Junior Accounts

Teaching our Children the value of money

Junior Saver Account

It's important to us that our young people learn the value of saving regularly from an early age, learning money management skills that will help set them up for adult life. Our junior savings accounts are available to anyone in Cardiff or Vale of Glamorgan.

Our junior savers can save with us via a school savings club (with participating school partners), or directly into their account with us.  Parents who are members with us can even save directly from their salary into their child's junior saver account if they are an employee of a Moneyworks Wales partner.

The purpose of our School Saver Clubs

Our School Saver Clubs have been established with to encourage children to learn to save, with the aims of:

  • helping children to budget and avoid debt problems in adult life
  • enhancing children's maths skills
  • educating children on the benefits of saving
  • offering an accessible, familiar and safe environment to save regularly
  • providing training in administration and customer services for our volunteers who run the clubs
  • offering a service that will support children to continue saving in adult life

Our Current School Saver Clubs

In partnership with Cardiff Council and local schools, we now have a number of School Saver Clubs in Cardiff, including:

  • Bryn Hafod Primary School, Llanrumney
  • Fairwater Primary School, Fairwater
  • Glan yr Afon Primary School, Llanrumney
  • Glyncoed Primary School, Pentwyn
  • Grangetown Primary School, Grangetown
  • Hawthorn Primary School, Llandaff North
  • Hywel Dda Primary School, Ely
  • Llanederyn Primary School, Llanederyn
  • Meadowlane Primary School, St Mellons
  • Millbank Primary School, Ely
  • Severn Primary School, Canton
  • St Albans Primary School, Tremorfa
  • The Hollies Primary School, Pentwyn
  • Thornhill Primary School, Thornhill
  • Ton Yr Ywen Primary School, Heath
  • Windsor Clive Primary School, Ely

In partnership with local schools, we also have a number of School Saver Clubs in Vale of Glamorgan, including:

  • Cadoxton Primary
  • Oakfield Primary
  • Jenner Park Primary
  • Barry Island Primary
  • Ysgol Bro Morgannwg
  • All Saints Church in Wales Primary
  • St Joseph's Church in Wales Primary
  • St Helen's RC Primary
  • Gwenfo Church in Wales Primary

We strongly believe in building financial skills at a young age, and are committed to expanding our school savers' clubs to reach as many young people as possible. If you are a pupil or parent at a school that doesn't yet have a savings club, we would encourage you to request that your school considers opening a scheme, and contact us to find out more.

How does it work?

We train and work with volunteers from each school, who run a weekly collection point at the school for pupils to deposit money into their savings account.  Volunteers are usually teaching staff, parent volunteers and in some schools, supervised volunteer pupils. The deposits are then credited to the savings account of each pupil. Withdrawals can be made at any time in the same way as any other junior saver account. A variable annual dividend is also paid into savers' accounts each spring. 

Junior Accounts

If your child is in a school that doesn't currently offer a school savings club, they can still become a junior saver with us. Interest paid on junior accounts is variable depending on our financial performance each financial year. The rate set is agreed at our AGM, and over recent years, has typically been 0.5%.

Please note that loans are not available to our junior members, and juniors do not have voting rights at our AGM.

Child Trust Funds (CTFs)

The Government stopped issuing new Child Trust Funds in 2010, although we still hold legacy Child Trust Fund (CTF) savings accounts for children. The account is a cash savings account (not a stakeholder account), so the value of the funds will increase over time. Accounts can be topped up by parents, relatives or friends, up to £1,200 each year. The account receives an annual interest rate payment (currently 2%), and savings can't be accessed by the child until they reach the age of 18.

Frequently Asked Questions

To open a savings account with us, you will first need to apply to become a member . Membership is free, and it's easy to join, in a number of ways:

To activate your account, you must deposit at least £5 in the first 3 months.

We offer a number of accounts for both adults and children.  See our Savings page for details to find out what account would most suit you.

A minimum of £5 is required to keep your account active, and you can currently save up to £70,000.

Provided that you keep a minimum £5 in your account, you can save any amount that suits you.  We request that our members save regularly with us - at least on a monthly basis.

If you have a loan with us, we will request as part of your loan condition that you pay a minimum of £10 per month (or £2 per week) into your savings account with each loan repayment.  This ensures that once your loan is repaid, you will have access to a lump sum in your savings account. If you prefer to pay more than the minimum amount, you can pay any amount that suits you.

There are a number of options for making deposits, and you can choose more than one option if that suits you:

  • by setting up a payroll deduction order if you work for a participating Moneyworks employer
  • by setting up a standing order from your bank account
  • by payment into our Cardiff office or one of our collection points
  • for school savers, into your weekly school collection
  • by payment card into a Post Office or Paypoint outlet (for those without a bank account)

Yes. If for example you want to make payments into both a general Adult Saver account (known as Share 1) and a Christmas Saver account, this can be done. You can also for example pay into your own account and an account for your child. Please contact us and we can arrange this for you.

Yes: we are an established and respected financial mutual. As with all credit unions, we are regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority. Your savings up to a value of £85,000 are protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme, in the same way as savings with banks and building societies are protected. Credit unions are also fully insured against fraud.

Our savings accounts do not pay a fixed interest rate. Depending on our financial performance each year, we pay our members an annual interest payment in the form of a variable dividend.

The dividend rate for each financial year is agreed retrospectively at our AGM each spring. For last financial year (ending 30 September 2021), a gross 0.05% dividend was allocated to our members.

You can withdraw your savings at any time, unless you currently have a loan with us. Withdrawals can be requested in the following ways:

  • Online by logging into your account and selecting 'Transferring Money'
  • By telephone (call 029 2111 1720) during opening hours. We recommend that you register for telephone banking to make withdrawals in this way easier and quicker
  • In person, by completing a share withdrawal request form at any of our offices or collection points
  • By post, by completing a share withdrawal request and returning it to us

There are a number of ways in which you can have a withdrawal paid to you:

  • Into a nominated bank account
  • Onto a prepaid debit card if you have one with us

Provided that you have sufficient funds in your account and are eligible for a withdrawal, you will normally be able to access your savings on the next working day, if you make your request before 3pm.

There are no account charges, but transaction charges are applied on accounts with frequent withdrawals. For our standard savings account (known as share 1) members can request 6 free withdrawals each year (from April to March) and will be charged a £5 transaction fee for each withdrawal after ths, to allow us to cover the costs of administering frequent withdrawals.  These charges do not apply for members who currently have an active loan with us.

For Christmas saver accounts, a £5 charge will be applied to all withdrawals made between 1st January and 31st October, to encourage savers not to access money intended for Christmas. If you think you may need to access your savings throughout the year, our general saver account may be more suitable for you.

Our accounts are intended to be kept active, and an annual £5 dormancy charge will apply to all accounts with balances under £25 if no transactions are made by members for a year.

Yes: you can apply online now or download our membership application pack. Alternatively, call us on 029 2111 1720 or email us at ccu@cardiffcu.com if you would like us to send you a pack to complete.