Childrens Savings Accounts Discussion Area

ForumUser7

jonnersb77 said:

I'm not at all happy with HSBC about their MySavings / My Account set-up for kids. I opened MySavings account for both of my kids a couple of years ago. When your child reaches 11 HSBC tell you your child is getting a MyAccount (current account) but what they don't tell you (certainly not clearly, though I am sure in the small print!) is that they re going to transfer the money from the MySavings account (with good interest rate) over to the current account (surprise surprise, earning no interest). I've just received the annual interest statement through the post and seen that my son's account has earned no interest in the last year, meaning him missing out on over £100. Really poor practice. How does this encourage kid's to save, more likely just to distrust banks!? The account can't be managed / accessed online meaning you would have to go to a branch to check the balance. And you get the one interest statement sent by post once a year meaning we didn't notice HSBC moving the savings monies into the current account. Disappointing. Watch out for this if your child has a MySavings account.

I agree with @eskbanker If this has occurred, this seems very wrong. If I was you, I would raise a complaint with HSBC and ask them why it moved automatically, and where in the ts and cs it states this would occur. You could also say you would like it to be moved back to the saver, and request a reimbursement of the lost interest.

I can manage my MySavings and MyAccount online and through the mobile app - I'm not sure what age you can do this from, but I've been able to since I got mine when I was 16.

Additionally, I receive monthly statements (paperless, but I used to get them on paper). It may be worth asking HSBC to arrange this for you.

I hope you get sorted with this.

refluxer

jonnersb77 said:

I'm not at all happy with HSBC about their MySavings / My Account set-up for kids. I opened MySavings account for both of my kids a couple of years ago. When your child reaches 11 HSBC tell you your child is getting a MyAccount (current account) but what they don't tell you (certainly not clearly, though I am sure in the small print!) is that they re going to transfer the money from the MySavings account (with good interest rate) over to the current account (surprise surprise, earning no interest). 

That's really poor - have you read through the T&Cs to see if there's any mention of this ? The general info on their product page simply implies that they'll open a 'MyAccount' online current account in addition to the existing MySavings account...

On your 11th birthday, we’ll also open one of the following current accounts for you, which together with your savings account, form a package called MyMoney:

• if you have a MySavings account, we will open you a MyAccount

I'm struggling to think of a reason they would do what they did, unless the under-11 MySavings account is somehow different to the over-11 account - has the account number changed ? If not, then it may even be a mistake. If it's not stated that the money would be automatically moved in the T&Cs, then I would definitely complain.

jonnersb77 said:

The account can't be managed / accessed online meaning you would have to go to a branch to check the balance. And you get the one interest statement sent by post once a year meaning we didn't notice HSBC moving the savings monies into the current account. Disappointing. Watch out for this if your child has a MySavings account.

The child gets online access once they reach 11 so I'm guessing you didn't set this up ? It is quite young to have access to online banking though, to be fair. My daughter was a lot older when we set hers up.