Savings account for newborn

[machalla]

I have received sums of money from relatives for my newborn son and I'd like to start off saving for him and topping this up with a monthly contribution over the years to come.

Could anyone advise what approach to take given how poor savings returns are at the moment. I had thought perhaps of savings bonds until such time as interest rates may make it worthwhile to have a savings account for him.

Any advice on this would be gladly received.

 

[Lightning]

Would you consider a regular saver product in your name?

 

[gnf_ireland]

I use an EBS Children's Savings account for my kids. It pays 2% up to 5k, and operates off a passbook. I feel, in time, the experience of bringing them into the bank to lodge and withdraw money may actually give them some idea of how the financial world works. By the time they are teens its likely there will not even be credit or debit cards

[broken link removed]

The account is in my name and the child's name - but no withdrawals are allowed as a minor (i.e. I have to be there to authorise the withdrawal)


Another option is maybe Cyril the Squirrel savings stamps, but not convinced of them. My kids are very much into stickers which have no 'value' to them so think the stamps might be viewed the same way. Think a piggy-bank is better personally
http://www.anpost.ie/AnPost/MainCon...Matters/Savings+with+Cyril/Cyril-Squirrel.htm

And of course you can always put some of the money into prize bonds. I have started that recently for birthdays and splitting what I would add into EBS between there and prize bonds.

 

[machalla]

Thanks to both of you for your suggestions. The regular saver I'll take a look at the best buys and see. I wondered if there were any particular products suited to longer term saving in relatively small amounts that had a reasonable return over longer time periods.

I do like the idea of the passbook for the Childrens account. That is how I remember banking when I was growing up. I hadn't thought of it as a mechanism to educate them about basic finance.