BC Grant Money for Post-Secondary Education
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Picture: This is a picture of one of the first computers behind my kids.
Are you a resident of BC and have children under the age of 9?
If so, you have an opportunity to apply for a one-time $1,200 grant for their post-secondary education. But it’s a limited time - it’s once they turn 6 and it has to be before they turn 9.
No strings attached to get this grant. No contributing of your money is needed to access it.
Below is the BC government chart on eligibility of when you can apply for this “BCTESG” grant.
1. Open a RESP with a bank branch.
If you have more than one child a “family/group” RESP can be opened to have all children listed as beneficiaries of the RESP.
Here is a direct link to the RBC page and the phone number I used to open an RESP and access this grant.
I do have another RESP with an online brokerage, however, online brokerages cannot access the provincial grant. So that leaves me two options: I’ll mange two RESP accounts or I can transfer the RESP at RBC branch once grant is paid out to the online brokerage RESP to manage. The reason I like having the online brokerage account is because I can access ETFs that are low in fees.
https://www.rbcroyalbank.com/customer-service/index.html
2. Information to have on hand when opening the account:
- Primary caregiver’s information (the person who receives the child tax benefit): SIN, legal name and address
- Child’s legal name, date of birth, and SIN
- There is another grant which is a federal grant called the CESG where the federal govt will give you 20% grant monies if you contribute to the RESP. But this is optional. The bank will insist you link a bank account to add more money to your RESP to access this CESG grant. But you can say, “no thank you, maybe later.” It’s up to you if you want to add more money to the RESP to access the other grant that offers 20% of what you put in to a max of a $500 grant each year. Don’t feel pressured if you can’t afford to add more to the RESP. - you are just wanting the one-time grant to invest.
3. Once the RESP account is opened over the phone, you then must request an appointment at the local branch to apply for this one-time provincial grant. This grant is not automatically applied for when you open the account. The bank will only automatically apply for the 20% CESG federal grants upon you contributing funds.
REQUEST to book an appointment to apply for the BCTESG $1,200 grant. The person on the phone did not offer this grant option to me I had to ask for it.
4. Invest the funds once they arrive into the account via someone at the bank branch who can help or transfer the funds to your online brokerage RESP account to invest on your own. Make sure you can get reimbursed for the transfer out fee before you transfer though - it usually runs about $150 for transfers. On occasion I know Questrade will offer reimbursements of these fees when money is transferred into them.
P.S. more info on govt site in this link.
