Bank Accounts for DC

[Southlooper]

Did you set up bank accounts in your child's name? What is needed to do so?

[ginad724]

All we needed was our DD's Social Security Number, which means you have to wait until you recieve their card. Ours took less than a month to come.

gina

[usafwife]

We needed to have the actual SS card so the bank could copy it. Certain banks have requirements as the amount of money it takes to open a child's acct so check with them to see what their requirement is.

[NJMom]

We just needed the SS numbers for our boys. My one pet peeve with bank accounts for my DS's is that only one parent can be a custodian to the account so only I can access their accounts and DH cannot unless something happens to me. Isn't that stupid!?! Just thought I would let you know this in advance!

[usafwife]

We just needed the SS numbers for our boys. My one pet peeve with bank accounts for my DS's is that only one parent can be a custodian to the account so only I can access their accounts and DH cannot unless something happens to me. Isn't that stupid!?! Just thought I would let you know this in advance!
We are both on DD's acct.

[dragonfly_71]

If you open a UTMA (Uniform Transfer to Minors) account you can only have one custodian and a successor custodian. But don't blame the bank, that is a rule given by UTMA. Some banks will let you open a joint account instead of a custodial account for your DC. Then you can have three people on the account such as mom, dad, and DC.

[Littlelamb11]

we needed her SS# and the minimum to open it was $250 if i recall correctly. it was several years ago.

[EJM]

Our bank's minimum is only $25, and they don't charge the monthly service fee on an account belonging to a minor.

[twinnyme]

I don't think our bank had a minimum, but I'm not sure because we opened the account after her baptism, so we started the account with quite a bit of money. We also have the custodial account, so only I can take out money, though both DH and I (anyone, really, who has the passbook) can put in money. Seemed very odd to me, too - thanks for the explanation, dragonfly_71 - maybe at some point we'll open a joint account. For now, I really enjoy the nostalgia of the passbook (I think I had another option when I opened it - I can't remember what the other option was - but I chose the passbook for nostalgic reasons!). :)

ETA: Oh, and yes, we needed the SSN/card.

[usafwife]

The bank we used had a $50 requirement to open the account. They do not charge a service fee on minor's accts either (they only charge a service fee on regular accts if the balance falls below a certain amt). Even then the service charge isn't monthly, it's done quarterly.

The $250/$500 requirement seems a bit high to me.

[BooeyJ2]

Also just a SS card. I think the minimum was $20 or something to start....but DD had way more than that already ;)

[celina]

We set up an ING account for her. We needed her SS# and I think that's about it. I don't know if there's a minimum balance requirement as her first deposit was 1k.

[elladee]

We set up an ING account for her. We needed her SS# and I think that's about it. I don't know if there's a minimum balance requirement as her first deposit was 1k.

I'm going to do an ING account, too, with myself as a joint owner. There are no minimums for ING. For now I'm just going to link it to my checking account. Once she gets older, I'll think about opening her own checking account...

[Pookie]

I think it depends on what kind of bank the account is set up in. Banks like B of A, Wells Fargo, etc have lower minimums than banks like UBS, Merril Lynch, etc.