Withdrawing from a "Barclays Children's Savings" account...

WillyVWade

Hi, I'm 18 and I have a Barclays Children's Savings account still, but without my mother's signature, I can't access my money.

My mum's out of the country intill Mid-April and I have a PS3 that's on "Buy-back" at Gamestation, which I need £70 to retrieve (Well my sister does, but this isn't about family politics). They said that if they shut up shop before we get the PS3 back, it has gone.

Any idea how I could get at my money? Are Barclays telling me the truth that I can't get at it (I was told that it automatically changes to my account when I turn 18, this isn't true apparently...)

martinman3

After looking at the T&Cs, Barclays are correct that only the account holder, not the "child", can access it.

1.1 To hold this account you must be at least 18 and resident in the UK for tax purposes. You can only hold a Barclays Children's Savings account in your sole name. You will operate the account as trustee for one child under 18 (the "child").

2.6 Only you are allowed to make withdrawals from the account and you can do this without notice.

3.3 Until you give instructions for the account to be transferred to the child, it will remain in your name. It is your responsibility to decide when the account should be transferred to the child under the terms of the trust and give us the necessary instructions shortly before that date.

Although not applicable to you, if a parent wished they could "forget" to transfer the money to the "child" who would probably need to go to court to get it. Many people on these forums would love to have an account like this.

The best that I can suggest is to temporarily borrow the money from relatives or your mother could arrange a money transfer using Western Union or something similar and you collect it in cash.
http://www.westernunion.co.uk/WUCOMWEB/staticMid.do?method=load&countryCode=GB&languageCode=en&pagename=HomePage
Please note that I have never used them myself.