saving account for kids
 

Hi Folks,

Anyone know of any good saving accounts that can be opened in Australia for kids ?

St.George Bank want me to provide a tax file number for my 6 month old ! She will get taxed on money put into here account !

Is this always the case or is there something better out there that I can't find ?

Thanks for any help provided.
Dave

Re: saving account for kids
 

Dave, try Commonwealth (much as I hate recommending them!), they have a Dollarmite account, no tax file # needed LOL. Most of the major banks have a kiddies account, Westpac, ANZ, National.

Re: saving account for kids
 

Hello MrsDagboy,
St.George Bank has got a Happy Dragon account, however when I went in to apply for it they wanted tax file numbers etc.
Thanks, I''l have a look at the Commonwealth.
Cheers,
Dave

Re: saving account for kids
 

I though taxes on deposits have ended in NSW and are being phased out nationwide.

For savings I use INGdirect but I do not know if kiddies can have accounts. The reason I use them is they have no fees.(unusual in Oz).

Re: saving account for kids
 

Mine have Bank West accounts but I had to give my taxfile no and the interest is a paltry 1% if that! Mind you there is only $10 in them.

Would be interested if you find a decent one so I can set a better acocunt up for them and put a bit more $$ into them.

Cheers
Diane

Re: saving account for kids
 

Dave heres the webpage, YouthSaver Account , called a dollarmite account for under 10s. All you need is ID for the child (passort or birth certificate) & yourself if you dont bank with them.

I have one each for the little Dagboys & certainly never gave them taxfile numbers, thats just ridiculous :scared: .

Edited: I bank with them, so they already have my taxfile number, but they certainly never asked for one for the kids! Perhaps it was your tax file number they wanted Dave?

Re: saving account for kids
 

ANZ do an account, if you want extra interest. Its the Progress saver account, but it needs to be in an adults name, with it being in trust for the child.
It pays extra interest IF deposits are made each month.

A lot of schools have "banking days" for the children and use the Commonwealth Bank, with school staff handling the deposits etc.

Re: saving account for kids
 

Hi Mrs D - Karen will call you soon! What rates are they paying on these accounts?

Steve

Re: saving account for kids
 

OK Steve, tell her Ive been sick all week anyway, so no probs :).

Commonwealth pay about 2.6% for $1 - $2000 if you make a deposit but no withdrawals each month. Pretty bloody poor really, but at least there arent any fees & charges :) . The good thing as ABC mentioned is that all the schools do banking through the commonwealth, so it gets them into the idea of saving.

I think that the parents are still liable to pay tax on the children’s accounts. There is no separate tax status for the child, so I don’t see there is much point in opening one of the Dollarmite type accounts. I can understand opening one of these when the child gets old enough to start saving pocket money, but as a vehicle for saving money for a child I think they are pretty poor.

ING Direct don’t do kids accounts, otherwise that is what we would have done. Much better having all your money in an offset account reducing the interest being paid on your mortgage.

There are Education & Savings Funds type things available that do have tax breaks, but with tie ins like 5-10 year and minimum contributions e.g. www.aifs.com.au We never found anything as good as the UK National Savings (children’s bonds etc) though. We ended up keeping our in the UK, which is good for relatives who can pay into it in the UK for our son and saves them the hassle of trying to send money out.

The plot thickens.

Heres the ATOs webite that covers a childs savings account.

ATO - Childrens savings accounts

Re: saving account for kids
 

Hi Dave,
Our daughter has an account with ANZ, good bank but she does pay tax on the interest she gains and the interest rate is low too not like the 6 1/4 per cent she had at Abbey National. On her last statement she earned $32.49 and payed $13.00 withholding tax. Doesn't make since to me why they should tax under 18's what incentive do they have to save ???

Oh by the way the ANZ account is a childs one, some banks don't do accounts for kids HSBC don't.

Juls