Personal Finance

Bank Accounts for Kids

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  • Jan 25th, 2012 5:26 pm
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Banned
May 5, 2003
4879 posts
36 upvotes
Toronto, Ontario

Bank Accounts for Kids

We have two girls (5 and 6) and have recently been teaching them about money, finances, saving, etc...
  • What's the best account to open for the kids (separate ones for each)
  • Any promos for kids accounts?
  • What do other parents do for their kids? Do you give them an allowance to save or do you just put in their gifts, etc?
  • Should the accounts have our (parents names) on it as well?
Thanks!
4 replies
Deal Addict
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May 5, 2005
1566 posts
4 upvotes
R. Hill
I'll begin with I have a 11 and 3 year old sons. Both have their own accounts. My wife and I opened their accounts at our home branch; every bank will offer a child's account, and there are usually no fees and no minimum balances associated with these accounts until the child reaches a specific age. I believe the child's account must have a parent listed on it as well, but this is something the financial institution you choose can answer.

We began giving our children an allowance last year, equivalent to $1 for each year of their age; so my 11 year old would receive $11. The allowances however were not free money, and both boys have to do chores to earn their allowance. This money is their spending money, but we do encourage saving as well. We suspended their allowances a few months back because of their lack of willingness to contribute to the household. The 11 year old has chores such as setting the dinner table, keeping his room clean, etc. The 3 year old's chores are primarily keeping his toy area and room tidy.

As for gift money, my rule of thumb has always been that 50% must go into their accounts. We allow them to keep 50% for whatever they desire because we're certain that the people that have giving them the money would want them to enjoy it as well. This has worked well so far.

Hope this helped.
Deal Addict
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Nov 28, 2010
1249 posts
42 upvotes
Separate account is good so when they are older, they should hold on to their debit card and continue to save.
:arrow: JussB
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Newbie
Dec 22, 2010
48 posts
Toronto
My first bank account was with Scotiabank.. although I got this account when I was around 14 years old.. definitely a lot older than your kids. But this account has no fees and will stay that way until they turn 18 I believe.

http://www.scotiabank.com/ca/en/0,,61,00.html
Deal Addict
Nov 14, 2010
1090 posts
354 upvotes
Most (all?) major banks offer free accounts for kids last I checked. If you have an account at an existing bank, try to open one there. That should make it easy to do transfers to their accounts as well.

It works great as a marketing ploy for the banks. Many people have a mortgage with a certain bank because they have their chequing account there. They have their chequing account there because that's where their collage student account was. They had their student account there because they had a kid's account there. They had a kid's account there because that's where their parent banked. Their parent banked there either because that's where THEIR parents banked, or because it was the closest bank to their work so they could play hooky every other week to wait in line between 10A-3P to cash their pay cheque.

Seriously most people bank at a bank for no particular reason at all, only because "they always have". People seem to think it's hard to move to a different bank, or to have different products from different banks.

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