Joint account for Direct Debit bills, not work income.

jon_e00

Hopefully this will make sense and some of you can help.

At the moment all our bills are coming out of my current account. My partner has her own current account and we both get paid monthly into these accounts.

We plan to open a joint bank account and transfer all our direct debit bills to this account, i.e. water, electric, gas, sky etc.

We would then set a direct debit from our own current accounts to cover these payments, and possibly over-pay in order to maybe have a holiday each year.

We would not need an overdraft facility.

Is this do-able and a wise move. If so, what accounts are there that are best suited for us. We only need only banking and a debit card for store purchases.

Thanks in advance.

jon_e00

Does the lack of replies mean that it is a good idea?

CLAPTON

Is there a problem with the current system?
Is so then what is it?

If you are along established couple and there is no possibily of your separating then maybe ..just maybe it worth the potential hassle of getting a joint a/c. .. basically opening one is no problem but closing them afterward a separation is is often a very difficult task.

Your financial credit records will be linked and if one has any problems (now or in the future) then it will adversely affect you both... better to keep them separate.

So unless you have real problems now then don't do it.

jon_e00

the main problem or hassle now is that my account pays the bill and then my partner contributes by paying into my account.

we thought if we opened a joint account, we could both pay in x-amount per month, pay all the bills and ideally have a 'slush' fund for a rainy day... i.e. holiday!!

(thanks for you input CLAPTON)

CLAPTON

could you not agree he puts the money in at the beginning of every month so you don't have to carry the bills
or divide the bills between you and have a monthly reconciliation?

but in depends whether the downsides are less than the benefits..

mintymoneysaver

We have two of these accounts, neither require our salary to be paid in. One is with HSBC and the other is with Halifax. We use one for all our bills, and the other one for family treats/ holidays/ slush fund! We have had the HSBC one for nearly twenty years though!

slass78

we've always done this, it makes it so much easier to budget, especially as we are both paid weekly. we now have a joint account where both our wages go, and a joint bills account into which we pay a weekly amount that ensures that the following months direct debits are covered. before we were married we each had our own account where wages went, but a joint bills account.
we find that this way, we know that whats in the everyday account is effectively our spending money, and no worries about if any dd's are yet to come out.

getmore4less

jon_e00 wrote: »

the main problem or hassle now is that my account pays the bill and then my partner contributes by paying into my account.

we thought if we opened a joint account, we could both pay in x-amount per month, pay all the bills and ideally have a 'slush' fund for a rainy day... i.e. holiday!!

(thanks for you input CLAPTON)

This is the way we do it OH just pays £X and all the bills go from my account. ( we have lots of other joint finances, just easier this way)

This can have issues if all the bills are in one name, the other has no utilities to use for ID.

One thing to coinsider is do you have financial association or will this be the first, It is not easy to get rid of joint accounts once set up unless BOTH agree so this is something to watch out for, if you allready have joint finances(eg mortgage) thewn another makes little difference.

Any old cuurent account will probably do, one thing to consider is having this at a new bank so that if the joint account gets into dispute your own accounts are protected.


Going down the joint expences account route has its advantages so definately worth considering to make the budgeting easer if you don't do full budget tracking.

jon_e00

slass78 wrote: »

we've always done this, it makes it so much easier to budget, especially as we are both paid weekly. we now have a joint account where both our wages go, and a joint bills account into which we pay a weekly amount that ensures that the following months direct debits are covered. before we were married we each had our own account where wages went, but a joint bills account.
we find that this way, we know that whats in the everyday account is effectively our spending money, and no worries about if any dd's are yet to come out.

this is pretty much what we intend to do. both get paid into our own accounts but set up a direct debit from these to our joint account. All the DD's can come out of the joint account and hopefully we will end up having some savings at the end of each year.

The problem now is choosing which bank to go with. We aren't interested in any overdraft and would prefer not to have a minimum monthly deposit.

Any recommendations?

(thanks for all input, it's greatly appreciated)