joint accounts?

cassbass

Hi,

My boyfriend and I are going to be moving in together in a few months time, renting a flat. We want to get a joint current account, and he’s going to put about £2k in as a sort of contingency fund. We’ll then be paying in about £500 each per month, with roughly that amount coming out for bills/rent etc. We won’t need an overdraft facility and I imagine the “contingency” fund will remain pretty much untouched (except in emergencies). Can you recommend an account that would suit? The Premier Direct Current Account at Alliance and Leicester sounds good but I wondered if anyone thought there might be something better with more benefits etc.

Ta!

cadboll

Hi. The A&L account is hard to beat at the moment, plus it has a 0% overdraft facility which is useful. The current offer ends 30 June 2006 (from memory) and so you'll probably need to shop around after that. I haven't opened a joint account with them, so unsure as to the T&C. I have an account with them in my own name and very happy with them so far.

BenL

My girlfriend and I do the same.

We setup an account with Smile and are very happy with it. They give a £500 overdraft as part of the account.

Overtime we have built up a contingency fund and treats from what we have not spent from the equal amounts we put in.

This year we went to France in the summer with the proceeds of money saving on bills etc.

When applying for the account, little bit of advice.

If you are currently living at seperate houses only apply for the account in 1 name. Banks tend not to like applicants on joint accounts living at different addresses.

As your Boyfriend is putting the £2K in I recommend he opens it. When you are moved in add you on as a joint holder (you will then be responsible for the debt and the credit).

No bad credit check/ scoring by the bank for 2 different addresses.

Apply for the account before leaving the credit safety of parents house as it will take a while to get on the voters role etc at the new place.

The voters role goes along way to credit scoring banks use.

I used to work for a bank and designed a lot of processes etc for how they should run the place, most probably work the same. We had people that had worked in other financial institutions in the team who came to the same conclusions.

Ben