I found the CBA accounts to be the best.

We are going with commonwealth bank.

Yes, my son’s with the Commonwealth too.

I opened Commonwealth Bank accounts for my 2 kids. One was in kindy the other was only 1. They don’t have account keeping fees, pay interest and reward you for depositing and not making withdrawals

thanks for the suggestions!

I wasn’t too sure either, but I’ve got my daughter a commonwealth account and just put money in there each fortnight.

Commonwealth is good until your child hits 18. Then they have ridiculous fees. I changed when I hit 18 as there are other banks that don’t charge the $5 account fee each month.

$416 per year under 18 years old.

With current interest rate of 4%, it is just over $10k. Would a kid with years of pocket money not going over $10k?

How do we track the excepted income anyway?

we have bankwest ones and they are ok!

Commonwealth bank and they have machines for counting those saved coins.

I’ve been using the youths aver from commonwealth bank and so far it seems quite good 🙂

One thing that peeves me is that if you put in your own name you pay tax on the interest.
In a child’s name once they earn a certain amount of interest p.a. they also have to pay tax.
I don’t know the amount at which this starts.
Also people who work pay tax on their wages, then tax on the interest they earn from the wages that they bank to use later. Double dipping!!!
The idea where children can have an account as a school bank account is a great idea.
They had them back in the 1950s. However with the new security rules where you have to have….points probably make it more difficult. I know a high school age teenager who had a bank account that her parents paid money into for which there was cards. Accounts can be set up that another person has another card with which to pay accounts withdraw cash etc, but if the account is in the child’s name I don’t know how it works. I know one parent who started an account in the child’s name, had a card and was able to withdraw funds if necessary + was able to prove that the parent was the one contrbuting to the account by direct debit. I don’t know how the system works now.

My Mum had term account in her name labelled for her grandchildren “in trust for…….” Only trap was she had to pay tax on the interest. Their parents didn’t know they existed in the early stages. She could have closed them any time she liked. In her will it stated at what age they could have the funds and under what circumstances they could have some early e.g. health, education, employment training.

yeah i always used the commonwealth bank

I’ve been using Suncorp for my kids for the last 3 years and had a very positive experience with them. I pay a portion of pocket money into the accounts each month by direct debit which builds up bonus interest. It has been great for my kids to open their statements each month and watch their money grow.

Setting up a childrens bank account is a great idea! There are a number of banks that do this – I set up one with the CBA as my son can participate in school banking when he goes to school! My just turned 4 year old helps with his banking and I’m hoping getting into saving at an early stage will set him up for good monetary habits in the future!

I had some birth money in an account for him under mine then i read an article that it should be in their name so i went to commonwealth to open one and brought his b certificate. nothing but dramas ever since! I called to get the acc info and number as the lady was so weird at the teller now i have an acc i put money into but the bank wont let me talk about the acc or put money in it. very weird.

I had kids savings account (suncorp ) for my 2 boys. Not sure how much bonus intrest. But once u reach to a certain amount the account will be charged with tax so you end up paying tax therefore lose some of the bonus intrest.Shop around its important you start a savings account soon so the kids will have a bit of a head start later on in life. Because im sure we all keep saying to ourselves “if only i bought a house when i was younger than we wont be in much debt “

Nab are good for a real bank although the online accounts give much more interest than real banks

I hate banks at the best of times, but my children have accounts with Commonwealth and it is really good. They get rewards for banking and extra bonuses. I bank with a credit union.