CTF discussion area

thehappygardener

hello
im not sure if this is the right bit of the forum...its my first posting! sorry if ive gate crashed!
i adopted my kids and no one seems to know where i find out about their ctf payments.
they were born 2005 and 2006 so must have one each.it is very unlikely that their birth parents would have invested them.

jessicamb

thehappygardener wrote: »

hello
im not sure if this is the right bit of the forum...its my first posting! sorry if ive gate crashed!
i adopted my kids and no one seems to know where i find out about their ctf payments.
they were born 2005 and 2006 so must have one each.it is very unlikely that their birth parents would have invested them.

If accounts are not invested by parents the Revenue opens an account on their behalf. Try calling the Inland Revenue

Contact Us

Please use the details below to get in touch with us about the Child Trust Fund (CTF). We welcome your enquiries and aim to deal with them as quickly as possible.
You can contact us in the following ways:


By Phone


Call the CTF helpline between the hours of 8am and 8pm every day except Christmas day, Boxing day and New Years day.

0845 302 1470 (from within the UK),
00 44 1355 359002 (if calling from abroad), or
0845 302 1489 (for Welsh speakers between 8.30am and 5pm Monday to Friday).

barnishroader

Can i just put the ctf into a savings account linked to my A&L current account?
I have checked on moneysupermarket to see what is available but dont really want to have to set up a new account just for this.
As most of the results are for English based accounts and i am in N. Ireland they wont suit.
The best online account is with Natiowide at 5.5%,

baby_boomer

A&L don't do savings account CTFs.

But Abbey do - and A&L looks set for a merger with Abbey under the Santander brand.

Bad luck on your NI address. You've had poor competition in the banking / savings market for decades.

oliviarosejackson

Hi all,

My apologies if this has already been discussed. My daughter has a normal cash CTF with Brittannia, which currently has in around £500 - £600 in. Although i have not paid anything into her fund yet.

What i wanted to ask was, what am i best doing for her, as i have been very lazy with her savings, she currently has £250 in her building society account.. Not very good, as she has just turned 5!!! So i want to start putting regular money away for her, not alot, around £10pm. But what i was wondering is, would i be better putting into a high interest rate childrens account, or paying it into her CTF?? As i have been looking at opening a Halifax regular saver, which pays 10% for the yr.

Would i be better paying her birthday and xmas money into her CTF and using a childs savings account for regular payments, so she has some money for when she gets a little older, or vice versa??

Thats for reading. :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

baby_boomer

The 10% Saver is better than a 6% CTF.

It continues to run after Year 1 but the matured money at the end of each year gets paid into another Halifax Account.

You could then put that matured money into the CTF so that you have a flow that goes - Your £x S/O into Halifax @ 10% -> Halifax Save4It a/c @ 5.55% -> Britannia CTF @ 5.75%.

Historically CTF rates have beaten ordinary children's account rates, although the gap has closed a little in the last few months.

oliviarosejackson

Thanks baby_boomer.

I think i will be best opening the halifax regular saver. Have been doing alot of research and that is the best one that i have seen so far. And at the end of the year i will see how much there is and put some of it into my daughter CTF.

cloud_dog

abu892 wrote: »

OK, I've read all of the information I can find but I don't seem to be able to find the exact type of account I want, can anyone help?

What I want to be able to do is put money into a CTF account, and then select myself which shares I want to buy. What I would actually do is buy iShares (effectively listed index trackers); I know this sounds similar to stakeholder trackers but iShares seem to have lower management fees than the stakeholder trackers I've seen, and if I can do anything to save a few basis points it seems worthwhile. This is exactly what I do with my ISA allowance each year, but I don't seem to be able to find an equivalent service for CTFs.

If anyone can advise, I'd be glad to hear. Thanks

Abu, was scanning the thread and noticed no one has responded, so here goes............

The thing to remember is that a CTF account is pretty much the same as an ISA - its a wrapper. What can be done within the account is dependent on the rules for CTF and what the CTF provider provides.

What you are looking for is a provider who provides normal S&S dealing facilities within a CTF wrapper.

One provider (which I use) is SelfTrade. I transferred my daughters CTF from Family to SelfTrade a couple of years(ish) ago, and it basically allows me to deal as I like. Wrt the type of investments you can make I think it is identical (??) to an ISA account - so if you can hold it in an ISA you can hold it in a self select CTF. SelfTrade charges £12.50 per trade but there aren't any additional annual management charges. There may be cheaper self select providers out there so you'll need to hunt around.

cloud_dog

PParka

thehappygardener wrote: »

hello
im not sure if this is the right bit of the forum...its my first posting! sorry if ive gate crashed!
i adopted my kids and no one seems to know where i find out about their ctf payments.
they were born 2005 and 2006 so must have one each.it is very unlikely that their birth parents would have invested them.

You might also find that their CTF vouchers are worth £500 rather than the normal £250 if the kids were under the care of the local authority at any point.

See http://www.childtrustfund.gov.uk/templates/Page.aspx?id=1241

barnishroader

barryheffron wrote: »

Can i just put the ctf into a savings account linked to my A&L current account?
I have checked on moneysupermarket to see what is available but dont really want to have to set up a new account just for this.
As most of the results are for English based accounts and i am in N. Ireland they wont suit.
The best online account is with Natiowide at 5.5%,

Is this 5.5% a good option?
Not really sure how to proceed with this and the voucher has been with us since April so missing out on interest!!!