Top Junior ISAs 3.25% tax-free kids' savings

Junior ISAs are tax-free savings accounts that six million under-18s can save or invest up to £3,720 in per tax year. They then remain tax-free until their 18th birthday, and often beyond. The idea is to let them build up a nest egg to help in adult life.

This is a fully-updated guide to the best buy children's ISAs plus a detailed Q&A including "are junior ISAs worth it?" and how to choose between saving and investing.

What is a junior ISA?

A junior ISA is a tax-efficient savings or investment wrapper aimed at encouraging families to save for their children's futures. Not every under-18 can get one though. Those who were eligible for the Child Trust Fund (the children's saving product it replaced) need to stick with that (see the Child Trust Funds guide).

That means the following under-18s are eligible:

• Those born after on or after 3 January 2011
• Those born before September 2002
  
  BUT...

• Those born between 1 Sep 2002 and 2 Jan 2011 can't get junior ISAs - they have Child Trust Funds.

In total, that's six million eligible children as of November 2011. Around 800,000 newborns each year will be able to get one too. The Government says a small number of people born between the CTF dates weren't eligible for them (for example, because they weren't UK citizens at the time) - they'll be able to get children's ISAs too.

There are two types of junior ISA: a junior cash ISA, where the interest is not taxed, and a junior stocks and shares (investment) ISA, where the returns are mostly tax-free.

Unlike Child Trust Funds, the Government is not putting any money in. This is solely a tax-efficient savings vehicle for the child's money (or money given to them by parents). They can save or invest up to £3,720 per tax year. They can only access the money when they're 18, and at that point, the money belongs to them.

Junior ISAs are an extension of the existing adult ISA system (see the ISA guide). Once a child holding a Junior ISA hits 18, it's automatically rolled over into a normal ISA - safeguarding the tax-efficient benefit.

For over a decade, Martin has used his traditional cake analogy when explaining what ISAs really are. The same applies here too...

If you don't use it, you lose it

The tax year runs from each 6 April to the following 5 April, and it's important to remember you'll lose unused allowances (or portions of them) for good. However, once in the children's ISA wrapper, they remain efficient year after year.

Important facts

Not everyone should bother with junior ISAs

So the Government gives away this great strapping big tax-free allowance, yet MoneySavingExpert.com suggests it may not be worth it. What's going on?

Well, while we think saving is always good provided you're debt-free (see Repay Debts With Savings), the truth is that children's ISAs are only of limited benefit, generally to more affluent families. So here are the two big questions to help you decide.

Question 1: Would your child pay tax on savings anyway?

The big sell of opening a junior cash ISA is the fact the interest is tax-free. This will often pay substantial dividends, provided the savings would've been taxed anyway. But...

• Most kids don't pay tax anyway.
  
  Many people think all children don't pay tax. That isn't true. Everyone in the UK under 65 can earn up to £9,440 per year (whether wages or interest) before paying income tax. Yet most kids, barring Shirley Temple types, don't get anywhere near this. Therefore, by filling in an R85 form when any savings account's opened, the money will be paid tax-free.
  
• The two exceptions...
  
  If a big chunk of their cash comes from parents
  
  If money given to a child by each parent generates more than £100/year in interest (so £200/year for a couple), then tax is paid at the parent's marginal rate. The aim's to stop parents using their kids' tax-free allowance for large savings, then taking the interest themselves. So if you're close to that limit or over it, a junior ISA is a way to keep earning tax-free interest.
  
  However, this cap doesn't apply for money given by grandparents, aunts, uncles or Bob from down the road. Provided it's a genuine gift (don't try to cheat) it's all tax-free for kids who don't earn over £9,440 a year. For a full explanation, read the Children's Savings guide.
  
  Saving for the long term - junior ISAs stay tax-free in adult life.
  
  While children's savings may be tax-free now, interest will be taxed once your little one starts earning a salary, unless they move the money into an adult Cash ISA.
  
  Yet if those savings were in a junior ISA, it converts into a cash ISA once they hit 18. So even if they're earning (and paying tax) by then, the interest remains tax free.
  
  So, if money saved for your kid is bigger than the adult cash ISA allowance (currently £5,720, but planned to increase each year), using a junior ISA now can give extra protection from the taxman.

Question 2: It's their cash - are you happy with letting go?

So at this point, you may be thinking: "I'm not sure my kids will pay tax, but it seems safer to assume they might, so I'll use a junior ISA." With a tax hat on, that’s sensible, but you must also factor in the following.

• It's their money. At age 18, they can do what they want with the cash.

  From the day the cash goes in a junior ISA, it's the child's money, not the parents'. So you must remember at age 18, whatever you've planned for the money - such as building a mortgage deposit for them - the money's actually entirely your child's, and they can do WHATEVER they want with it.

  So while you may have a cute toddler now, they could grow up to be a rebellious 18-year-old. Even if that's just a phase, when the money in junior ISAs finally becomes accessible, on their 18th birthday, it becomes theirs to do as they will.

  To take it to its extreme, here's a question Martin was asked: "Could I stop them if they wanted to buy drugs with it?" The answer is no.
  
  So if you're saving for a university fund, for example, (see our Don't Pay Tuition Fees Upfront guide) there's a risk with using a children's ISA.

  Carefully consider whether you want your child to have complete autonomy over all the cash you put in once they turn 18. Saving in your name, especially if you're not already using your own tax-free cash ISA, could be the safer option.


• The money is locked away.
  
  This could be seen as a good or bad thing. Much like a pension, once the money is saved away in a junior ISA, that's it. Neither you nor your child can access it until they're 18 - except if he or she becomes terminally ill or dies.
  
  Many parents may see this as a positive if they don't want their children to have access in the short term - or even stifles any temptation to use it yourself. The bad news is, it means if you're short of cash and need it, you can't take it.
  
• The junior ISA choice is limited
  
  While junior ISAs have flexibility - you should usually be able to change from cash to shares without problem - this is a new product type, so the choice of savings and investments are currently limited. Put your money in one now, and you're restricting yourself somewhat.
  

So overall, you need to balance any gain from the tax boost against the limits a junior ISA will place on the cash. Think carefully about what your aim is when putting the money away.

To save or to invest?

Like normal ISAs, the yearly £3,720 allowance can be used to save or invest. Yet unlike normal ISAs, you have a choice over how much of that total allowance you use in each. You can put as little or as much of the £3,720 allowance as you wish in each - so you could have the full amount in a junior cash ISA (which would mean being unable to invest).

With a normal ISA you can only use half (£5,760) of the £11,520 limit in cash.

• Saving - junior cash ISAs. This is where you put the cash in what is quite simply a tax-free savings account. The money is completely safe (provided it’s a UK-regulated provider and you've no more than £85,000 with that financial institution) and you get a defined amount of interest. The only risk is the money won't grow as quickly as inflation.
  
  See full junior cash ISA best buys below.
  
• Investing - junior shares ISAs. Here, your money depends on the performance of the stocks or shares you've invested in. If they do well, the ISA is likely to grow far more rapidly than a cash ISA. If they do badly you could lose some, or even all the cash that you originally deposited.

There's no easy way to decide, and no right or wrong answer, it's all about your attitude to risk - and also how old your child is.

The younger they are, the more likely it is that investing will beat saving, as over longer periods the stock market tends to outperform cash. Yet, of course, there's no guarantee.

If your child is close to 18, when the money can be used by them, you're more at risk of the vagaries of the stock market. So, if they want to cash it in but the market's just crashed, they'll incur a big loss.

Remember you have the option to use some cash for saving and some for investing, to spread the risk.

Looking to invest?

It's important to note MoneySavingExpert.com doesn't cover investments - it's not our field of expertise. Instead, if you're thinking of investing, these junior shares ISA guides may be useful: Hargreaves Lansdown (printable booklet), Citywire, The Telegraph.

BEST BUYS: 3.25% tax-free junior cash ISA

These are the current top-paying junior cash ISAs - though always check your local building society, it may have branch-only offers for local customers.

Top 'clean' (no bonus) rates

Top rates which include bonuses

Massive boost for Halifax ISA customers

Can I switch providers to boost the rate?

With adult ISAs, if you want to boost the interest rate, you can do an ISA transfer to move savings between different banks (if the new one accepts transfers), and retain the tax-free boon. However, if you'd rather leave the existing stash alone and just pay into a new ISA in a new tax year, that's okay too.

With junior ISAs, transfers are possible too. But the method is even more crucial...

To switch ISAs, you MUST do a proper transfer through your new provider, NOT just open a new account

This means you can't have more than one junior cash ISA open at once, and the same goes for junior shares ISAs. To improve your rate, you must fully transfer the account to your new provider, closing the old one in the process.

Providers aren't required to accept transfers in, so that'd just mean you can't move to them if you already have a junior ISA open. In truth, we're still waiting for the product offerings to take full shape, but once they do, it seems likely banks will want to tempt junior ISA cash from other providers, so accepting transfers in will be vital.

You can shift between cash and shares whenever you like

Savers can move money between a junior cash ISA and junior shares ISA freely, and as many times as they like, with the only proviso that yearly deposits don't top £3,720.

This actually exceeds the flexibility that adult ISAs allow, where you can only move from cash to shares, and not vice versa (read the Full ISA Guide for more info).