moving money about between current account and savings account?

Andystriker

If I were you, I would insist that you have a balance in the account of £50 at all times and make him do his calculations from £50.01 upwards.

This would protect you if you needed to withdraw money in an emergency.

opinions4u

jenny2009 wrote: »

I must make it clear he is doing this already and has never paid any fees or penalties for doing this.

I just wondered if others did this or is he going bonkers.

To be honest, I have done it, although not in quite an OCD way as your other half. Interest rates were higher though.

I'd suggest his approach of using a credit card with cashback to pay for things is spot on. Defers the bills, maximises the interest and earns an additional pot of cash.

Leaving you cashless seems to be somewhat flawed. I'd prefer you to have "emergency" cash in your purse (as long as you're not a spendaholic). Afterall, £100 a year is going to earn £2.40 after tax in a top paying easy access account. The cost of phone calls combined with the time and inconvenience isn't worth £2.40. Perhaps you should also have you own personal cashcard account with a modest balance in that's your own spending/crisis fund.

As for bouncing money between current account and savings accounts - it's probably worth less than 5p a week per £100. The risk of ending up with overdraft interest / bank charges outweighs the benefit for me.

You also need to ask yourself how would you know what to do if he was incapacitated? Is there a risk of paying £35 in bank charges simply because he's late at the office?

I applaud his commitment to maximising your household funds. He probably needs to take a step back from the maths and humanise it a little bit.

But it's probably better than an addiction to alcohol, gambling or pornograhpy. Then again ...

Perhaps suggest he looks in to Lloyds Vantage current account. 4% interest may remove the need for him to mess about so much.

jenny2009

So it isn't normal behaviour then?

No one else does it.

Andystriker

jenny2009 wrote: »

So it isn't normal behaviour then?

No one else does it.

Well I do it but with a buffer of £50. The reason £50 is because none of my individual D/D's are more than £50, so I should always have £50 in.

Each to their own I suppose

sueeve

Cold you have a second account, single or joint, which he doesn't touch and which you control, with enough in it for daily life? Then you would be able at least to know where you are and he could get on with what to me seems to be obsessive behaviour, and also controlling of you. If he won't go with this just withdraw what you want when you want, even if it does mean charges are made. Because I thnk hese needs nipping inthe bud for your own sanity. My husband became obsessive with a camera when he retired but as the computer is in a different room at least I can leave him to get on with it for much of the time.

Mikeyorks

jenny2009 wrote: »

No one else does it.

I regret to say ...... .

BUT ..... the OH has a completely seperate housekeeping account - where she ritually abuses the housekeeping to her heart's content. Insist on the same!

It is only the joint account (Halifax Reward for both - one joint and one sole) that I clear out and then move money back as DDs are due.

When Halifax paid 6% on current accounts - I kept circa £2500 in it. Now I keep virtually nothing in it but have a sizeable unused and agreed overdraft just in case I muck it up. As the DDs are spread widely across the month it means circa £2k (on top of other cash) sits in a Lloyds 4% account rather than in Halifax at 0%.

It doesn't add up to a lot .... but it's an improvement on adding up to nothing. And it takes a half hour on one day a month - when I move chunks of cash around in any event. And then just a few mins in total the rest of the month.

Lokolo

rofl.

I love how the MSErs all go, this is crazy... until they realise they're just as bad

aaronb74

I can see myself doing this sort of thing when I retire (though that's a long way off). I used to shift money around on a daily basis, but with the accounts I have at the moment, it's not really worth it.

My "Finances 2011" spreadsheet has 80 tabs on it :eek: 32 of them could go pretty easily as they are basically visual aids/motivators for things like my reducing mortgage. Almost all of the rest are quite "crucial" and, as they're all interlinked with different formulae, I'd be worried about the chaos I'd cause if I did delete one of them.

scottishblondie

It seems slightly OCD! I have previously transferred money in and out to keep more in my savings accounts, but as a student I have a free OD in case something went wrong. I also always make sure that the money is there the day beforehand just in case.

He should really leave a buffer - what if he were ill one day, or forgot to move the money because something came up? Or you had an emergency and needed cash but couldn't contact him? It could also happen that the bank changes the order of debits and credits without telling you. A small error could quickly spiral into a lot of charges if something were to go amiss.

jenny2009

what if he were ill one day, or forgot to move the money because something came up? Or you had an emergency and needed cash but couldn't contact him?

It is a joint account, I have exactly the same access to the account that he has.

Anyway the novelty has worn off, he's stopped doing it.