Savings account for under-16s (instant access)?

blueberrypie

15-year-old wants to open an instant access savings account to put his pocket money surplus into - something he can manage himself, not an account that we control. He already has a current account with Nationwide and uses the Nationwide app on his phone, so a savings account with them would have been ideal, and he found info about the NW Smart account on their website, but when he tried to open one, they told him that it hasn't been available for several years and that they don't offer any children's savings accounts. He was (quite rightly) very annoyed that this information isn't on the website.

Ideally he'd have a current account and savings account with the same bank/building society, for ease and speed of transfers back and forth. Any suggestions for an account that he can have in his own name and manage himself?

BooJewels

My son had one when he was a teen with Nat West (a long time ago) and it looks like they still do a current account that pays interest for 11-17 year olds:  https://www.natwest.com/current-accounts/childrens-accounts/adapt_account.html  Not exactly what you asked for, but I'm sure that others will be along with suggestions too.  We were with NatWest at the time, so I don't know if you need to be NW customers.

wmb194

blueberrypie said:

15-year-old wants to open an instant access savings account to put his pocket money surplus into - something he can manage himself, not an account that we control. He already has a current account with Nationwide and uses the Nationwide app on his phone, so a savings account with them would have been ideal, and he found info about the NW Smart account on their website, but when he tried to open one, they told him that it hasn't been available for several years and that they don't offer any children's savings accounts. He was (quite rightly) very annoyed that this information isn't on the website.

Ideally he'd have a current account and savings account with the same bank/building society, for ease and speed of transfers back and forth. Any suggestions for an account that he can have in his own name and manage himself?

HSBC? There'd be nothing wrong with getting into the habit at a young age of juggling multiple banks and BSs and chasing around the best deals.

https://www.hsbc.co.uk/current-accounts/products/children/

https://www.hsbc.co.uk/savings/products/mysavings/

DeLaSole

Hi blueberrypie,

My 15-year-old has a HSBC one to access the 5% instant-access savings account. At 16, I'll encourage to utilise dripfeeding from that into higher rate regular savers which 16-year-olds can have, such as with RBS/Natwest/Halifax/Nationwide.

Best wishes.

blueberrypie

BooJewels said:

My son had one when he was a teen with Nat West (a long time ago) and it looks like they still do a current account that pays interest for 11-17 year olds:  https://www.natwest.com/current-accounts/childrens-accounts/adapt_account.html  Not exactly what you asked for, but I'm sure that others will be along with suggestions too.  We were with NatWest at the time, so I don't know if you need to be NW customers.

It does require that the parent is a NatWest customer. I'm not, and not looking for a new current account, but they do have a £200 switching incentive so I might consider it. 

blueberrypie

wmb194 said:

HSBC? There'd be nothing wrong with getting into the habit at a young age of juggling multiple banks and BSs and chasing around the best deals.

I absolutely agree, and have pointed out to him the benefits of having accounts with more than one bank (what if their systems are down, if you've lost/damaged your bank card...) However at his age the account would have to be opened in-branch, and the only HSBC branch anywhere near us is a "digital service branch", with no counter services available, so I suspect it won't be possible to open a child account there.

eskbanker

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/child-savings-tax-free/#easyaccess summarises current market-leading options....

wmb194

blueberrypie said:

wmb194 said:

HSBC? There'd be nothing wrong with getting into the habit at a young age of juggling multiple banks and BSs and chasing around the best deals.

I absolutely agree, and have pointed out to him the benefits of having accounts with more than one bank (what if their systems are down, if you've lost/damaged your bank card...) However at his age the account would have to be opened in-branch, and the only HSBC branch anywhere near us is a "digital service branch", with no counter services available, so I suspect it won't be possible to open a child account there.

It can be opened online if the parent is a customer.

blueberrypie

wmb194 said:

It can be opened online if the parent is a customer.

I'm not, though, and to be honest, none of their current accounts is appealing enough to me to waste a credit-check and however long it would take for them to post stuff out etc.

wmb194

blueberrypie said:

wmb194 said:

It can be opened online if the parent is a customer.

I'm not, though, and to be honest, none of their current accounts is appealing enough to me to waste a credit-check and however long it would take for them to post stuff out etc.

I'd just do it and it doesn't matter that you won't use the account*. Credit check fears are usually overblown.

*HSBC sometimes has good regular savers, though.

blueberrypie

eskbanker said:

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/child-savings-tax-free/#easyaccess summarises current market-leading options....

I looked at that before I posted, but there are problems with most of those listed. As a 15-year-old, he'll have to provide ID either by post or in-branch, which means posting off documents if there's no branch we can get to (and I'm not sure he even has anything that would show proof of address), so that eliminates all the local building societies listed. Neither Halifax nor Santander has a child-managed savings account with unrestricted withdrawals. So that leaves the HSBC (see above). It's looking like NatWest might be the best (only!) option.