Saving for your child

[Anony123]

How do you save for your child? My dad was saying about setting up a child isa but I don't want her to have access to lots of money that I've worked hard to save when she is 18 incase she blows it all. She is only 11 months old now. So I was looking in to setting up an adult isa in my name to save for her...but I don't really understand how isas work. How do you save for your lo?

I have an account in my name and DSs name. When DS is he can have access to the money but only with my permission.

I am against putting any significant money in a DCs name such that they can access it by right at 18. I think the tax advantages as outweighed by the risk of them blowing it. And you have no idea how your sweet 1yo (or 13yo) will be at 18.
So a separate account that you mentally designate as theirs is fine. Go to local building society and ask re regular saver accounts & ISAs.

Agree about not letting them blow it at 18, seen it way too many times with friends kids.

DD has got a JISA but with only a few thousand in it. She also has an online ISA where Birthday money goes.

My boys have a regular saver (4%) which empties into a young saver account (2%) annually. It's in their name but I control the account.

The way I see it, that money is there to help throughout their lives - if they want to do a school ski trip or want to buy an instrument I'll use some of that money. An ISA is too restrictive.

We had this but have started to think.

What happens if something happens to us? What is there to stop someone else taking the money from the dcs? (We have insurance for those sorts of costs)

How does their savings (under my name) affect my tax and limits?

I thought about them having two accounts in their name. One they know about and one they don’t.

Some grandparents set up pensions for their grandchildren. That way they can’t spend it at 18 but can reduce their own pension payments once they are earning.

I don't save for the DC.
Two main reasons:

1. We're probably nowhere near as well-off as the average MNer. We do have family savings, but I'd feel like a bit of a tit if for example I couldn't replace the roof but the DC had ££££ locked away that I couldn't access
2. Control. Young adults don't always make the greatest long-term financial decisions. I'd happy help out with buying a car or a season ticket or a deposit on a property if needed, but worry about the cash being frittered away.

We have a savings account in our name that is for DSs. Two reasons - firstly if our world came crashing in it would be mad to have money we’d saved that we couldn’t access and secondly we want to be equitable so we’ve saved from when DS1 was born but DS2 won’t lose out as we haven’t saved twice as much since he was born.

Would be different if the money wasn’t just us making regular savings. As and when they get birthday money (hasn’t happened yet and DS1 is nearly 6 so I’m not expecting this to be a thing) then I’d open them their own account.

@LastOneDancing do you mind me asking who you bank with - those rates are fab! I thought I was doing well at 3.3%.

@HollyBollyBooBoo

It's Halifax. It's not as good as it sounds, as you can only save £100 per month into the regular saver. Thats emptied annually into a young saver, so you start all over again! The 2% is on balances up to 5k but it's easy access.
Can I ask where your found 3.3%?

Thank you! The 3.3% is a Coventry building society JISA - so does mean the money is legally DDs when she's 18. I'm not going to put loads in it.

Just opening a nationwide account for new dd- 3.5% if parent is nationwide customer or 2.5 if not. Is specific children's savings but we control until she is 16 after which she could access but working on basis that we have a choice before then to move it so that it's in our name so she can't access (or just not tell her about it unless she needs it) money is mostly some we were given from to her when born and when young will bank any other money in it where given instead of gifts. This is same we've already done for ds who is nearly 2.

I've not opened ISA for DDs, partly so we can access the money together and teach them not to blow it when 18, and partly because normal savings accounts seem to have better interest rates at the moment. They are not earning so would have to have an extraordinary amount saved to pay tax on the interest.
Actually as interest rates are only worthwhile on small amounts in each account they each have 2 accounts, and I'm going to have to rearrange soon.

I save for DS via premium bonds.
Every few months he seems to ‘win’ £25 so that kinda serves as the interest iyswim.
Of course there’s always the (very slim) possibility that he could win up to a million!
It’s in our joint names so either of us can withdraw the money (although he doesn’t know about it yet!)
It means if anything happened to me he would be able to access the money.
I plan on using it for driving lessons/car/insurance in the first instance. Anything left after that will be for a deposit on a flat/house.

See I want to save for her but I want to have control over it incase she ends up blowing it. I'm trying to find the best way to do that. She is only 1 now but I have no idea what she is going to be like at 18 so I'm not risking that. What would be the best way?

How about a child investment fund? DC has now got 12.5k from a 750 start. We have added 75 a month over the last 8 years.

If the DC are wild at 18 I'm just going to hide the post

We use a combination of JISA (which will be theirs at 18) and dh and my ISA (which we will continue to control). All sums are invested in low cost funds, rather than cash deposits.

I just have a separate account linked to my own bank accounts that I pay into. I'll be able to access to help him buy a car/house when I think he is mature enough.

He also has a school banking account that I put a few dollars into each week, which I don't care if he has access to when he's older as it won't amount to all that much anyway.

Good article in Martins MSE email today about kids saving accounts. He doesn't rave about JISAs.

We transfer $50 a month to daughters savings account, plus additional if grandparents give birthday money etc. she's nearly 5 and has over $3k. This is more to assist with first house but etc than to give as a full amount at 18

So most people just have a normal savings account to put the money in to? See I'm not going to be able to save a lot and probably won't be the same each month as it will just be what I can afford