Child's savings account

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Can anyone recommend a good savings account for children please? Keen to set one up but not sure who to go with. Thank you

We have a junior ISA with Yorkshire Building Society. If you look on the Martin Lewis site, moneysavingexpert.com, there's lots of great impartial advice.

Are you going to regularly add to it? Or is it for one-off deposits?
Halifax have a monthly saver that offers an excellent rate of interest (best I've found anywhere) but you have to out a regular amount in every month.

I’m also interested in this.

Thanks all. I think we plan to add a small amount each month.

It depends - there are regular savers (like the Halifax one mentioned), there are ISAs, there are ones where you can access the money and ones where the money is locked away till the dc turns 18 - and then they are given access to it.

Have a think about what would suit you, and suit your type of saving (,fixed amount each month, or just regular account for birthday money type of deposit).

DS has a stocks and shares ISA with One Family. I've found them vey easy to deal with and it was the one recommended by MSE when I took it out two years ago. I use it for both regular deposits and birthday money etc.

I’m wanting one that I can add birthday/Christmas money to and any other bits of spare money. I’m so confused by all the different accounts, I’ve looked on mse. I think my problem is that I’m very indecisive especially when given lots of choice!

Halifax regular saver offers 4% for first year.

Why not look on money supermarket?

I didn’t realize money supermarket compare accounts, thank you! I thought it was only car/house etc insurance.

Some of the savings account also limit how much you can put in, initially and monthly. We'd saved money given for birth and birthdays, which ruled out some accounts.

Me again! Had a look on mse and Halifax came up with its Monthly Saver 4% for 12 months. Then after the 12 months, they open Kids Saver account and move the money across to it. I think the 4% then drops to 1.4%.
I'll be putting away a regular amount each month, around £100.
In the t&c it mentions about contacting HMRC regarding tax due on the accounts. Do children pay tax on savings?
I hate looking at accounts as I just want something easy, not having to faff with changing accounts after 12 months etc.

is it possible to change banks when it comes to ISA child accounts after 12months?

I've no idea about ISA accounts. I'm hopeless with banking!

Halifax is the only one really. Get the monthly saver and kids saver - after a year your monthly savings can move across so you can maximise interest

@GrumpyHoonMain

Halifax is the only one really. Get the monthly saver and kids saver - after a year your monthly savings can move across so you can maximise interest

Thank you. I thought it be that I'd end up setting up.

Ds is possibility going to be getting some money from a family member, what am I best doing with it because the monthly saver won't allow me to pay in more than £100 each month. It'll be a few hundred that I'll need to put somewhere!

I find all of them awful. And having to change them around / transfer it every 12 mths? I don't want the hassle!

Another option is to buy premium bonds for them. No guarantee they will win anything, but there’s always the chance of the big prize and depending how much you’ve got in there, there could be a couple of £25 prizes in a year. It depends if you want some sort of guaranteed return to ensure your money (tries to) keep up with inflation, or if you’re happy to accept that you may not get anything in exchange for the chance of a bigger win. You can always get back the amount you put in.

We use halifax kids saver and money in premium bonds.

@Oblomov20

I find all of them awful. And having to change them around / transfer it every 12 mths? I don't want the hassle!

That's exactly how I feel! I know that if I set up the Halifax that's it I don't want the faff of changing accounts. He's not even 3 yet! 😂

@ChessieFL

Another option is to buy premium bonds for them. No guarantee they will win anything, but there’s always the chance of the big prize and depending how much you’ve got in there, there could be a couple of £25 prizes in a year. It depends if you want some sort of guaranteed return to ensure your money (tries to) keep up with inflation, or if you’re happy to accept that you may not get anything in exchange for the chance of a bigger win. You can always get back the amount you put in.

That's something I hadn't thought of or even looked into, thank you. That sounds like an option for the money from family. Could he ever lose the money put in? So if £1000 was put in it could only ever stay the same or go up a bit? Or could it be lost?

@PinkDaydreams you will always be able to get back what you put in, so your £1000 will always be safe. However, it will lose its value if you don’t win anything (i.e. £1000 in 5 years time will buy less than £1000 will buy today).

With the Halifax account, once you’ve got both the monthly saver and the kids saver set up the money just moves over automatically each year, so you don’t need to do anything unless you want to.

Oh ok, so with Halifax once the 12 months at 4% has ended, the money moves across to the kids saver. Then does it automatically restart (which I probably would) the 12 mbths again at 4%?

Yes. I have this set up with Halifax. Each year when the monthly saver matures they write to me to tell me they will move it all into the kids saver then the monthly saver just keeps going. You might need to do something the first year this happens but after that it’s all automatic.

The only thing to watch is that the interest rate on the kids saver is really low once the balance gets over a certain level ( think it’s £5k) so after a few years you may want to move some of what’s in there - this is on my to-do list!

@ChessieFL thank you so much! Looks like I'll be going with Halifax to save monthly. I will look into premium bonds for any chunks of money.