ossigeno

Any recommendations for a child's savings account? We are looking for an online account paying about 5% interest. The more progressive institutions like ING & Esanda only allow accounts for over 16s.

A dogs life

Are you looking for a transactional account or just a savings plan for education/university, etc?

I haven't been able to find any children's transactional account that pays 5% interest. Most accounts for children offer 1-3% interest if there is no withdrawal for a month. An example is the ANZ Progress Saver account for age 12-17 which pays bonus rate, making the total rate 3.51-4.01% per annum if you deposit at least $10 per month and do not withdraw any. If you make any withdrawal the interest rate is nearly zero!

We were looking for savings plan for kids' education and found Lifeplan. We had never heard of Lifeplan before and are still just researching at the moment.

The Australian Bankers Association has a list of children's savings accounts for comparison. Not sure how old/recent the data are.

Cheers,
ADL

ossigeno

Thanks for the reply. We are just looking for a savings account in their name to put in any money gifts, something for when the child is 21. From the Bankers Association link you gave, the Suncorp seems to be the closet to what we are after. Just called them, it is paying 5.4%, can be managed online, opened in name of a child, no fees if child is under 18. Sounds the ticket. Thanks

CathnPaul

Can I just say, what a good thread you put on. I hadnt even considered the childrens savings accounts. Now it is something else added to the list for me to cover.

Cheers for that.

ossigeno

It was fairly easy in the UK with a huge variety of building society accounts. Out here has been difficult to track down a suitable account. The regular suspects all have accounts for children but pay absolute peanuts in interest.

BTW You have to apply for a TFN for the child and supply to the bank, otherwise they are obliged to withhold something like 48% of any interest received.

CathnPaul

Cheers for that, I will keep a note of that too.