Bank account for housemates

johanne

Hiya,

Hope this makes sense ive made it sound a bit more complicated than it is! :rotfl:

My friend and i are going to be sharing a house pretty soon... at the moment i rent a place alone and he lives with his parents so only i have utility bills etc to pay. Im moving out of my place (as my landlord wont let him move in and i cant afford here alone anymore due to losing my job) and we're getting a brand new place together...we have agreed splitting all the fixed bills like rent, council tax, water, gas, leccy and the phone line rental etc 50/50 but paying for our own food and phone calls on the landline etc.

My quandry is.. neither of us will (hopefully) be counted as "renting" a room off the other one.. were gonna be joint tenants. So my question is.. what do we do about a bank account for DD's etc to come out of?

Now as much as i love my friend dearly and trust him to cough up the cash for the bills... things go wrong. Its a fact .. even friendships.... so i dont fancy having it all coming out of my bank account and all in my name incase he buggers off one day leaving me in the lurch with his half of the bills to pay.......... BUT i dont wanna leave him with the bills coming out of HIS account as hes definetetly NOT an MSER and hasnt got an overdraft or anything so id be worried about forgotten bills, bounced DDs or him spending my money by accident when he sees a nice sum in his account! (i know how dodgy that sounds that im willing to move in with a financial dumbo!)

What id LOVE to do is set up a joint bank account in both our names and both set up standing orders out of our normal bank accounts into that one for a set amount over the monthly outgoings then have all the bills come out of that and leave whatever is left in there to cover unexpected house expenditures like repairs etc.......(if we got debit cards for it they would be put in the freezer in a huge block of ice so they cant be used!! )

Im wondering if this would be wise and possible though? Because i know hes not got a very good credit rating ....... so im worried about our finances being joined in such a way? What impact could it have on my credit rating? And how easy would it be to get a joint account seen as were not a couple... and at the moment (hopefully for only another week or two) im unemployed?

IF the joint account isnt the best option.... what can you suggest would be the best way?

jimmyjim_uk

A joint account is probably the best idea.

Is there a bank you both have individual accounts with? If so, you are more likely to get an joint account with them.

Me and a mate got a mortgage approved even though my mate had CCJs. He became a financial associate on my credit file.

Another option is you open a basic account with direct debit facilities and you both transfer money by standing order each month. Whatever is left over at Xmas you split and spend.

Old_No.7

Hi Johanne, I have a joint account with my flatmate as well, and that all works swimmingly, has done for 3 years now. We both have online access to it, so can monitor it to see if anything is going out that shouldn't etc. Who knows, your friend might pick up some MSE habits from you along the way: it can be quite contagious!
If you aren't sure of his spending habits though, maybe you can get an account where both of you have to sign cheques (and no debit card)? That's what we have in our office, but not sure if that's available to personal accounts as well.

Rafter

Sounds like you need some sort of basic bank account that cannot go overdrawn.

Sounds like you also need to think carefully about a joint bank account and creating a financial association with someone who might reduce your access to mainstream finances.

You could get a basic account in your name, but make sure the bills are in joint names?

Good luck.

R.

GypsyKate

You could get a basic joint bank account with no overdraft facility and no debit cards, and with the facility for both parties to sign cheques. (My partner and I were offered this option when we opened out first joint account with Nationwide.) If you sign up for an account with internet access, you can both check the status of the account.

Previous experience has shown me that it is very difficult to get utility providers to issue bills in joint names - they want one person resonsible for the debt!

One last thing - introduce him to MSE straight away!

crawley_girl

When I flat-shared with a friend, we opened a joint account, bot put x amount into the account and set up all bills to bepaid out on direct debit. We decided that we didnt want a debit card, just a cheque book that we both needed to sign for. Luckily, she was prepared to let me take care of the financial stuff and she took a back-seat. We managed to get all the bills put into both of our names but then again, this was about 5 years ago...

Hope all goes well and you find a solution to your problem

lipidicman

The simplest method would be to avoid the joint account and share the bills out such that you each end up paying about the same. Make sure they are all set up on direct debit and very little can go wrong

Mark7799

Old_No.7 wrote:

Hi Johanne, I have a joint account with my flatmate as well, and that all works swimmingly, has done for 3 years now. We both have online access to it, so can monitor it to see if anything is going out that shouldn't etc. Who knows, your friend might pick up some MSE habits from you along the way: it can be quite contagious!
If you aren't sure of his spending habits though, maybe you can get an account where both of you have to sign cheques (and no debit card)? That's what we have in our office, but not sure if that's available to personal accounts as well.

A joint account with both to sign can be done on a personal as well as a business basis but you wouldn't be allowed debit cards (on the basis that funds can be paid away on one signature with a d/card transaction) and you may find it difficult to get internet banking as well for the same reason.