About a third of Child Trust Fund vouchers not cashed. What have you done with yours?

[Tinker]

here

Mine's still in a cupboard.

Whenever I pick up the detials, all too boring to read and complicated for a non-finance expert like me.

Plus, have a 8 year old with no savings to her name - don't like there being a difference between the 2.

What's your excuse?

Have put mine into hsbc which is giving v good return at mo. Intend to keep adding to it over the years and if dd wants to blow the lot on a new wardrobe, car, world travel, wild party when she is eighteen I hope I am a good enough sport to sit back and enjoy her enjoying the money.

teehee, kittyfish! i already know i'm not a good enough sport for that!

Btw, hsbc is share based and the 250 will go up to 284 this year (paid in in may). The hightest return is 294 but can't remember who with. Telegraph Sat or sun money section had the details though not sure which w/end, sorry.

After months of ignoring it I invested with F&C ... chose a couple of investment funds which looked good. Adding to it as well. When dd is old enough, I'd like to involve her in looking at how it is performing and whether we should switch funds etc. Think it is could learning opportunity for her and will hopefully encourage her to spend it wisely (yeah right!).

Mine expired at the end of the month so started looking into funds etc got a bit confused so went with Abbey Stakeholder fund which invests in shares and is not just a savings account but because it is stakeholder from the age of 13 they started to move the monies to safter investments - quite simple just filled in form and sent it off.

do they send the voucher automatically or do you have to apply?

there are several threads on here about what to do with it when you have it. do a search on trust fund if you're interested.

Can someone please tell what this is,I've never even heard of it?

I looked into mine last week and was thinking the Children's Mutual as well, Cod.

Hana, don't really know what you mean by "that type of daughter" re spending the money on whatever she wants. If you haven't put any in then it's just the money from the government anyway. My view is the money is from the government to the child, and they can spend it how this wish. I would hope wisely, but they've got to learn to make their own decisions and I am not going to control how they spend what is their money (although I'm sure I would be ready to advise!). If I add money to the CTF, there will be no conditions attached as far as I'm concerned.

Taitai, by ' that kind of daughter' I meant the kind that might completely diss our wishes/opinions/ideas on what the money should go towards. I would hate to see it completely squandered. I don't imagine it will be and I hope that at that age she will value her parents judgements .
but who knows what kind of person she'll be at 18? it's so hard to imagine her at 2 or 3 5 let alone 17 years down the road

but I'm not adding anything into it like so many others, have other accounts for her for that reason, wink wink

how much was everybody given? .. mine got £260

it depends on when they were born, and then interest was added to that amount. dd was born in Dec 04 and the voucher was sent out in March/April 05- so she had about 3 or 4 montsh worth on interest tacked onto it. WAs aboujt £268 I think

loona/lyra, they send it to you automatically but only if you are registered for child benefit. You can apply for child benefit online:

www.hmrc.gov.uk/childbenefit/index.htm

First invested at Asda, to get the £25 voucher, but they lost the voucher etc.. So ordered a new voucher and went with Children's Mutual through Boots. Boots sent a book of savings, which are pretty useless, as I don't buy many of the things they are giving money off.
Oh Well.
I think Children's Mutual did pretty well on a Which survey.

Message withdrawn

haven't got the time to read all ten thread so excuse me if this has already been suggested, but if you're undecided, ahve a look at which?.co.uk (they do a 30 day free trial if you're not a subscriber) thy've had a look at a few providers and that's how I chose mine

We wanted to invest DS's £250 into a fund which is managed ethically, Children's Mutual offer one via the Co-operative Insurance society. Not at home so can't find the number but expect you can just go to CM and ask for the ethical one rather than going via the co-op. We're trying to save a bit each month. Even a fiver each month equals another £60 a year which is an extra £1000 by the time DS is eighteen. Don't care what he does with it except don't want him to buy a motorbike, but maybe they won't even exist when he's grown up...

Ds2 is neary 2 and haven't done anything with it. I think it's a big con. You invest and top it up every year so you've got a nice sum for their 18th.

When they apply for a grant or loan for going to university, the goverment says "No way, you've got a tidy sum in the bank, we're going to help RTL's ds & dd 'cos she spent all her money of booze!!) IYSWIM

I live in France too, Rhubarb... my first one just ran out, didn't know where I could open it by phone. Next 2 run out in a couple of months. But ds1 doesn't qualify... is that fair?

Ours is in a pile of papers somewhere about to run out too.

I agree that I'm not keen on creating a large lump sum that can only be handed over to an 18 year old, with no parental control at all. Suppose your child had a drug addiction? Or was with a horrible leech-like boyfriend? Or was drinking heavily? I hope they would say, 'gosh thanks mater! Will use this very wisely to fund my education!' but they might well not. I have also opened accounts where I keep control of the money.

I feel like a right goody two-shoes as I invested my sons (now17 months) voucher the month we got it! Used an ethical trust fund run by childrens mutual soc. with Co-op we put money in every month - I am rubbish with money and want my son to be financially savvy (and therefore able to move out of home and not live with us 4 ever! next baby due in april (girl) will do the same for her ...

I invested ds voucher the month we got it. I dont see the point in leaving it! I know it is confusing to know where to put it, but it can be moved to a different account at a later date. I put it in a savings account and have a standing order going to the account every month.

We dont get anything in this country for free - I say cash it in!

I have 3 children - the first two were born before - so for my third child I cashed in my voucher for a Nationwide CFC (I went for Equity based) - I simply can't understand why people aren't using their vouchers! It's £250 for no effort other than filling in a form! How many people don't bother to claim their child benefit? Probably none really, so what's the difference?! Sorry - don't mean to sound smug, but it's not hard to get a CTF - I think I found the passport form more complicated!!!!

This thread has just prompted me to get my arse in gear regarding ds's voucher (expires May06). I've gone for the F&C Share Account and chosen one of the higher risk funds - I don't intend to top it up at all so view it as free money which I may as well take some risk with.