Gifting money to nieces and nephews

TelK

Having no children of our own, we like to send a cheque for our nieces' and nephews' birthdays.  Since cheques are fast going out of fashion, and a BACS payment just isn't the same, can anyone please suggest an alternative, eg, can one open a savings account on their behalf, or issue some sort of savings certificate to put in with their greeting card?

xylophone

Do the children have JISAs?

If not, perhaps their parents could open for them and you could contribute? 

p00hsticks

TelK said:

Having no children of our own, we like to send a cheque for our nieces' and nephews' birthdays.  Since cheques are fast going out of fashion, and a BACS payment just isn't the same, can anyone please suggest an alternative, eg, can one open a savings account on their behalf, or issue some sort of savings certificate to put in with their greeting card?

What are your computer skills like ? Do you have a printer at home ?
You could create your own customised certificate to put in with their card, either to say that you've transferred money into their account or as some form of promise (e.g. 'this certificate entitles the bearer to one trip to MacDonalds, etc.....)

fabsaver

You could consider Premium Bonds, as long as the parents are happy to manage the accounts. The children might enjoy the fun of seeing if they have won each month. Not sure on your budget but it's a minimum gift of £25.

https://www.nsandi.com/get-to-know-us/nsandyou/gift

tafelmoneysaver

I have a seperate account for each of my niblings where I contribute birthday and Christmas money, but now that interest rates are rising, I'm not finding it easy to move these into a new account paying higher interest. New account openings seem to want original ID docs, where as I could use photocopies in the past. The physical location of my niblings means this will be a lengthy and expensive process due to international postage being needed. 

To keep chasing the better interest rates, I might have been better to keep the money in an account in my own name and track the contributions and allocate interest between the beneficieries myself. Caveat, the money would legally by yours, not theirs, and you would need to consider if this impacts your tax free savings allowance.

wmb194

TelK said:

Having no children of our own, we like to send a cheque for our nieces' and nephews' birthdays.  Since cheques are fast going out of fashion, and a BACS payment just isn't the same, can anyone please suggest an alternative, eg, can one open a savings account on their behalf, or issue some sort of savings certificate to put in with their greeting card?

I'd just continue to send cheques and wouldn't worry about it. If you've been sending them to date they must have a way to deposit them. A savings certificate you can put in a card could be termed a banknote... More seriously, bearer bonds are illegal so a, "savings certificate" of some sort would need to relate to some sort of savings account.

Opening savings accounts really wouldn't be much different to sending money electronically and entails a new level of engagement if you plan to become a trustee. How much money are we talking about? Would it be worth the hassle?

Malthusian

My mother's way of gifting money is a piece of paper wrapped around an empty toilet roll which reads "Happy birthday, £X is in your account." Which is turn wrapped up in the style of a Christmas cracker.

There is a saying in my family "Money is never boring".

I would go with the notification in the greeting card or whatever you feel is sufficiently fancy.