Child’s Premium Bonds Account Query

[Junebug06]

I am a single parent and I set up a premium bonds account for my child just over two years ago. I have relatives who buy them bonds for birthdays, Christmas etc. There isn’t a huge amount in the account but it will hopefully grow over time.

My questions are:

1. Would my child’s Father be able to access these bonds (to check the balance or withdraw funds), even though I set the account up?

2. Would he be able to set up his own account for our child? He recently told me that his own family have already bought bonds for our child for Christmas but I have had no confirmation of this and the balance remains the same.

Thank you for any information.

I have bought PBs for my nephews. It seems to work slightly differently if you are buying for someone else's DC. I needed to name a parent, and put in their address and the name and DOB of the child. They then sent details of the investment to the named parent.

I expect that your child's father wouldn't be able to access the bonds where you are named as the parent, only you will be able to do anything with them.

However, I don't know if the child's father would be able to set up a separate account, possibly. Although maybe not as they do identify the child when you put in the name and DOB - I remember this because when I put their details in, it came up with their middle names even though I didn't use them, as we have other relatives who'd already bought my nephews PBs when I bought them.

But they probably do have protections in place to prevent parents or other relatives buying bonds in DC names to beat the £50k limit, as they're quite a popular way of cash like saving that can pay slightly more than standard instant access accounts.

I don't know if the rules are different now but when my son was born his paternal grandmother bought him some premium bonds and they were held under his father's name. After we separated, his grandmother bought him some more and they were set up under my name. When my son turned 16, both accounts were merged into one in his own name. Neither myself nor my son's father had anything to do with setting up the original accounts and weren't even asked if we were ok with it

I would ring their help line and ask those questions or perhaps send an email with those questions.