child trust funds

[dinkyboysmum]

i just had my child trust fund voucher come throught for ds1...any advice as to what to do with it? i've read all the info, but just wondered what everyone else has done with it?

[Azure]

Just wanted to recommend that you do something with it sooner rather than later, as it's so easy to put it off. I only invested DS2's voucher just before the deadline and so lost a year's worth of any growth, and I'm an accountant... BTW I went with a tracker fund offered by a building society.

[Katsma]

I spent ages looking at these CTF accounts. In the end I decided it was all a waste of time.

I don't want to add money of my own to the fund, as the money is accessible by the child when they're 18. And when I was 18, I would have wasted it.

I put the voucher in any old account, and spent my time researching ISAs, which I can invest in, and hand over when the appropriate level of maturity has been reached

[DulwichDolly]

when do they expire? have misplaced mine and cannot find it.... my dd is 15 months now

[BadHair]

I put my dses vouchers into the Co-Op / CIS ethical one. I didn't fancy having my children investing in the arms trade, or SA diamonds or whatever, so went for what was at the time the only so-called ethical investment fund.

More info here

I add £10 per month to ds3's account and dh adds £10 to ds2's to boost them, and we both got Amazon vouchers, which was useful!

[BigGitDad]

After certain amount of time the money goes into a default fund, Dulwichdolly. I will assume you will get yearly updates from the fund provider.

[Manictigger]

I put dd's into a Britannia bs cash ctf account because we've had unfortunate experiences with stocks isas (£2.50 interest in 2 years on about £1500 anyone?....dh is still bitter) I know the returns prob aren't as good as with a stakeholder account but I think it's not my money to take risks with. Any Christmas / birthday money will also go in it whilst she's a baby because the interest rate is okay and I like the idea of dd not being able to get her hands on it for years.

[BrummieOnTheRun]

We went with the Children's Mutual because they do a great range of investment funds, including ethical/green.

You can graph the relative performance of the funds on interactive investor to compare them.

We figured, as it's free money, may as well gamble it! Personally, I wouldn't top it up though. Better to open a regular savings account which you can access before they are 18 if need be, imo.

[Desiderata]

I'm with the Post Office (Family Investments). Last year it paid out interest of 10.6%.

I up it by £5 every six months and will continue to do so as long as I can afford it. It is entirely possibly that my ds will blow it all at 18, but that's his look-out. He won't be getting anymore!

[phdlife]

so... d'you mean it doesn't have to go into a CTF???

[muppetgirl]

Hi, this is a great thread as we have moved three times since ds was born and never really got round to the ctf 'sorting out'. We've lost all info...

He's 3.4 now and we're expecting ds 2 in oct so what we do for him we wanted tp have done for the first!

Is it too late for ds1?
If it is can we start 2 at the same time and put the money in one ourselevs and use ds2's ctf from the governement for the other one.

If we can don't they get a 'top up' later on? Can we put ds1's top up in his fund even though we started it?

[Desiderata]

If does have to go into a CTF (I think)

The government have ensured that these trust funds pay out the highest possible amount of interest. I think you'd have to go someway to beat 10.6% ... but I'm no expert.

[Desiderata]

I think they get a £250 top up at seven.

[phdlife]

desiderata I've been watching the best product tables and haven't seen anything better than 7% - where'd you see 10%+ ??

[Desiderata]

That's what my sons account made last year! I nearly fell over in shock.

The next statement will come through in November, so we'll see how it fared this year. As it stands right now, the little bugger's already got more money than me!

[Ladymuck]

I think that the Family Investment funds are unit trusts, not cash accounts. So yes you get a higher rate of return but of course the underlying sum is at risk too.

[clayre]

if you dont open an account with it the government does it for you! muppetgirl you ds's will be opened for him if you havent done it yet

[Ladymuck]

"interest" is possibly slightly misleading.

[muppetgirl]

Clayre -Thaks for that. Do you know who we would contact to find out the details? We've moved 3x's so they wouldn't have been able to contact us..

[Desiderata]

The gov is bound to have a website you can look at.

[clayre]

just looked at the CTF website and it says they will open an account and you will be sent details if it.... you must have moved and not got it

[muppetgirl]

Thank you! Sorry for the hijack