Which bank account for a 15 yr old?

practicalmum

In the interest of involving my son in some financial planning i would like to open a bank account for him.My intention is to put in some money each month as pocket money for him to spend/save as he wants.I think it should help with educating him about mobile phone usage price of clothes etc.
However I seem to be stuck!
The student accounts need a UCAS no and he is too young for that.The children's account don't give him what he needs.ie ready access with NO overdraft facility.Any ideas please?:)

grumbler

practicalmum wrote: »

...The children's account don't give him what he needs.ie ready access with NO overdraft facility.

I don't understand what he needs...

What's "ready access"?
Does he need "NO overdraft facility"? If so, I think all children's accounts don't have an agreed overdraft. However, if it's not a cash card, I think theoretically the account can be overdrawn.

practicalmum

I'll try again to explain.I don't want him to be able to go overdrawn.
He needs access via a debit card for use in a cash machine.
No charges. Thanks

grumbler

For ATMs only he needs a cash card, not Visa. The former is safer.

Check HSBC MyMoney

HSBC Visa Debit Card.™

When you're 11, you can get an HSBC Visa debit card for your MyAccount, with your parents permission. Use your card to shop in stores, online or wherever you see the Visa logo. You can also take out money from any ATM up to £100 a day. You could get up to £100 cashback at outlets nationwide when you pay with your HSBC debit card. Pay for goods and services nationwide wherever you see the Visa logo shown on your card More on the HSBC VISA Debit Card.™


Only spend what you have

With MySavings and MyAccount you can only spend what you have in your account. It means you don't have to worry about going over your limit.

Barclays an Santander do both Visa and cash cards for children.
I think all other banks an BSs do at list a cash card.

rb10

He's 15 years old. So more than capable of using the internet to research what's best himself. I'd also suggest that he should be able to do the application himself, without you having to do it for him.

If he was here asking, I'd say that for any financial product, you need to look at how much it's going to charge you (nothing, in this case), and how much benefit you're going to get from it (i.e. what's the interest rate).

He should be able to fairly easily find out that some banks pay zero interest on their childrens' current accounts (= don't touch with a barge pole!) and others pay a very decent rate.

I would steer him in the direction of

http://www.lloydsbank.com/current-accounts/under-19s-account.asp

and

http://www.santander.co.uk/csgs/Satellite?c=Page&canal=CABBEYCOM&cid=1210610544143&empr=Abbeycom&leng=en_GB&pagename=Abbeycom%2FPage%2FWC_ACOM_TemplateB2