Which child trust fund did you choose for the £250 baby voucher?

[CallietherineWheel]

I've got two months left before the government makes up my mind for me - any recommendations on providers? Why did you pick the one you did?

We put both our dc in Barclays, i also can't remember why

For DD1 I went with the Royal Bank of Scotland, just for convenience really as I bank with them and their savings accounts are with them. Will probably do the same for DD2.
I really need to get that done, have had the voucher for months.

Who ever asdas used - because we had a free 15pound voucher

Also, we do not use the trust fund for saving, as both dc have saving accounts.

nat west because we bank with them

Nationwide I think. DH said it was the best and seems to be performing OK so far.

Foreign and Colonial- always does well in newspaper reviews - I went for the tracker fund.

"Also it's always worth looking at moneysaving expert". When I did our ctf F&C was recommended here too

Foreign & Colonial, and it is in Global Smaller Companies. F&C because I know their track record (used to be a City analyst) and Global Smallers because it is quite high Risk/Return and I figured we might as well go for it since it is effectively free money.

You need to decide what you want from it - security, or potential high returns.

Nationwide - best rates at the time and having just checked it looks like its still one of the best. There are loads of websites that compare rates try this page

HSBC - we bank with them so it was easiest really.

we went with F&C Stakeholder CTF as our IFA recommended it

What LL said. F&C smaller cos did at some point feature at the top of the performance leagues, tho' I expect that's changed now. How smug I was.

As LL said, the decision depends on how much risk you want to take with the money. If you want absolute security, chose a cash account with a consistently good record on interest rates.

If you view it as free money and have other cash savings and/or investments for your child, you might as well take a punt and put it in the kind of dynamic but risky fund that you probably wouldn't choose for your main assets.

I'm not totally convinced by the stakeholder lifestyling thing -- for that small amount of money I think you should decide whether your want security or adventure and invest accordingly. The stakeholder business seems like neither fish nor flesh nor good red herring to me, but I'm sure plenty of people are pleased with theirs.

I went with Co-op for both DDs as it's an ethical fund.

Another vote for F&C here as they seemed to perform the best at the time. Again as it was free money we weren't worried about the risk particularly. And if it does start to perform really badly you can move the money. That said, it seems to be doing OK at the moment although I haven't done detail comparisons with other funds over the period so what do I know.

I looked into F&C yesterday because I still haven't sorted out ours (DD is 7 mo- this is most unlike me) and it looks like you have to commit to a regular minimum £10 a month into it as well. Is that right?

While I'm happy to risk what wasn't ours to start with I don't want to throw money that we can't afford in after it.

hsbc we bank with them, onna do boots this time though to get free vouchers!

What is this baby voucher thing then?

The free £250 the gov't give you when your child is born to invest until they are 18.

Family Investments Stakeholder as I wanted New Star to be the investment managers.

oh right! Where do i sign? Is the form online and do you have to wait til they're born?

You get something to send off when they are born and then your voucher comes in the post a few weeks later. If you don't invest the government will do it for you but in a low yield, safe account.

So it just comes in the post? Who tells the government i've had a baby so that they send me the form to fill in?

Why did i not know about this dosh?

You get it once you've claimed child benefit

Government decided for me with ds1, so Natwest. Put ds2's in same place for sake of simplicity. I know nothing about financial investments though so having to decide freaked me out with ds1 (hence my inactivity).

Yes RGPargy, you get the money when you claim child benefit.

Not sure why you don't know about it. It was quite a big thing when it was launched 4 years ago but if you don't have a child of that age maybe it just passed you by. Or maybe you are spending too long on MN and not enough time reading the financial pages of the newspaper!