Spotlight: Interest Zone children's account from Coventry Building Society

The Product: Interest Zone children's account from Coventry Building Society.

The Deal: Get them young and they are yours for life, as they say. This week it's the turn of Coventry, which is offering 7.75 per cent gross on savings in Interest Zone, the building society's young people's account.

Minimum savings are pounds 1, up to a maximum of pounds 5,000. Interest can be paid tax free on completion of a R85 form available from the society.

Plus Point: Coventry claims the new rate makes this the UK's leading instant access account for children. Unlike with some other kids' accounts, there are no penalties on withdrawals.

Interest Zone "comes complete with passbook and a specially designed wallet", as the blurb says. There are no other freebies, just a top interest rate.

Drawbacks and Risks: Marketing experts argue that to win young people themselves over to a savings account, you must offer sweeteners - money boxes, stickers, magazines, discount cards, CDs - to hook them in. They will remember you as they grow older.

Coventry's no-frills product heads in the opposite direction and is probably aimed at mums and dads opening accounts on their young children's behalf - though maybe kids in their early teens don't fall for all this naff stuff anyway.

The account is not postal-based, so if you do not live within Coventry's base area (Sheffield to Oxford, Stourbridge to Milton Keynes and points in-between), you can't sign up.

Marks out of five: Four. If you don't live in the area, try Britannia, Bradford & Bingley and Nationwide. They all have good rates.