MIL keeps asking about children’s savings accounts

I would just think she just wants the bank details so she can transfer directly and not get catch out. I would be pretty happy that she is thinking about the kids future.

It a grandparent puts money in to yours sons account you can’t move it into an account in your name

Well she wanted to put money in the kids accounts, not yours so I see her point. If she’s doing the same for other grandkids then I can see why she pushed. An account in your name is not the same as an account in their own name - also for tax purposes she might need it going into account in their names.

We have this too. But if a grandparent is talking about putting potentially thousands into an account, where would you prefer they did it? I'm asking as I genuinely don't know, and might be in a similar situation!

I guess at the moment if the money goes into the kid's account, I could access it and squirrel any big chunks away into 'our' savings (the one I am keeping separate specifically for him).

But, if the GP is making large gifts and there are tax implications, I suspect that might get more complicated.

If your MIL is dominating you its because you are letting her. she cant do it unless you allow it and you are allowing it.

I think the children get contacted by letter once they reach 18 or whenever it is. It's precisely to avoid people being able to set up a kids' ISA but not really for the kids.

Tbf you could just open up an JISA in your child's name for grandparents etc to put money in. I have both a JISA and a seperate pot in our joint account we're putting savings in for my 6 year old.

Relatives can put birthday money and gifts in the JISA that is solely in my child's name, where as my husband and I put savings in a savings account we control but intend to give DC when we think they'll need it most, ie towards a house deposit. The one under our name is so that we have more control as we were both terrible with money as teens/20s. The JISA our child can then either save or piss up the wall when they're 18 but its their money that they will have autonomy over.

Can you set up an account in your child's name solely for your grandparents and relatives to add to? Personally I think its massively fair that they want to give money and put it directly into their GCs account, you can still keep your own seperate savings for them that you control and add to.

Is it in your name or name their name though?

My friend's MIL swindled her own child out of a 500k inheritance... If something like that has happened in her family you can understand where she's coming from!

Make your husband et up accounts for your children in their names! You MiL is right, sorry

Sure - but that's not what the MIL is asking for. She wants the OP to set up an account in the children's name, and prove to her that any birthday money is being deposited in there (hence asking the child to show her the card and check the money was still in there). There's an implication of not trusting the OP, and that MIL knows best what should happen to their birthday gifts.

We don't put birthday/ Christmas money in an ISA and keep it in an account linked to DH's account (though it's in DD's name and taxed accordingly) because we want the option of being able to access it (FOR HER) if we decide that spending it on something she would greatly enjoy or benefit from right now is the better option. We save differently/ more efficiently for her elsewhere - but this is about birthday gifts. Some people don't save birthday money at all - and that's perfectly valid if that's what they want. My own family are happy for me to do whatever I think best, but I think they have somewhat the expectation that it's going to be spent on something bigger that she'd enjoy. You don't get to give a gift and say what happens to it.

The OP has her reasons for organising her children's savings accounts the way she has - you can not agree it's the best way, the MIL can not agree it's the best way - but ultimately it's not really anyone else's business.

If MIL went to her son and said 'I want to invest X amount for DC's future, I will only do this if it's in a Junior ISA as I believe that's the best option for them, could you open one and share the details with me so I can contribute?' - that's one thing, although note I said the person she should be talking to is her son, not the OP. What she doesn't get to do is dictate that this is what happens to her birthday gifts.

She can save £50 a year in whatever way makes sense to her for her grandchildren, she can persuade her son to open the kind of account she approves of and deposit £50 a year, she can buy physical birthday gifts instead/ as well as the money, or she can bung the cash in a card and accept it'll get spent/ saved however the child's parents see fit until the child is deemed old enough (by said child's parents) to have an input.

You have a card with which you can instantly access cash from a savings account? I guess maybe a kids one but I didn't think that's how they worked.

My son has 2 savings accounts. The first one is an account he's unaware of, that we pay monthly into and when young any birthday/Christmas money was deposited. The second account is one that he's fully aware of, and he saves up pocket money/birthday/Christmas money and deposits. He can access the second account, and take out money if he wishes.

A child having their own account, that they can access, teaches them how to save. So half of their Christmas/birthday money they can spend, the rest is saved. If you can afford it, set up a second account each and pay into it yourself, and don't tell them.

The most efficient way of earning money for children is in a Junior ISA. The interest is tax free. However whilst a grandparent can pay into one they can’t set it up, a parent has to do that.

It does matter what you do with it, and is the fonors business, if the financial gift is given with the intention of being for the childs future financial security. However. If it is just birthday gift money you are certainly free to spend it how you and the child would like.

OP you sound like you hate your MIL and you are not very financially savvy either.

Just give her the account details. She isn't the problem here.

Perhaps if your DH sent his mother the account details for his DC she would put more money in?

Because maybe she wants to use the kid’s birthday money to buy them a trampoline for the garden, or take them to a theme park?

The OP has savings accounts for her kids. It may not be the kind that you, or other posters here would think best, but she’s made her perfectly valid choice as a parent.

Her MIL is not just randomly giving money towards saving for the child’s future, she’s giving them a birthday gift. It’s not up to her to dictate what’s done with it, and it’s bloody insulting of her to imply the OP is stealing it.

My MIL wouldn’t have been able to recognise our kids in a crowd, so maybe be grateful she’s looking to gift them money. Seems odd to look a gift horse in the mouth!

Why not open a JISA (up to 9K a year) for them if she’d like to invest regularly. Or if your worried about them having access to cash at 18, a JSIP, £2880 a year limit as they have no earnings, topped up by the government to £3660 and they can’t access till 10yrs below state pension age, so currently 57yrs.
£2880 a year from birth to 67yrs would yield a 1.5m pension with conservative growth, so well worth staring as a child!

Well, you have already said that you don't want DS to have access to the money when he's 18. If you want to save money intended for him and choose when he gets it, that's your choice, but if MIL wants it to go into an account that is for him and belongs to him to access when he becomes an adult, that's also her choice. It takes a few minutes to set up a savings account and the interest rates are very good, so I don't understand why you wouldn't do it. If MIL was to save money for him under her own name and then die within 7 years of giving it to him, it would be subject to IHT rules.

This is fine but you pay tax on their interest at marginal rate as it is yours. There would no such tax if it was in their name and they would also get a higher rate of interest. That could be the difference between your child earning 5% interest or 2%. Big difference

My ex MIL did this with me too. Now we are going way back into the mid 90’s. I had a bank account opened for my oldest son, and my mother in law would ask to see the bank account and would make the excuse she wanted to put money into his bank. I never gave her it, as it’s no business of hers what is in his account, and I hated the fact that she didn’t trust me. She eventually said she had opened an account for him and at one point told me she had saved £5000 for him and he would get it when he turned 18.
She never opened a bank account for him as she would have needed his birth certificate for it which she never asked me for. Needless to say my son has never saw a penny of this money that she apparently “put away for him”. Whereas when my son told her how much money I had given him when he turned 21, well let’s just say her jaw dropped.

If you save 'for children' in your own name, it can impact your tax situation, or entitlement to benefits. My ex wanted to save money in our names rather than DC's. He wanted half of the money when I left him. Luckily, I'd ignored his wishes.

I have accounts which I've named as my children's savings. I actually got the idea from mumsnet as there was lots of talk of 18 year olds being really irresponsible which they can be. I think having some control over the money so they don't waste it is sensible. I'm not going to steal my children's money and would be annoyed at having to prove I'm not doing that.

If MIL wants to save money for her grandchildren she doesn’t have to go via you to do it. She can open her own savings account for her grandchildren.

Am with you. It is interfering and cheeky.
We did not open separate accounts for our children, both because of the danger you highlight of them having access to the money at an age when they might make unwise decisions and because we had seen what rampant inflation in the 70’s had done to the relative value of savings accounts set up for very young children.
We did do a lot of saving, in our names, throughout their childhood. This was what allowed us to support them through uni, offer interest free car loans, help with deposits for house purchase, all things which set them up in a stronger financial position than a savings account which they got at 18 and blew. MIL disagreed with our approach so bought premium bonds. They learned about the value of saving from piggy banks, deals with us to hold back pocket money for something, and teen bank accounts as soon as they were old enough.
With our grandchildren we buy things they need and some premium bonds.
Cash in birthday cards is for the child to choose how to spend.

If you give your grandchildren money for their birthday it is not up to you to decide what happens to that money.

If their parents choose to save all, save some and spend some, or spend all then that’s up to them (and eventually the child depending on age). Providing it’s being spent on the child or saved for the child - and if you don’t trust your own children to do that for theirs then that’s an issue.

In that case, you have 2 options. Give them actual physical birthday gifts which young children at least will enjoy more.

Or set up a savings account in their name yourself and pay into that every birthday.