Halifax existing customer with two kids regular saver

van1lla

Hi

I went to open a young saver as my kids regular saver is due to end soon. I also wanted to check that my 2nd child 'kids regular saver' was gross interest as my 1st childs wasn't. Upon checking to see if it was gross interest, she noticed that I had two kids regular saver for the same child. She said that it was illegal to have this and the HMRC would be contacting me. She then tried to get me to close the account, but I told her I only came to open a young saver and didn't have time for this.

What I want to know is should I close one of the kids regular saver so that it's now one per child as there new terms and conditions says? Even though ours was opened way back in 2010 before this new condition came into effect.

Shouldn't it be up to them to sort their own paper work as I haven't had a letter saying you can't have two kids regular saver account per child since this new term/condition came in. In fact I received two same letters for each account, asking if I wanted to continue the kids regular saver to fill in the form.

Anyone else have this problem?

innovate

This doesn't sound right - - HMRC has no say in how many Halifax Kids Regular Saver accounts anyone can have. It is a Halifax rule that there is only 1 per child.

If they have by mistake opened the second one in a wrong name, surely they can correct this?

Where the HMRC does have a say is when it comes to Junior ISAs (JISA). Each eligible child can only have one of these, regardless of how whether they also have a Kids Regular Saver. May be that's where the confusion arose?

xylophone

If a parent saving money for a child outside tax privileged accounts( CTF/ JISA etc) be careful of the £100 rule. http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20121015000000/www.direct.gov.uk/en/MoneyTaxAndBenefits/ManagingMoney/PlanningYourPersonalFinances/DG_10013916

van1lla

innovate wrote: »

This doesn't sound right - - HMRC has no say in how many Halifax Kids Regular Saver accounts anyone can have. It is a Halifax rule that there is only 1 per child.

If they have by mistake opened the second one in a wrong name, surely they can correct this?

Where the HMRC does have a say is when it comes to Junior ISAs (JISA). Each eligible child can only have one of these, regardless of how whether they also have a Kids Regular Saver. May be that's where the confusion arose?

They haven't made a mistake with the name. They opened two accounts under two different trustees (mum and dad). So if they are saying that you're only allowed 1 per child, it was their mistake for allowing two to be opened under different trustees.

What do you think I should do? Close the account? Or leave it until I get some notice in the post mentioning this. I wasn't even aware they had changed the t&cs as nothing has been sent in the post. I would still be unaware if I hadn't asked whether the acc was gross interest.

innovate

Ah right, didn't realise it was 2 accounts for the same child but opened by different people.

I don't think the Halifax rules ever allowed more than one per child. Since these accounts must be opened in Branch, it was clearly them who made the mistake of opening a 2nd account, and you/your kid should not get punished for that.

May be they should transfer the money, incl accrued interest, into a Young Saver account. Or give you / the grand parent the sum, so you can do what you like with it. Lloyds do a kids saver with 3% AER, or there are some other Reg Savers for kids, I think - check the first few posts in this forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=608697

jennifernil

They used to allow as many accounts as you wanted, but now it is one per child, that came in about 15 months back I think.

I would do nothing, let them sort it out!

Certainly nothing to do with HMRC.

Mine for my grandchildren are about to end, they sent out a letter saying you can now apply by post to continue an account for another year, so that is progress. Especially for those of us in Scotland who have no Halifax branches to visit.

If it is your parents who pay into the account, should the letters asking if they wanted to continue the accounts not have gone to them?

van1lla

That's what I'm going to do. Let them sort it out.
We also got the letters to apply by post to continue an account for another year. We are the mum and dad who opened up the accounts. No grandparents I'm afraid.

jennifernil has your grandchild got more than one kids regular saver account then?