Childrens ISAs

[MarillionFan]

It is in bricks and motar until the wife and I kick the bucket. Then they have their inheritance rather than a piddling 10 or 20 grand each.

They'll thank you for that when they're 50 and never had a Uni education.

[mudskipper]

Do you need it to be an ISA? Unless your kids have considerable income, they're not going to be paying tax on their savings in any case.

[pjclarke]

My one offspring is at Uni, we put £200/month into a Help-to-Buy ISA for the 25% Government bonus.

Nobrainer really.

[northernladuk]

My one offspring is at Uni, we put £200/month into a Help-to-Buy ISA for the 25% Government bonus.

Nobrainer really.

Is that through the hqlifqx or do they all offer it. The rates dropped on those didn't they?

[pr1]

It is in bricks and motar until the wife and I kick the bucket. Then they have their inheritance rather than a piddling 10 or 20 grand each.

lol

[WordIsBond]

I see no reason at all to put this in a low interest Children's ISA.

If you see this as a long-term thing that is going to be there for years, inflation is going to eat all of your interest. Put it in shares, probably a tracker. Over the long term, in most scenarios shares are going to be superior to a low-interest cash account.

If it is shorter to medium-term, then the little tykes probably aren't going to have a big enough balance to breach the £1K savings threshold. In that case, you may want to stay in cash. Use a regular saver, and every year roll it into a 1-3 year bond to chase a little better interest. A cash ISA only makes sense if the balance grows enough to have taxable interest income, or if the ISA pays more interest than you can get outside an ISA wrapper. Until the balance gets high enough that it matters to be tax exempt, chase the interest rate, not the tax exemption.

You could use the regular saver every year, and at the end of the year roll it into an ISA.

All that said, once they hit 16, it's time to start racking up the Help To Buy ISA. That should be maxed out. List of providers here: https://www.helptobuy.gov.uk/help-to...in-the-scheme/

[WordIsBond]

Do you need it to be an ISA? Unless your kids have considerable income, they're not going to be paying tax on their savings in any case.

No, but if you make £250 / month contributions starting when they are born, it's going to rack up pretty nicely, and once they start working, they might well be paying tax on some of that interest. ISA protected savings will stay ISA protected forever (unless someone stupid gets elected, I suppose). Won't matter when they are young but might matter a lot later to have it within an ISA.

[DeadEyedJacks]

For those worried about offspring blowing an ISA at 18, then you can always fund a pension for them...
Odds on you'll be dead before they can access it :-)

There are plenty of reasons to give your money to your children early and not keep it yourself;
Ringfencing it in tax efficient wrappers is just sensible.
taxes, inheritance, divorce, benefits, long term care
Once it's theirs it's no longer yours...

(For the record offspring have Children's savings, regular savers, Junior ISAs both cash and shares and Pension funds.)

[lukemg]

Setup similar but now oldest is nearly 18 I am very wary of handing over thousands in cash to finance some 'interesting' lifestyle choices AND you have to hand it over....
Time again, I would retain control and dispense accordingly to maintain very limited control.

[ITcon]

I found the saving products outside ISAs were better even with the tax savings