OMG pls help, CTF voucher expiring in a wk, where shall i put it?!

[jinglybits]

so so confused! think i understand its better to have a shares account which switches to a savings one after 10 years or so to protect the investment. however, have just read some old threads and am now really confused over fees for adding monies etc, obligations to add certain monthly amounts etc. Why am i always so dis-organised, i'm running out of time to take control of this and i'm so tired and i can't get my head around the jargon Remember reading somewhere that nationwide did a good one. someone pls simplify all this for me ...pls!

I put it in a babybond stakeholder shares account, agreed to add £10 a month and got £20 in Mothercare vouchers (whoopdedoo!)which arrived on Friday. It was recommended somewhere, is cheap in terms of costs and easy to set up. Just do it

You can get all the stuff online - now!

Don't worry, you don't lose the voucher forever, it's just the government slaps it into a stakeholder CTF until you do do something with it.

I'm not sure, but I would think if the voucher runs out in a week, it's probably too late to do anything online; by the time they send you the forms and you fill 'em in and send 'em back the voucher will have expired.

I'd suggest giving someone like Nationwide a ring, and see if you can do a phone application.

CTF homepage with helpful links.

If in doubt, I would just stick it into a bog standard cash savings account whilst you get up to speed on the various options. That way you can be sure of not losing any of the dosh, although long term you are likely (but not certain) to make less of a profit than if you invest in a shares account.

we went with the nationwide savings one - very easy to set up. We got the interest statement a few days ago - the princely sum of £7.50

I put DS and DD in the post office as reccommended by BIL as he is good at that sort of stuff as I did not have a clue

Childrens Mutual stakeholder Babybond here

Mine expires in 2 weeks - so doing it today! Going with HSBC stakeholder plan as I did some research and rate of return and write up in papers was good.

But, don't worry if you feel you have chosen the wrong one or even forget so the govt opens one up for you - you can change at a later date - like you can with ISAs - so all is not lost etc.

i chose Co-op's stakeholder babybond (through children's mutual)

ethical investment's important to me, and will be an increasingly big issue in the future

Wasn't quite sure where to put ours,but seeing as all our savings are with the Nationwide,we opened a CTF account with them.

mine is with family investments.

doesn't really matter where you put it... you can always change it later

Nationwide do a savings account, put it in there and gain interest while you think! You can move it at a later date.
Grrr...

check out moneysavingexpert.co.uk

We chose the Derbyshire to go through but the account is with Children's Mutual.
We too wanted an ethical account.

I was inteh same position with the voucher running out ina week - I just went for Children's mutual stakeholder. It's not an enormous amount of money and the kids have their own accounts anyway.

Our IFA said children's mutual btw.

bump for biglips

I went with Family Investments Stakeholder Account. TBH I dont think there is a great deal of difference between them at the moment (so I'm told by my boss who is a IFA!)