Help Needed - Who does the best joint account??

asherd7889

Hi,

Me and my partner have lived together for the past 3 year but have always had separate accounts and split the bills down the middle. We are renting at the moment but currently saving for a mortgage, however we believe that a joint account may be better as we can keep an eye on our finances? However we do not no where to start who is the best bank to go with etc??

Help needed please

McKneff

The Halifax do a joint current account where if £1k per month is paid into it a 'reward' of £5 per month is credited to the account.

£60 a year free money is not to be sniffed at.

Cmdr_Bond

Lloyds TSB Classic Account might be the answer if you want to keep an eye on your finances. The classic Account is FREE

They have a reasonable to good online banking experience and are just launching their Money Manager software so you can keep track of what you spend. And a goodly option of SMS alerts to let you know when you are near your limit - weekly balance and ministatement - foreign transactions - all of which are free and customisable.

You can also Plus or Vantage your account... (even your Classic account)

Plus (can only be upgraded to Plus via a phone call)
Cost - Free
Requirements - put £1,000 through your account each month.
Interest is paid monthly

£1-£2,500 - AER 1.50% Gross 1.49% Net%1.19

£2,501+ - As above up to £2,500 then 0% on the remainder.


Vantage
Cost - Free
Requirements - put £1,000 through your account each month.
Interest is paid monthly

£1 - £1,000 AER 0.10% Gross 0.10% Net 0.08%
£1,001 - £3,000 AER 2.00% Gross 1.98% Net 1.59%
£3,001 - £5,000 AER 3.00% Gross 2.96% Net 2.37%
£5,001 - £7,000 AER 4.00% Gross 3.93% Net 3.14%
£7,001+ As above up to £7,000 then 0% on the remainder.

(I am presuming that if you had £7,000, 4% would be paid on the entire amount and not just on the portion above £5,001)

Also Lloyds openly advertise joint savings accounts and don't forget Save The Change - it may be a gimmick to some, but to others it is great. Save The Change rounds all your transactions by card up to the next pound, and moves the pennies from your current account to your savings account. Occasionally they run a promotion where they will match what you save up to a certain amount (free money ).

I have just moved to Lloyds from Santander, my wife was already with Lloyds - and we have her sole account, my sole account and a joint account for the bills - plus her savings account which we are going to make joint.

The only drawback I can see with this set up is that we will both have to have a money manager login or installation (however it works) as we will not be able to see each others sole accounts in it, just our sole account and the joint account.

HTH