What bank account for DD aged 13

[teamcullen]

Im thinking of opening a bank account for DD. I thorght if we put £40 a month in, and she has an account with a cash card so she can draw money out when she needs it, she will be able to mannage her own money, budget and take responsibility of her spending.

Has anybody else done this.

Do you think £40 is a fair amount.

What bank account is the best.

[fortyplus]

I think £40 per month is far too much to start with. You should start with half that and it should be dependent on completing jobs around the home. Once she has shown that she is mature enough to handle that amount then you can consider increasing it.

Mine both have accounts at Abbey National - or Santander as it's known. They have a savings account and a current account, for which they have a cashcard. They can transfer money between the 2 accounts using an ATM.

I don't think you need worry too much which is the best account for this sort of money - it's more important that your dd can access her funds conveniently - and go in to pay in birthday money and so on.

Also a good idea for her to agree to be saving up for something, so that she can get used to the idea of spending some of her income and saving the rest.

[mumeeee]

I also think £40 is to much for a 13 year old. When we strated doing this with our DDs they were 14 and got £25 a month. They had (well DD3 has still got) Nationwide smartcard account for 12 to 18 year olds.They had a cash cars so they could get money out of cash machines but it couldn't be used as a debit card.

[alypaly]

my 17 year old only gets £40 a month. Anything else he gets ,he has to earn.

Halifax have higher interst savings accounts if you dont touch the capital. Just closed a really good one as my DS2 has reached 16 and it has matured, but that had 5% interest rate

[teamcullen]

The £40 would be the only money she would get. It would have to pay for birthday presents for her frends, days out to the cimema, christmas presents etc.

At the moment she doesnt get pocket money but we will give her money for things if she needs it.

She has a friends birthday tomorrow and it has cost us £20 for a present and movie and meal. This is the second birthday this month, although the last birthday cost less.

She is quite sensible and thorghtful. I know she often tells friends no to social outings as she doesnt want to ask us for money all the time.

Maybe £30 would be ok but with christmas coming up, thats not leaving her much to save.

One visit to the cinema with a fast food meal and popcorn is £15

[teamcullen]

She would also be expected to buy accsesories, make up and non essential smellies with the money.

She wants pink Dr Martins so I would say she would have to save up at least half from her money if she wanted them.

[LadyGlencoraPalliser]

DD1 (12)has a smartcard account. She gets £20 a month for phone top up, smellies, all non-essential clothes, cinema, swimming etc. It has made her very careful and discriminating about her purchases.
Something like pink DMs I would expect her to pay for in full. I buy school shoes, trainers and one pair of weekend shoes,she buys the rest.

[Uriel]

I think you're giving her too much money to start with, considering you've never given her pocket money to budget with before and you're expecting her to buy too many things out of it.

[teamcullen]

OK everybody thinks £40 is too much, so I will have a think about how much she will be able to manage on without it being too much or too little.

LGP she only has school shoes, a pair of converse (birthday present) and ugg style boots which she got for christmas last year. So she does need weekend shoes. But as she wants DMs, I wouldnt pay that much out for no special reason so I think it would be fair to say that I would contrbute to the cost but not pay for them all if she had her own money. Does that sound fair?

[Danthe4th]

My dd14 has had an hsbc account since she was 8 and she now has a card she can use. I don't give her any money she has a paper round thet pays £12 per week. Out of that she has to pay for her phone and all non-essential items plus any clothes that she wants other than clothes that I will buy if she needs it.
£40 is a lot but if she is going to save for a school trip or something big then fair enough otherwise at 14 if she has never had any control over her money she is going to have some fun!!
My dd has just paid me half of her school trip to germany her share was £220 all saved by her doing jobs for grandma and the papers.

[LadyGlencoraPalliser]

Well, actually TC, the converse and Uggs would count as her weekend shoes to me. But yes, if she needed weekend shoes I would sub her the money I would be prepared to pay (say £20) and let her contribute the rest.

[LadyGlencoraPalliser]

I would start her on £20 and see how she goes with her. Much easier to up it than lower it if it isn't working out.
DD by the way, is far too careful of her money. She hardly spends any - make up and magazines are a thing of the past now she has to pay for them herself.

[Danthe4th]

If she wants dms I would offer to pay the amount that you would have paid for a pair of boots and she pays the extra, thats what I did when my dd wanted to have some superdry shorts in the summer that were £35 I said I would pay £15 as that is how much they were in new look, she paid the difference.

[SueW]

DD is 12 (Y8) and gets £5 per week paid as £21.66 per month into her Barclays account for which she has a cash/debit card. She also gets an additional £10 per month for phone top-ups and her card is linked to her phone so any extra credit will cost her, not me. Not that she's ever needed it.

I don't expect her to work for this as she is at school from 8.15am to 5.30pm five days a week and has instrumental practice on top of this. All 'community tasks' are unrewarded - no-one pays me to do laundry or empty the dishwasher - I'm not going to pay her to do it!!

We chose Barclays because that's where our acocunts are and with internet banking I could ensure that if necessary I could transfer funds into her account immediately.

[teamcullen]

Ahh Danthe, she is going to Prague with school next May. So if I say she needs to save for that once she has bought all her christmas presents, it will give her something to focus on.

I will offer to pay £20 towards DMs if she wants them now and she will have to save the rest, otherwise she will have to put them on her christmas list.

[teamcullen]

Can kids get internet banking, that way I could keep tabs on how she is spending?

[nappyaddict]

teamcullen

She doesn't have to have a fast food meal, drink and popcorn at the cinema though. When I go to the cinema I refuse to buy food and drink in there because it is extortionate. I eat and drink before I go or when I come back. I usually have a bottle of water in my bag anyway in case I get thirsty.

However I do think £40 a month is OK. That's only £10 a week. I'm only going back a couple of years here and a Saturday outing to town and the cinema used to cost me £5 for the ticket, £1.70 on the bus and £1-£1.50 for a sandwich. Sometimes we'd go to Starbucks aswell and their drinks are about £1.50 to £2 I think.

[nappyaddict]

BTW not sure if she has a phone but o2 do a good deal because if you top up £10 a month you get unlimited texts. Or if you want calls aswell Vodafone and T-mobile do one which is £20 a month for unlimited texts and 300 minutes.

[alypaly]

virgin do a 300 texts and 300 minutes for £10 or 500 mins and unlimited texts for £15 a month. No 12 month comtract involved either

[nappyaddict]

Ahhh I didn't realise Virgin did a 30 day contract on their pay monthly phones. I've only been looking at the pay as you go tariffs because I didn't want to tie myself to a 12 month contract. I think their £10 contract would be enough for me to be honest - 200 minutes and unlimited texts. Thanks for mentioning that

[alypaly]

nappyaddict go on virgin website...they have upgraded the 200 minutes talk to 500 (i think) time just recently.

[teamcullen]

she had a virgin chip. Buy your own phone, £10 a month direct debit for 300 mins 300 text no contract. But her phone got lost or stolen. So she hasnt got one at the moment.

She doesnt go out for a meal and cinema usually. At the weekend she did to celebrate her friends birthday. They all pay for themselves instead of the birthday girls parents having to pay.

As she is getting older, this is coming more regular, they arrange things a few weeks in advance so having her own funds will allow her to budget for herself, and she knows we wouldnt give her more if she didnt.

She had £15, her ticket cost £7.50 (3D movie) £6 for meal and drink at pizza hut £1.50 for bus fare. Usually movie would be £5.

[tearinghairout]

Just wanted to say, go for one with internet access so she can keep tabs on it.

My dch have Barclays accounts but still borrow off me because they can't get to the bank!