Bank account for Children

[WelshMoth]

DD is nearly 12 and heading to comprehensive school next week. I'm thinking of opening up a current account for her with a debit card for her to start learning about money handling in a more grown up way.

Does anyone here have any experience of this? Any suggestions?

Thanks.

I opened dd's with a bank we already had an account with. Made things easier. Ds will get one when he turns 11.

DS is 12 and when he moved to high school we got him a Nimbl card - this means I can keep a pretty small amount in his account (but able to transfer over more at will). The notification when he's spent something in Asda gives me a handy notification that he's on his way home from school!

He also has a Santander 1-2-3 account but although this has a debit card with it, we use it as a savings account as he received an inheritance recently. So I definitely wouldn't want him to have access to that debit card.

If you open it with the bank you have your accounts with, you'll only need her passport/birth certificate to open it. Otherwise, you'll need proof of your address as well.

DS has a Barclays account. We chose this one because it's one of the few which has a contactless card.

Don't worry about her going overdrawn. That won't happen because credit is never given to people under 18.

tribpot thanks for the tip re nimbl. Is the nimble card able to be used in an ATM to withdraw cash? Can your DS use it in shops?

Nimbl probably has charges as the other similar ones do e.g. go henry

Nimbl charges for atm withdrawals and has a £10 annual fee from what I can see

We got DS an account with Nationwide. They can get a debit card once they're 11. We already had accounts there though so it was quite straight forward.

Yes, Nimbl has a yearly fee. I didn't know that about ATM withdrawals - ds would never use it for that anyway. It's a contactless debit card so for use in shops etc.

Ds and DD both got accounts with Nationwide when they were 11. Contactless debit card and cash withdrawals etc. Also means I have set up a standing order for pocket money.