Children should be trained to save while they are still young so the parents should open for them children bank accounts.

What are Children bank accounts

Children bank accounts are an important way to train up the young generation on savings and the value of planning for the future. Kenyans have been accused as a nation of people who do not know how to save.

Many Kenyans say they do not save because they have and earn so little. The discipline of saving has to start from the little that you have. This may mean that you are putting away even as little as 10 shillings a month. With the competitive nature of banking in Kenya, to open the children bank accounts has become easy. For as little as 200 shillings some banks will open the children bank accounts.

The children bank accounts are mainly applied for by the parents or guardians because the children under 18 years of age are considered as under age. Legally these children cannot have contractual dealings with a bank. The bank usually gives a ‘piggy bank’ to the child, to allow them to start saving their monies.

The parents need to look at children bank accounts that have high interest rates and other benefits like cheaper or free school fees cheques and discounts on school books or uniforms. Children bank accounts that do not any type of maintenance fees are more advantageous.

Introduce the children to their account and tell them about the account. Let them actually take the money they have to save to the bank. The account will then become a reality for them. If they are saving for a particular item, take them to the bank and let them see you withdraw the money to purchase the item. This makes them believe that the account belongs to them. The children bank accounts also show the child the importance of saving for items they want. The children stop thinking that it is easy to get money all the time and that when parents do not have money they cannot purchase items they want.

Some parents use the children bank accounts as their own savings accounts and do not let the children know about these accounts. some parents use the accounts as savings for school fees, medical for the child and other emergencies. This will ensure that the schooling of the children has been taken care of, sometimes up to university.

If a parent saves 1,000 shillings to a child’s account monthly, it would mean they save 12,000 shillings per year. By the time the child is 10 years, the account would have at least 120,000 shillings. By the time the child is in college, both the child and the parent know they have the tuition for college covered and so do not need to worry.

The children bank accounts also train the children on the basics of investments and returns. The parents or guardians should show the child how to balance the bank statement for their account and so they can know their balances.

It is important to have children bank accounts for your children, to train the children how to save. Many banks have also realised the importance of these Children bank accounts as sources of funds for the banks.