Joint Account Dilema

bikerboi87

Hi, this will take a bit of explaining sorry, so bare with me please...

I've lived with my grandparent's most my life. A few months ago my grandad died, and my grandma has increasingly started to think about looking after me when she dies.

I'm on JobSeekers at the moment unfortunately, and my grandma is working on that basis with her thinking. She was looking at putting me as a joint account holder on one of her savings account, so that when she dies I would have enough money to keep everything ticking over while the estate gets sorted out.

We've been down to the bank today to discuss it, and there are a few things we need to think about, and we're not sure which is the best option.

• I have a very bad credit rating, which if I go on a joint account with her will affect her rating.
• Her account is with a different bank (I'm with NatWest, she is with RBOS, and although one owns the other, apparently they don't class you as customers of the other), and RBOS might not accept me as a customer with my credit rating.
• While I wouldn't class this as my money, unfortunately legally it would be, which would affect my eligibility for JobSeekers.

We're not sure what to do. We've thought about stashing money in the house, leaving a signed cheque made out to me and I just fill in the date and all sorts. I've got a feeling that the last one could be classed as fraud though, as apparently nothing apart from funeral expenses will be paid after she dies...

We're honestly not sure what to do. In the end, I might (hopefully) have a job by then and be able to keep the bills paid by myself, but if not, then I'd be in a nasty situation...

Any advice would be greatly appreciated

YorkshireBoy

A "savings account" won't create a financial association on your credit files.

bikerboi87

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

A "savings account" won't create a financial association on your credit files.

That would be handy, but there are quite a few other things to take into account unfortunately