Opening new savings account for our baby today, what type is best?

dottydee_2

Hello Everyone,

Our little girl has just turned one and we were shocked and how genourous people have been. This has meant we have had to bring opening a savings account earlier for her.

We are heading into town this afternoon, we currently bank with Natwest and Santender, so were thinking to open an account with Natwest for her. Other banks locally to us are Barclays and Halifax.

I am starting to get really confused, all we want is a good interest rate for our little girl and account that both my husband and I have to cosign in order for her to gain access to her money in the future.

We have been inundated with the usual finance investment options but after reading the fine print it appears we could end up paying more in then she would ever receive!!

Any advice would be apprciated.

Thanks in advance

atush

Halifax has an excellent children's regular saver. I'd start with that.

dottydee_2

Thanks atush, i did read somewhere that there was a childrens savings account of up to 6% out at the moment but I'll be damned if I can find it lol. Do you think having an account with a bank that we as parents dont bank with is a good idea?

opinions4u

Halifax Kids Regular Saver - 6%

Halifax Junior ISA - 6% (if you have your cash ISA with them)

Northern Rock Little Rock - 3%

Lloyds TSB Young Saver - 3%

dottydee_2

Hi opinions4u,

I think we are going to head over to the Halifax, we have been given a mixture of cash and cheque's to put in for her, mostly cash and a 'fair' sum to put in, would you suggest ISA or regular saver? We dont want her to have access until she is at least 18 so I am not sure if either ISA or savings account have restrictions with them.
Thanks in advance for your response

atush

Well if you go rgualr saver you will need an easy access acct to stash the cash and drip feed it in. If you can open a Cahs ISA with H, i'd go that route.

But do think hard abt saving all in cahs for her. 17 years is a very long time, and over that time frame equtiies will out perform cash, and cash may lose ground to inflation as it has done the last 2 years.

opinions4u

We dont want her to have access until she is at least 18 so I am not sure if either ISA or savings account have restrictions

Junior ISA then. But keep an eye on rates throughout the term - might want to transfer to another provider if rates become less competitive.

It may be worth opening up a standard kids account for some of the loose change though. Halifax pay 2% on their easy access Young Saver.

mildred1978

My LO is on his 2nd Halifax regular saver (£100 per month @ 6%), a second regular saver at 5ish % (£50 per month). Payments come out of my First Direct account (we don't have any accounts with either of these banks). He also has a Little Rock account at 3% for any cheques/cash he's given. He has over £2k in there already and he's only 20 months old!

dottydee_2

I have just been reading up on the Halifax Junior ISA, ISA's are totally new to me, I understand to keep an eye on the rates but I thought once we signed up we were 'locked in'??

atush

No, you can transfer.

And I can guess you have no ISAs for yourself? If you pay tax, you should.

mildred1978

I'm not sure what the point of a junior ISA is - kids rarely need to pay tax on their savings anyway!