Child Investments - Doomed to a draw full of savings books!

DaftMule

Yet again I am trying to make sense of the Children's Savings market and I can't help feeling that I am going to end up with sooo many different accounts that I am going to lose track of them!

The problem is, the top paying accounts don't allow you to deposit more than a small amount on opening the account. Halifax have told me that I cannot deposit more in my daughter's current Save4It account as it has a limit of £5k. I could open another Regular Saver account for her and get the current 6% for 1 year deal but that would be another 2 accounts opened in the same bank as a result! It's crazy!

All I want to do is have 1 account currently running at a given time. When the time comes to tart for a better rate, I just want to move the lump into the new account. Unfortunately though, it seems that option is limited to offers with pitiful interests rates

The best one (Yorkshire and Clydesdale) is branch only applications and there are none in my area. With the child under 10, I'm locked out of other options. It's all very frustrating!

jimjames

Depending on what other savings you have an ISA may be worth using instead. You then can do everything from one account.

Savings for children are normally long term so worth considering share based investments which have potential to grow more over the timescales than savings accounts.

DaftMule

jimjames wrote: »

Depending on what other savings you have an ISA may be worth using instead. You then can do everything from one account.

I thought you couldn't open an ISA in your child's name unless they were over 16?

jimjames

DaftMule wrote: »

I thought you couldn't open an ISA in your child's name unless they were over 16?

I meant use your ISA allowance.

DaftMule

jimjames wrote: »

I meant use your ISA allowance.

Ah...I see what you are saying. Unfortunately I need that for myself so it's not really a viable option in my case.

I think I'll look into the share based savings options though so thanks for that suggestion.

Desperate_Housewife_2-2

we had 4 accounts going for our kids when they qualified for the halifax regular saver! If I could have trusted/roped another adult in I would have had more! Get organised, go for it, you have to go the extra mile these days for the returns and there is always the satisfaction of knowing you are beating the banks!

1jim

what about putting up to £7000 in a lloyds tsb vantage account at 4% apr----I think you can have up to 3(you would need to check that out) at a time- would need to be in your name and pay tax on interest though

cathh70

If you don't mind locking up money for a while, Nationwide does an 18 month Tracker bond that is suitable for children over 7. Minimum investment is £100, and interest tracks at up to 2% above base rate.

Safehouse_2

jimjames wrote: »

I meant use your ISA allowance.

I'd been wondering about that recently. I opened a savings account for each of my my kids a couple of years ago so that their interest wouldn't be taxed. Now their rate of interest is so miserable that I'd been considering moving most of their money back into my ISA allowance (I have ISA allowance to spare this year). If I do this, are there any tax implications later on? For example, some of the kids' savings are gifts from rellies and some from us parents. AIUI, there is a much lower limit on the interest they can earn on the money from us parents before their interest is taxed. If I hang on to the money for a while in my ISA, and then put it back in the kids savings account at a later date, I guess the money which was originally from the rellies would now count as a gift from the parents? Is that right?
(Sorry for the thread drift!)