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?

Roobie, I have done exactly the same as you for my two dd's, for the same reasons. Go high risk to start with and will look at moving it later when they are 14 or so. It is free money. We are not adding to it though and have other savings accounts set up for them both.

Aloha that's a good point. It's horrifying to think of having to give your troubled 18 year old the means to do him/herself further damage. We all hope that won't be our child, but it's always somebody's!! Do we have any control in that situation? Or is it just their money, full stop?

It is their money full stop. I consider myself fortunate to have been brought up in a very loving family with fabulous advice from my Mum and stepdad, but at 18 I still blew my entire savings in my first year at University . Maybe I am the exception, but I really doubt it. Therefore I will not be adding to this account. I received a sum of money at 21 however and this was used to pass my driving test and buy a suit for interviews. I had grown up a bit by then.

Skyler, I did exactly the same. I don't think you're likely to be the exception at all! I'd be more comfortable with it going to them on their 21st - at 18 they're still teenagers fgs!

My ds's is still sitting on my shelf. I'd have looked at it earlier but all the different types of account are really confusing. dh usually deals with money stuff but I don't seem to have communicated to him the urgency of dealing with it. (expires in 2 weeks!)

HSBC stakeholder account. I am also intending to top up to full entitlement every year - because it is tax efficient, for both dd and I (IHT-wise). Am I crazy? I am assuming dd will turn out responsible. I don't intend to tell dd about this so if she turns out otherwise, she lives in blissful ignorance. But clearly that will not work with the CTF since all her peers will have one and she will be asking about it.

i agree 21 would be a much better age to be able to access it. They might be leaving university then and have big debts and it would be a great help. At 18 I would have blown it, despite advice from my parents, I'm sure.

My baby is nearly 9 weeks old. I haven't received the voucher yet. Where does it come from?

Have you registered for Child Benefit? You get it automatically when you have done this.

Yes I have registered for Child Benefit. How long after do I have to wait? I think that I have been getting it for 5 weeks now.

Hmm not sure. Sorry. Maybe someone else can help.

Like other people we invested the voucher with the Children's Mutual as well - mainly because at the time this was the only equity account with any ethical investment dimension at all (in the FTSE4Good).

I put mine into the best investment fund I could find - a long term top performer with no commissions to fat cats. I applied online at www.scottishfriendly.co.uk/products/childtrustfund.html

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Haven't done dd's yet but dd one didn't get one.
I am very uneasy about them coming in to money at 16 or 18 (they look after it at 16) as others have said, what if at that time we're arguing?
It does worry me so we won't be adding to it i think. Though we may set up one for dd1 too so they're even.

Still don't know what to do with it. Can you do it all online?

Still not done it!

we did liverpool vic shares acc. not stakeholder. if you are going to put in extra money you pay 90 one off fee but then the mgmt charge is lower than others so if you invest over 500 is worth it (1.3% i think). if we weren't going to put any more in it would have been childrens mutual. govt invest 4 you if you reach expiry date - you don't lose it.

I do think that 18 is too young so will have another acc in our name for other investmnts. gad i love this money stuff...

I invested ours into the Nationwide tracker fund. I have not topped it up to the maximum but now we have some cash savings, will be putting in £100 a month.