Joint Account Recommendation

LondonCat80

Hi there,

My husband and I are looking to open a joint account. We both have seperate current accounts with Alliance & Leicester (Santander) at the moment. We've had a few bad experiences with them recently (as have a lot of people!) so we would like to move to a different bank and as we are now married we have decided it will be easier to have a joint account.

-We will be paying in around £2800 per month from our combined salaries
-We have very little savings, but we do like to have a savings account that we can transfer money into using online banking
-I have a £200 overdraft which I go into near the end of the month, my husband has £300 and does the same

Which account do you suggest for us?

We've been thinking of First Direct - with a joint account would we both have to pay the £1500 minimum salary payment to keep the account free of charge or is it just £1500 per account?

Thanks in advance

Cmdr_Bond

Personally, I am moving from Santander to Lloyds.

I am sure many banks offer Joint savings accounts, but they are the only ones that seem to advertise the fact.

Plus, you can get the "save the change" gimmick and their "money manager" and text alerts when you are near your limit. You can even have a weekly balance texted to your phone.

My wife already has an eSavings account with Lloyds (we will be making this the joint account) and can then instantly move money via phone, internert or mobile banking.

RE: FD - I have no knowledge of them myself, but would have thought the £1500 is per account and not per person.

CLAPTON

obviously you have read the section on best bank accounts http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/compare-best-bank-accounts

however, your biggest priority should be to stop using your overdrafts;

although once it was fashionable, now it's viewed as some-one potentially in financial trouble and unable to manage their money well or live within their means

DrSyn

I hope you know the dangers of joint accounts with anybody.

1. You will both be financially linked to each other. This may effect the ability of either to get credit now and in the future.

2. You both wil be responsable for any debt on the account.

3. If you fall out or seperate you can run into problems you would not face with seperate accounts. Just read some of the forum reports.

4. First Direct is a good bank.

Spiggle

LondonCat80 wrote: »

...
-We will be paying in around £2800 per month from our combined salaries
-We have very little savings, but we do like to have a savings account that we can transfer money into using online banking
-I have a £200 overdraft which I go into near the end of the month, my husband has £300 and does the same

Which account do you suggest for us?

We've been thinking of First Direct - with a joint account would we both have to pay the £1500 minimum salary payment to keep the account free of charge or is it just £1500 per account?

Thanks in advance

Hi,

I'm in the process of opening a joint account for me and OH with firstdirect. The required amount is £1500 per month per account (not per person).

According to the paperwork I've had the overdraft automatically available is £500 (although pay interest over £250).

The biggest bonus is that as their regular saver account can only be opened in an individual name (it is NOT an ISA however), each of the account holders may have a regular saver and pay in between £25 and £300 per month at 8% gross.

So we could save £600 per month at 8% for a year. Brilliant! Nets about £124 if maximum is saved.

Hope that helps,
Spigs

LondonCat80

Spiggle wrote: »

Hi,

I'm in the process of opening a joint account for me and OH with firstdirect. The required amount is £1500 per month per account (not per person).

According to the paperwork I've had the overdraft automatically available is £500 (although pay interest over £250).

The biggest bonus is that as their regular saver account can only be opened in an individual name (it is NOT an ISA however), each of the account holders may have a regular saver and pay in between £25 and £300 per month at 8% gross.

So we could save £600 per month at 8% for a year. Brilliant! Nets about £124 if maximum is saved.

Hope that helps,
Spigs

Thanks very much, yes that does help. I think we are leaning towards FD due to all the positive reviews.

PNPSUKNET

Halifax is a pain in the butt, unless you go in branch

JonnyH2

With First Direct you could also get a referral fee (on top of the 100 for joining).. I have a spare referral card if you were interested?.. PM me if interested...

getmore4less

Get you budget sorted

if you are both using your OD how are you going to manage who gets the OD on the new bank acount?


Each do a SOA to establish where you money goes now

http://www.makesenseofcards.co.uk/soacalc.html

Then do a joint one for the stuff you will use the joint account for
Then do a new SOA each for the stuff that is not joint.