CTF - A few questions

Coffeekup

Me and my partner opened a child trust fund for our daughter back in 2010 with a £250 credit from the government. We went through Lloyds where they have invested it in (as far as i can tell tell) a fund named Scottish widows balanced growth portfolio fund.

I'm aware you can no longer get CTF's but u can move to another CTF or a JISA, where you can get better interest rates and some other accounts fixed for one year. There is a good chance i will move to some other savings account for her over the next couple of months, but first i need to weigh up which way is the best way to save for her over the next 10 years. Off the top of my head i might keep the child trust fund and pay in 50% of what were going to save for her in this account, as these can pay out quite well over a number of years and the other 50% in say a JISA. The reason for this is I'm not keen on putting my eggs all in one basket, and 2 how she ends up understanding money especially when it comes to pier pressure at 18 years of age, having a second account to fall back on when she's 21 might be a good thing.

Anyhow back to the CTF its a stake holder, where the stake holder has a handling fee of 1.5% and 0.20% as far as i understand goes to Lloyds as they introduced us to Scottish widows fund. I originally chose the stake holder account as i liked the slight gamble of getting better interest over savings and other accounts at the time.
Until recently we started paying £80 a month into her CTF and unsure what i/my daughter get's for that £80 and cant find a clear answer anywhere. Originally when the CTF account opened the £250 got her 200.8032 shares at the unit price of £1.2450 a share. Now the share price is 1.691 p/u on the latest statement was valued at a total of £339.56. So if i put £80 in last month for her CTF does that mean i bought 47.309 shares at say 1.691 (or the current days value whatever it is) so she has a total of 248.1124 shares? or is it effected some other way that I'm unaware of?

xylophone

Your child cannot have both a CTF and a JISA.

The statement should show how many units your child now holds.
The units are bought at the price on the day so might be higher or lower at the time of each purchase.

Within a JISA your child can hold both a cash and a stocks and shares account- see

https://www.gov.uk/junior-individual-savings-accounts/overview

You might find that if you transfer to a JISA, your fees may be less and you may have more choice.

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/investing/article-1587994/Junior-Isa-Child-Trust-Fund-How-save-invest-children.html

If you are uneasy about your child's having access to a large sum of money at 18, you might prefer to regard your own stocks and shares/cash ISA as "earmarked" for gifts to your child at a time of your choosing and the JISA as a vehicle to build up a modest gift for her at 18.

The best cash JISA rate is 4% offered by the Halifax if the registered contact has an ISA with them.

Coffeekup

xylophone wrote: »

-Snip-

Thx for the reply - good to know about not having a JISA and CTF at the same time, i have some how misread that or not taken it in. Also as i thought i understood it the shares would be bought at the new/or day's price.
Looks like i have a bit more reading and understanding to which way to lean about her savings. But i am leaning towards a set or fixed rate, i like the idea of shares as you may well end up with a better return at the end of a long term set period. But for the sake of a couple of hundred £££'s to a £1,000 I feel I'd rather she have a figure i can base her future on than a figure that can be a + or a - on what we've paid in.
I'll do a bit more reading up and I'm sure I'll be back with a couple more questions.