Bank account for my son - Page 2

[sunnysandiegan]

There are so many ways accounts can be configured. Ask at your financial institution.

One account our 9 yo has is just in her name, but the way this credit union works is we have one family account and then all other accounts are linked. Transferring money between the accounts is pretty easy online or over the phone or in person.

We just opened her a second account through ING Direct recently and it is a child's account in her name, but my name is also on the account. Yet, it is not a "joint account". I could have chosen not to have my name on the account at all, but I had to enter my information beforehand anyway so I didn't see any difference to it. I can remove my name when the time is right or she can open a new account. It isn't a big deal either way.

She splits her allowance three ways: spending, savings, charity. She's gone through several stages, which is all part of the learning process. Better to learn it now in the single-digit ages, I say.

What does your son have to say about the topic at hand? His father?

[heatherdeg]

Originally Posted by enkmom 

I am one of the posters who said "having a job means he's old enough to manage his own money", and I never meant to imply that I didn't give my children plenty of financial education.  They were perfectly aware of all the ins and outs and the what if's.  My 21 year old has never had an overdraft and manages her account meticulously.  My 20 year old got a $75 overdraft charge for debiting an 89cent soda at McDonald's when his account dipped too low.  Now he manages his account meticulously, too.

Sorry... I didn't mean to imply that you DIDN'T give your kids financial education--I was just pointing out that it would be easy for someone to use that logic and not consider that THEIR kid might NOT have financial education.  Not that you specifically (or anyone on this thread) thought otherwise.  No offense meant!

[Storm Bride]

Originally Posted by Annie Mac 

One thing to consider is that, with a joint account, if your son does make an "oopsie," you are just as much responsible for it as he is. Your bank may well be able to scoop the money from your single name account to cover the debit in the account that is joint with your son. Overdrafts can be caused by things that are pretty much out of your son's control; all it takes is one bad cheque to seriously mess someone up (I mean receiving a bad cheque, not writing one). 

I don't think anyone was talking about making it a joint account, though. I have total access to my son's account, but it's not joint. It's his account.

[enkmom]

We're cool.  I wasn't offended, I just wanted to be clear that I tried my best to teach them how it worked.  I guess it never occurred to me that anyone would use a debit card to buy a soda!

[Dar]

Rain has a joint account with me, but it's *her* account. She got a kid account when she was pretty young, and then when she was thirteen USAA offered to convert it to a teen account, which we did, but I'm not sure what that meant, really. At the time I probably did. It's just easier for us to be able to transfer money that way, because fairly often one of us buys something for the other and gets reimbursed later. It's also easier for me to deposit her checks, which I do at school because there's a scanner there and we don't have one at home.

She's never had any problems with her account. Wait, I take that back: about a year ago she exceeded her allowed number of free ATM withdrawals per month and got charged a couple bucks for the extra ones, and I noticed and pointed it out to her, thinking perhaps she'd forgotten because in the past 8 years or so she'd never gone over. No big deal. She's never overdrawn her account. I've offered to add her to one of my credit cards, for convenience, but she's reluctant, which is fine... her debit card works for most things.