Bank accounts for young children.

[Lostinaseaofbubbles]

Are there bank accounts for very young children where they (or you on their behalf - presuming you'd have to be a trustee or something) can take money out?

My children are all between young toddler and preschool age. They each have the ISA - which I/anyone can pay into but no one can take money out from and it just becomes theirs when they're 18.

But can they have essentially a current account?

For birthdays and christmases from the same people they tend to get a cheque with a little note saying about spending it on toys etc. The trouble is that I have no way of paying in a cheque written to one of the kids without paying it into savings that they can't access till they're 18.

I don't like messing with my regular direct debits so what happens is that these cheques get paid into their savings and then I scrimp and save (money is a little tight) to be able to repay them the money so that they do have it available for toys etc.

I just want to be able to pay in a cheque made out to my child (and potentially have somewhere for their money to sit before they spend it so it doesn't end up in my bank account and accidentally get spent)

All banks offer these accounts - if you go into your own bank with children's birth certificates and ask to open an instant access account for them, you will be able to.

Lots of options. Money Saving Expert website is a good place to look for summaries of accounts. Watch out for really poor interest rates.
We've just opened HSBC kids savings accounts, reasonable interest, instant access and a free money box.

Yep, we have Santander Mini 123 accounts for our 3 and 1 year old as we wanted flexibility to draw cash on their behalf. All banks have similar. We chose Santander as we bank with them so it meant managing online accounts in one place was easier.

I guess my mistake is looking online rather than going into a branch. I looked at the Santander mini 123 but then on the application bit it looked like they needed to be 7!

I'll call my bank or see if I can get to a branch and see what they offer.

I bank with TSB.

DD (age 4) has an ISA, same set up as yours nobody can take anything out until 18 but she also has a young savers account that can be withdrawn from so I tend to use that for birthday, Christmas & pocket money and withdraw if there's something in particular she wants

My DS has a young savers account with Halifax. Although it's called a savers account we can deposit and withdraw whenever we want. I set it up online, just needed to take a photo of his birth certificate and upload it.

All banks should offer a young saver (or equivalent). I just got my 2 an account with my bank to make things easier. Once they are 11 they can get a current account with debit card

Nationwide do a good childrens account (for any age incl young children), they have an old style paying in book which I think helps kids to visualise their savings, and also it's nice to start them off somewhere more ethical than most of the high street banks

I bank with nationwide, so that sounds ideal.

Op my daughter has a 123 mini and she's 2 years old