Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Investments

Discuss investments with other users on our Investment forum. For more advice read our tips for saving for your child's future.

Best children's savings accounts

6 replies

redjumper · 23/04/2017 15:05

I'm looking to open an account for DC3 to invest about £10k for long term savings eg future uni living costs.
We currently have Lloyds current accounts for the other DCs but the interest rate has been cut to 1.5%. Is there anything better out there at the moment?
Thanks in advance.

OP posts:
specialsubject · 25/04/2017 19:43

Money saving expert lists a few for that amount. Rates will last a year max and are all below real inflation.

kath6144 · 28/04/2017 08:32

Why dont you consider a Junior stocks and shares ISA? You can put 4k a year in and if you drip feed monthly, you will smooth out some of peaks and troughs of stock market.

There are a no of low cost fund supermarkets that you can use, all of which will have a wealth of funds to invest in. We use Hargreaves Lansdown, not the cheapest but we like the ease of use and they have a wealth of info available.

We moved the DC's savings into ISAs a few years ago, as rates dropped, and these are now being supplemented by some inheritance money (DS is 19 so he gets full ISA allowance). However, the growth in all funds has been good, much better than any bank account.

redjumper · 28/04/2017 12:57

Thank you so much for the stocks and shares advice. I am very interested in that but wouldn't know where to start to set it up. I also heard that the find management charges can eat up the interest. Is that true?

OP posts:
kath6144 · 29/04/2017 16:21

There is no interest with stocks and shares, the funds grow over time, which is where your gain is made. If you pick the funds well, overall charges should be less than 1%, and gains higher than that per year, on average, over time, although you do have to look over the long term, not short term. So 5 years or more.

Some of my funds have grown by anything from 100-300% over 10-15 years, so doubling / quadrupling my initial investments. Others have grown but by lower amounts.

One fund has dropped long term, but I did invest a lump sum, at height of the dotcom bubble and it has never re-gained what it lost. Hence why now all investments are done monthly.

The Hargreaves Lansdown site has a lot of information, on all different funds available, their charges, the gains made over previous years etc. HL aren't the cheapest 'supermarket' and some funds have higher charges generally, esp those from top companies such as Fidelity, Jupiter etc, but with a bit of research you can hopefully find some funds with low charges and good potential growth.

Just make sure you drip feed he money monthly!

kath6144 · 29/04/2017 16:33

How old is your DC, how long will money be invested?

My DH and I knew nothing when we started investing, some of our funds came from recommendations in newspapers, some were good, some not. We have learnt as we have gone along!

The HL website does have a 'Wealth 150' list of 150 recommended funds - maybe search that for ones with lowest charges and start with one or two of them (not necessarily through HL, there are other providers).

Dont put all eggs in one basket, that way if one fund is a lower performer, hopefully another one will balance it out.

yohoohoo · 02/05/2017 15:33

I think the Halifax is the best at the moment

New posts on this thread. Refresh page
Swipe left for the next trending thread