Recommendations for childs current account please.

BFS11

Morning all.
My eldest is 11yrs old and she is starting high school next week. My wife and I are looking to open a current account with a debit card for her - we want to give her some independence but also be able to have a little control as she is only 11.
We both bank with Barclays and have been given THREE different pieces of information about their "barclays plus" kids account - We went in this morning to open the account and have now been told that it will be a completely independent account which both my wife and I will not be able to monitor the balance of - this seems absurd to me as she is only 11 years of age and still not that responsible yet.

Anybody got any suggestions please? We are looking for an account with a debit card which both my wife and I can monitor the spending on and be able to send money into the account instantly in an emergency.
Thanks for your input.

[Deleted User]

Nationwide.
HSBC.
GoHenry.

[Deleted User]

The accounts you can monitor are the prepaid card type (GoHenry etc) and all have a monthly fee which I refuse to pay for banking facilities.

All my 4 kids have had an unmonitored bank account from age 11 with NatWest or RBS without any problems. Not sure how monitoring the account will help with anything, if it was cash you would have no way of knowing where or when it was spent anyway so it isn't a disadvantage having a bank account. I put in a monthly allowance for them to spend on whatever they wish, when it is gone, it is gone and they learned to control spending themselves fairly quickly.

Flobberchops

Correct, the Barclayplus account is a sole account with no option for any kind of delegated authority. You *could* get control of your child's account by registering their Mobile Banking on your own phone, although that's not an option if you already have your own Barclays mobile app installed. That would also go against the letter of the Ts+Cs, and also goes against the spirit of entrusting your child with their own money and impressing on them the importance of never sharing cards or login details!



Out of morbid curiosity, what are the three conflicting pieces of information you received?

Marchitiello

HSBC can be monitored and if you are a Premier customer, your child get that status too.

fiat_lux

Hi, I'm in the same boat, my child has just turned 11, and I'm hesitating between BarclayPlus (0.25% interest rate) and Nationwide FlexOne (1% interest rate). I bank with both banks and prefer to get one of these.

I'm also unclear of whether we should get a cash card or a debit card, what are some of the pros and cons for a child?

[Deleted User]

fiat_lux wrote: »

Hi, I'm in the same boat, my child has just turned 11, and I'm hesitating between BarclayPlus (0.25% interest rate) and Nationwide FlexOne (1% interest rate). I bank with both banks and prefer to get one of these.

I'm also unclear of whether we should get a cash card or a debit card, what are some of the pros and cons for a child?

It''s entirely down to you and how you want them to manage their money

System

Our son had a passbook account with Nationwide from the age of about six so we went with him to "upgrade it" to a Nationwide FlexOne when he turned 11 (he is now almost 14) and whilst there have been some ups and downs, and some mistakes made (ie financial ones) by him he is learning to manage his money pretty well (although not as well as I did at his age!!!!!). They will be studying finance when he returns to school this week which he is actually looking forward to (the subject, not the return to school!)

He decided to go with the debit card option, as he could then pay the exact amount for things, rather than have a cash card which would mean he would take £10 out of the hole in the wall, buy whatever it was he wanted and then have cash to fritter. Too much temptation. Unfortunately our local branch closed, so paying money in isn't as easy now but the nearest branch is only 20 minutes on the train and he is always happy for an excuse to go up there and pay cash or a cheque in if he needs to.

As far as keeping track of his account is concerned, we have a weekly "meeting" and go through his transactions and have the "did you really want it", "did you actually need it" and the "where is it now" discussion (the latter usually relating to unnecessary snacks purchased in town!). We decided he needed to make his own mistakes rather than us to be too controlling over his finances otherwise he wouldn't learn. He has a potentially expensive hobby (golf) and whilst we are looking forward to reaping the financial benefits of having a pro golfer to financially support us in our dotage, it is good that he has a focus for saving.

He also likes the idea that his account will stay with him for life (ie going from FlexOne to FlexStudent, etc) and always has at the back of his mind that if he does anything too disastrous he may have to bank with someone else!

cloud_dog

Our DD pretty much followed Mrs A's child progression to the NW FlexOne account.

The only real difference is that it is her money and therefore she has the right to spend it / waste it as she sees fit. Other than birthday/Christmas gifts from friends/relatives the money that goes in to the account is money she earns (jobs round the house, skittles sticking up).

It is quite interesting actually as she does 'value' the money in the account and is always trying to figure out ways how she can make her money work for her, i.e. if she gets a cash gift (or skittles money) she will give it to me / OH and ask us to transfer the same amount in to her account, as that way her 'money' is earning interest much more quickly than if she had to traipse in to town at a weekend to pay it in.

The one downside, or element that she has lost by using the debit card and not cash, is she has on occasions lost sight of how much is actually in her account, despite having the banking app on her phone. It is all a good learning curve though.

She hasn't linked the card to her phone (unsure if this debit card allows you to do this or not). And, the one thing I have insisted on, with her having the banking app is that she must not ever set up the app to allow access via facial recognition or fingerprint, it must always be via a passcode.

fiat_lux

Thanks both, this is really helpful. The weekly chat sounds like a great idea, my child has already "misbehaved" with the lunch card on the 1st day of secondary school - bought not only lunch but also a second meal during the morning break (after eating the snack from home) and exceeded the daily lunch allowance

We've just opened the BarclayPlus account through video banking, we didn't have to go in branch. Opted for contactless debit card and the mobile app, I guess it will be a full learning experience like that. The interest rate is low but it won't matter much for now, as the balance will be also very low.

Catplan

Last July I got my then 11 year old lad a Santander Mini 123 account, comes with usual debit card and is pretty much an adult bank account, with the exception of an over draft facility. It pays 3% on balances over £300. (Upto £2000 from memory). Interest is paid monthly and caused much excitement one month when it was a whole £2.50. As with accounts above its fully in his name and he has control. Paper statements are sent, it been good but it isn't used daily at the moment, with draws a small amount of his monthly allowance once a month sometimes every other month.