If your child has a Child Trust Fund (CTF), they’re almost certainly 15 to 17 now. The scheme closed to new accounts in January 2011, so every CTF holder is past childhood, and the last children who qualify, born on 2 January 2011, turn 18 on 2 January 2029. That’s just over two years away. If you’ve been meaning to look into switching, this is genuinely one of the last windows where you still get to decide.

What’s actually different between a CTF and a Junior ISA

Not much, on paper. Both are long-term, tax-free savings accounts created for children. Both lock the money away until the account holder turns 18. The real difference isn’t the rules; it’s how they are marketed. Junior ISAs (JISA) are still actively sold, developed and competed over by dozens of providers (including the Children’s ISA). Child Trust Funds are a closed product; several well-known providers stopped offering them years ago, and many of the ones still running them haven’t meaningfully updated their rates or fees since.

CTF’s and JISA’s have the same limit 

Both accounts share the same £9,000 annual subscription limit, and it’s a single combined limit per child, not one for each account. If you’ve already paid into the CTF earlier in the tax year and then transfer, that money still counts; transferring doesn’t reset the allowance or give you a second £9,000 to use.

Importantly, you can’t hold a Child Trust Fund and a Junior ISA at the same time for the same child. Transferring closes the CTF; it isn’t a case of running two accounts side by side.

Where Junior ISAs usually win

CTF cash rates have generally lagged behind cash Junior ISA rates, and on older stakeholder CTFs the annual charge can run to around 1.5%, more than many current Junior ISA options charge. But it’s worth being straightforward about what a Junior ISA with the Children’s ISA  actually costs, rather than pointing at a generic “as little as 0.2%” figure that describes a bare tracker fund on a discount platform, not any specific product you’d actually hold your child’s money in.

Our own charges: 1% on each contribution (2% for the Shariah fund), a 0.6% annual platform charge, and an £8 a year admin fee, on top of whatever the underlying fund itself charges, set by the fund manager and disclosed in its Key Investor Information Document. 

 A Junior ISA from the Children’s ISA is built specifically around children’s investing rather than a general purpose platform, with four fund choices including a Shariah-compliant option, and a transfer process designed around actually getting an old CTF moved, rather than leaving you to chase two providers yourself.

There is one more thing worth knowing, though it isn’t a reason to switch specifically – both Child Trust Funds and Junior ISAs sit outside the £100 parental income rule that applies to an ordinary children’s savings account, where interest on anything a parent pays in over £100 a year gets taxed as the parent’s own income. 

Provider choice

Because the CTF market has shrunk since 2011, the accounts still open to new money or transfers are a smaller pool than they used to be. Junior ISAs, by contrast, have kept growing as a product category: more providers, more fund choices, more competition on price. And the money invested in Junior ISAs has gone up in parallel. That doesn’t automatically make every Junior ISA better than every CTF, but it does mean there’s more to actually compare.

Reasons not to switch, or to check first

None of this makes switching the right move automatically. There are a few things worth checking before you do anything.

Some of the highest paying Junior ISAs carry membership or local residency restrictions, building societies mainly, so the best advertised rate isn’t always one you can actually get. Not every Junior ISA provider accepts a transfer in from a CTF, so check that before you commit to one. And some current CTF providers charge an exit fee to transfer out, which is worth weighing against whatever you’d gain by moving.

It’s also worth remembering this is a one-way move. Once you transfer a Child Trust Fund into a Junior ISA, you can’t switch back, so it’s worth being reasonably confident before you start rather than treating it as easily reversible.

How the transfer actually works

The process is simpler than it sounds, and you don’t handle any money yourself.

1. Pick a Junior ISA provider that explicitly accepts CTF transfers in; not all of them do.
2. Open the new Junior ISA with them.
3. Fill in their transfer request form. They contact your current CTF provider and arrange the transfer directly.
4. Your old CTF provider sends the money across, and the CTF account closes once it’s done.

You never withdraw the money and pay it in yourself; the two providers handle that between them. We make transferring a CTF to a Junior ISA as easy as A,B,C. 

What to do next

If, after weighing all that up, transferring looks like the better option for your child’s account, you can move a Child Trust Fund into a Junior ISA with us in a few minutes online.

FAQs

Is a Junior ISA better than a Child Trust Fund? 

Often, but not automatically. Junior ISAs tend to offer better rates, lower fees and more provider choice, but it’s worth checking your specific CTF’s current terms before assuming that’s true for you.

Can I transfer a Child Trust Fund to a Junior ISA at any time? 

Yes, as long as the account holder is still under 18. Transfers from CTF to Junior ISA have been allowed since April 2015.

Can I have a Child Trust Fund and a Junior ISA at the same time? 

No. A child can only hold one or the other, not both. Transferring closes the Child Trust Fund.

Does my Child Trust Fund allowance carry over if I transfer partway through the tax year? 

Yes. The £9,000 annual limit is combined across both accounts for that child, so whatever you’ve already paid into the CTF still counts.

Will I lose money by transferring? 

Not through the transfer itself, though check whether your current CTF provider charges an exit fee first, and be aware the account may be briefly out of the market while the switch happens.

Do I need to close the Child Trust Fund myself? 

No. Your new Junior ISA provider handles the transfer request and the account closure between them.

Can I switch back to a Child Trust Fund later? 

No. Once transferred, the move can’t be reversed. Child Trust Funds are a closed product and can’t be reopened.