i really wouldnt like to suggest any. I invetsed my sons in (i think its the stake-holder one) where it goes into stocks and shares but now i wish i hadnt.

robin_banks

Brittania was good, that's where we put ours though as ever introductory offers etc may get you a better deal. Did you know the take up rate on these is less than 40% ?

Krystaltips

How can the take up be so low? I thought if you didn't invest it, sooner or later the government would on your behalf?

In answer to your question, I went with an Abbey stakeholder but mostly for ease, the rate was not neccesarily the best but I bank with Abbey and DD savings were there.... I would also choose a stakeholder again with the next one in May... And probably Abbey again, but only because I'm too lazy to shop around

bumblebee87_2

i put DD's in an abbey savings fund, presonally id never put it into a stakeholder one, some kids have lost a LOT of money because of the financial climate, and i dont think its fair for me to mess about with my childrens money like that (mainly because i dont really understand the stock market) and in a savings fund there is guaranteed interest every year

sarahsarah

I agree with not going for the stocks and shares one! It was in the news recently about moving them out of the stocks and shares ones if that's what you did..

Our DD's in in the Britannia, which was highest interest at the time I think. I found that out on this site (not the forums, it was an artice, so if you have a mooch about you should find it, or I'm sure someone will be along to point you in the right direction)
Will put new bubba's in the same place, just to keep them together.

I think my DD has got more money in there than I've got in my current account at the minute, heehee. She gets £10 a month from us plus all money from relatives at xmas and birthdays has gone in. I think we will increase the direct debit every year old so when she gets older...

Fritha_2

This is the mse article on child trust funds :-) Hope that helps

buydor

I'd agree with looking around, see which intro offers and investment type etc suit you most. You can also transfer the fund (in full) at any time if you want to.

I wouldn't be too afraid of investing in the stocks and shares options at the present time as historically the stock market goes through cycles of highs and lows and this is a long term investment over several years, so when things improve or you get closer to the "cash in time", you can always move it to a more stable investment. It's all about how comfortable you feel with the risks and returns.

Stocks and shares can have the possibility of greater returns but it also has the possibility of losses as many people are seeing now.

We went with a stocks and shares one linked to our nectar card as we have never used nectar points and therefore collected several thousand points which could all be converted to cash in the account (also has the benefit that grandparents etc can also pay their unclaimed nectar point into the account). Currently our investment is worth less than we put in, but it's long term as I said ant the little one is only 20 months.

The other consideration you should have when choosing the type of CTF, is are you going to be setting up any other kind of savings for your child. We are lucky enough to be able put other savings aside for the little ones future and as we see this £250 as free money we felt more inclined to put it into a higher risk account, knowing that in the long term, the £250 gift will be much less than we can put aside elsewhere.

Spendless

Bare in mind it is your child's to do with as they wish when they are 18. There are enough teenagers in my dh's family to make me cautious on whether the money would go somewhere I'd feel was sensible or be spent ermmm otherwise.

For this reason I haven't contributed a penny towards the CTF, I don't put cash gifts from other people in it either. Instead I opened a seperate account for dd which has my name on it and put money in there instead.

nhaslum

can I just correct the people who say people have made losses, no they haven't. If, when the child is 18 the amount is less than the amount invested, then they have made a loss. Now is the best time to invest in stocks and shares accounts as you will be buying more units because of the low prices which will put you in good stead when stock market recovers. You have to remember it's not a short term investment and it bounds to fluctuate as anything to do with stocks and share does, your gains and losses will even out. 18 years is a long long time.

vickyjayne

i put my dd money in lloyds tsb nearly 3 years ago and put it in a stakeholders account, although the amount has decreased even with me paying in money every month i phoned their finacial advisor who told me to keep paying money in everymonth as i am buying more shares for the same money than i was this time last year, so eventually when the market picks back up my dd will have more money because i bought the shares more cheaply

whatever way you invest you can change yourmind about which type of account as lloyds gave me the option to change hen i rang the other week

Also if yo