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Can I use money sitting in my parents' account as savings?

Bayley Clarke · Mortgage broker on the road · Last checked 3 September 2026 · 3 min read

The eighty second version. The rest of this page is the detail underneath it.

Why the bank says no

I have clients that are quite young sometimes, 18, 19, 20, and they're getting after it. But they've got their savings sitting in mum and dad's account, because maybe they've been putting away money since they were 14, or even their parents have been putting money away for them since they were younger.

It's their money. But the banks don't care, because the account name isn't yours. Even though you can kick and scream that it's your money, it's not, because the account is under mum and dad. The bank can only lend against what it can verify, and it verifies the name on the statement.

Fix one: it becomes a gift

The cleanest path is for that money to become a gift from your parents. A signed gift letter saying it's non-repayable, plus the transfer into your account, and the bank treats it as your deposit.

The catch is genuine savings. Some lenders, especially above 90% LVR, want to see that a portion of the deposit was saved by you over time, and a gift doesn't tick that box on its own. That's where fix two comes in.

Fix two: 90 days in your own name

Make sure you have held that money in your own account for at least 90 days before we look to purchase a property, so we can tick the boxes from a genuine savings requirement. Three months of statements with the balance sitting there, or growing, is what the bank wants to see.

The two fixes stack. Gift it across now, let it sit for 90 days, and by the time we apply it's both yours and genuinely saved. The bank statements do the talking. Just don't leave it until the week you find the house.