CTF discussion area

heo

I have been told by some people not to put extra money into my CTF accounts for my children. They say that the Government will take a share out at the end and it is a way for them to make money. They suggest puttin my monthly transfer into another savings account away from the trust fund.
Does anyone know if this is true? Any advice?

wriggly

heo wrote: »

I have been told by some people not to put extra money into my CTF accounts for my children. They say that the Government will take a share out at the end and it is a way for them to make money. They suggest puttin my monthly transfer into another savings account away from the trust fund.
Does anyone know if this is true? Any advice?

There is nothing in the existing CTF rules about the government taking a cut.

Of course, the government can change the rules at anytime, but this applies as much to normal savings as to CTFs.

The only way I could interpret this sensibly, is that after your child reaches 18, the CTF investments lose their tax-free status, so the government gets a cut from any future income. But this applies to savings before and after the age of 18 anyway.

So, no, it is not true currently. My advice is to ask these people where they got this information.

wriggly

ED0001 wrote: »

We're thinking of moving abroad (eu, france). If a family member carries on paying into the kids CTFs, can they still cash in the CTFs when they get to 18, if they haven't been living in the UK?
Thanks

Yes, you and others can continue to pay into the CTF, and the money belongs to the child, so they will get it at 18.

If the child is living overseas when they turn 7, they will not get the additional £250 from the government.

Madspice69

I just got my 4 year old daughter's trust fund statement through today (we are with The Children's Mutual). In effect it has lost £300 between the last statement and this despite paying in £150 this year. We also have a trust fund for our 3 year old daughter too (which makes it feel like we may have well gone on holiday instead). It certainly put into perspective how these funds could be absolutely worthless by the time my children are 18 if we find ourselves in another recession at that time. I cancelled our direct debits into their CTF's. I mistakenly believed that the CTF was capped so that it could not be worth less than the sum invested.

Would the best guaranteed method of saving be putting the monthly payments into ISA's instead?

craggus

Madspice69 wrote: »

I just got my 4 year old daughter's trust fund statement through today (we are with The Children's Mutual). In effect it has lost £300 between the last statement and this despite paying in £150 this year. We also have a trust fund for our 3 year old daughter too (which makes it feel like we may have well gone on holiday instead). It certainly put into perspective how these funds could be absolutely worthless by the time my children are 18 if we find ourselves in another recession at that time. I cancelled our direct debits into their CTF's. I mistakenly believed that the CTF was capped so that it could not be worth less than the sum invested.

Would the best guaranteed method of saving be putting the monthly payments into ISA's instead?

Hi Madspice... I am in an almost identical situation to yourself, with a falling account value despite and additional investment of £20 a month. I have decided to cancel my monthly direct debits and save them somewhere else for the next 12 months. If The Childrens Mutual account looks like it's on the way up on my statement next year then I will add this separate money to the account... if it looks like the account is still performing poorly I will transfer it to another provider.

expat_jo

Hi

Please go easy on me - I have just had a baby, have post-partum brain (!), a baby that doesn't stop crying when I try to read up on this and was never that financially savvy anyway ...

I am in a different situation to most of you in that I have to decide where to put my child's money now. I have never really been keen on the standard saving option and am more interested in the shareholder and stock options. However, is now a good time to invest in shares? I can see that it would be because shares are cheap now and (surely) must rise at sometime or is it too much of a risk and I should start off with it in a bank/building society and change it over when things start picking up?

Many thanks for your time / answers.

barnishroader

We are currently paying £20/pm into a Britannia CTF.
After reading the above stories, i am worried that it may be losing money.
It is a savings account based CTF not a shares based one.
I think it was a fixed interest rate we signed in to but would have to check.
Is it only shares based ones that are losing money or are the savings ones losing as well?
Thanks for any help as it is all a bit over my head!!

Madspice69

I've opened up Halifax accounts for the kids for the next year as they have a return of 8%. I have got shares of my own, but daren't take the risk with my kids future financial funds. If we hit another recession when the kids can cash in their trust funds their value will be alot less than we paid in, if we were better off financially I would take a chance, but we aren't!

cymraes2009

Hello,

I'd like to open an account for my 1 year old nephew/godson to contribute money on each birthday until he turns 18 (at which time I'd like the savings to become available to him).

I have found a lot of information about the child trust fund which is opened by a parent/guardian but little about an account which would work in the same way but can be opened by another family member/friend.

I'd appreciate it if someone could point me in the right direction.

Many thanks

Madspice69

My grandpa opened a bank account for each of my daughters with Lloyds. He pays 5 a month into each of their accounts. I had to send the kids birth certificates to him so that he could open them up. He's got the accounts at his local branch with his home address listed. I don't know if that's any help? I would imagine you could open up an account at most banks/building societies as long as you can provide birth certificates.