Bite-Sized Insights: Parents Want to Save for Children's Education But Don't Know Where to Start

For this week’s bite-sized insights question, we asked parents to tell us about their current savings plans for their children’s education. Take a quick read of this week’s bite-sized insights to find out what parents are saying about financial planning for education.

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Recommended reading: [INFOGRAPHIC] Parents Are Hungry for Family Finance Tips

We asked our Insights panel of parents to answer the following question: “If you are currently saving money for your child’s future education needs in a bank account, with inflation rising and bank deposit savings rates remaining at record lows, have you explored other options to ensure you are getting a good return?” Here’s how they answered:

Any other thoughts on saving for your child’s future education? Comments from our panel members included:

“Once my kids were all in school and no longer needed childcare, I was able to put away their children’s allowance each month.”

“It would be great to get some advice on saving for my children’s future particularly at how the mainstream banks aren’t offering any return on savings at the moment.”

“Wish I’d started earlier! The child allowance savings is good but it won’t be enough to cover the cost of education for our two daughters. I never once saw our bank advertise anything about this. Or in fact any other financial service. This is something parents should be encouraged to do from birth to help spread the cost and build up a nice pot of money for education costs.”

“It’s essential. Even when qualified for a grant it doesn’t go far. So many young people missing opportunities because they cannot afford it or because their parents cannot afford it. We sacrifice a lot to save for our children’s future to give them a head start in life.”

“I started saving as soon as they started school as I want my children to have the opportunity to go to whatever college they want or the money can be used to support them during an apprenticeship if this is what they choose.”

“I think it’s important to get into the habit of putting what you can afford each week into a savings account. I would love to know of good interest rates on this.”

“We are trying our best to save for our child’s future – while we have less disposable income following on from Covid we are in a position to set aside our child’s monthly Child Benefit payment directly into a savings account to be theirs in the future be it for a first car or education purposes such as fees, accommodation or apprenticeship. The monthly payment was previously used when they were smaller for the essentials every month such as stocking up on nappies etc.”

Key insights and recommendations for banks and financial institutions:

Parents are feeling the pinch as a result of recent inflation as well as the fallout from the pandemic. They are anxious about the future and feel lost as to where to start. Reaching out with easy-to-understand tailored information that will help them to explore their options for the future will help to build trust and improve awareness.
Children’s Allowance is often used for future education savings, with many parents saying they started to save it after the early years were out the way, so positioning your most suitable savings product front of mind with your customers at that stage of their parenting journey is a quick win while communicating to non-customers may also bring them to your brand.
Want to find out exactly what it is parents want and need to know about saving for their children’s education? We can help! Contact us to start your parents insights journey.