help on childrens accounts for child to use

Tracey04

i would like my children to open an account that they can put little amounts of money in. They are 7 and 9.
I remember when I was young having a post office account with a paying in book so that I could see the pennies mount up. ( it all seemd to be internet or cash card accounts , but I wanted them to experience the total adding up in the book )Then moved onto the famous Natwest pigs. Looking for something like that- though I guess the days of the pigs have well gone, and yes mine are bubble wrapped and put away safe. what freebies are avaliable these days- noticed Leeds does a stuffed dinoasaur, but thats all I could find.

Any advice would be wonderful. Thanks T

Dixie99

Hi Tracey04. The Halifax do a passbook account for children to use, it's a Save4it account. Open it with just £1. Minimum age for a child to operate the account is 7, so your kids will be fine. It pays 5.80% AER and you get a free calculator, coin bank, save4it card (to open the coin bank) and special passbook wallet. My kids have them, they love watching their pennies adding up ! I hope this helps.

martinman3

There is a thread on children's account freebies although may not be completely up-to-date http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1037

Normally I would say that your children should learn that those freebies come at a price, a lower interest rate, but your Natwest pigs are probably an exception.

I can personally recommend the One Day account from Yorkshire Building Society at 5.90% or Smart account from Nationwide at 5.78%.

Of the two the YBS account is better because you can operate the account in trust for them until the age of 21 so you can keep control if you wish. They also have a Freedom account for children from 12 with a cash card with a monthly withdrawal restriction as low as £10 I believe but that must be in their name alone.
The Nationwide Smart account must be transferred to their name at 16 and the optional cash card has no withdrawal limit.

If you plan on depositing coins remember that they must be bagged in £1 ,£5, £10 or £20 depending on denomination which takes some of the fun out of it.

And make sure that you fill in R85 forms for the accounts to receive interest paid gross without tax taken off.

SoggyMoggy

Yep, Dixie just beat me to it, mine were switched to Halifax after the Chelsea refused to accept their bagged-up coin collections. I made a huge fuss in the branch, asking how the heck I was supposed to teach them the value of saving their pennies if the counter staff refused to accept them?

Voted with my feet. Halifax won, though we missed out on the free calculator, they got the coin bank, card and a bag. They've got more money than I have now!

Tracey04

Thanks for your replies. I have already opened a Save it account at the halifax when they were 3 weeks old ( money I put in for them), so I guess they carnt have 2 of those. I realize that freebies come at a cost and they are very good savers at home but at the end of the day they are children and thought banks would be alittle more willing to encorage them.
is anyone with Leeds BS in the dinosaver? any more thoughts.
Thanks T