Junior ISA?

BankOfDad2021

Hello! Thank you in advance for any help and guidance.

Got myself a newborn daughter and keen to start saving for her. Ideally, I would like to think it could be a large chunk of a house deposit or something to start a business with.

Is a junior ISAbthe way to go? Do I run the risk she'll spend it on 1.5 years of an undergraduate in Underwater Basket Weaving if she can access at 18? Is there a better place to put it? Could I save the money myself and gift it to her when the time is right?

Are there junior ISAs that can do both cash AND stocks and shares? 

kuratowski

You're right, you do run the risk that she has control from 16 and complete access from 18, and you don't know what she will do with the money then.  Some of the regular posters on this forum have handled this risk by having two pots saved for their children: the JISA, which they will be able to access, and a separate one in the parents' own names, intended for the children but not actually legally theirs, to help them when they are slightly more mature.  As is often the case with these dilemmas, there isn't a right or wrong answer, and a combination of both approaches sometimes suits best.

Anyway, who knows what life will be like in 2040, Underwater Basket Weaving may be the growth industry of the future?

Both cash and S&S JISAs exist, however the providers offering attractive interest rates on cash JISAs (mainly building societies) aren't the same ones offering good value S&S investments (most people recommend Fidelity due to no platform fee).  Your child can have one of each kind of JISA.

BankOfDad2021

Thank you. I will do both I think!

ispookie666

Congratulations and it is great that you are thinking about the future.  Even if they blow the money away, it is still worth it.  
I used to have Cash ISA with Nationwide and drip fed it for a few years.  Then opened a Hargreaves Lansdown(HL) Junior ISA, again drip fed it for a few years.  They never charged fees, which later turned out to be administrative error, ended up having to pay up a load of fees. 
I moved the whole lot to Fidelity Junior ISA.  Currently they do not charge any fees for Junior ISA.  I find the platform easier to use than HL and changing the contribution and investments were a right pain with HL.