'Do you have a joint bank account?' poll discussion

bylromarha

Communication is the priority in a marriage, not a joint bank account.

If communication is right between a couple, then any system you decide on will work well as you both commit to it and are open about how it's going.

For us - we got our joint account when we got back from our honeymoon. Everything goes into that, everything comes out of that. The savings pots get allocated to from the joint account. Worked when we both worked 1999 - 2004, worked when I quit work to raise our kids 2004 - 2011, worked when OHs income went down to a quarter of his annual income 2006- 2007, will continue to work when I go back to full time work in September 2011 onwards.

We talk about our finances just as we talk about everything else in our marriage.

dave1910

[QUOTE=I can't understand being married to someone and not having a joint account ... everything is shared anyway. Some people say that they put in equal amounts for household expenditure then keep the rest individually- so that would mean very often one person in the marriage is richer than the other!! Doesn't sound very equal to me...
[/QUOTE]
What we do is add up our total expenditure then our total salaries. We then go through the bills so that after we have paid them we are both left with roughly the same amount in our individual bank accounts. I earn double what my wife earns, so therefore I pay roughly 2/3 of the bills.
This way we dont have to answer to each other when one of us has made an impulsive buy. As long as each of us pays the bills that we agreed to, it doesnt matter. And it also makes birthdays and Christmas so much easier as theres no joint statement, neither of us has a clue what the other has bought.
This way we are still pulling our resources together, but also keeping some financial independance.
I had a joint account with my ex and the ammount of rows it caused was ridiculous.
We've been using this sytem for the entire 9 years we've been together and have never once rowed over money.

Mrs_Arcanum

Major expenditures are jointly decided but we have always had separate accounts and share bill paying accordingly. DH mortgage, CT, TV/Phone, petrol & house insurance. Me - all Utilities, car insurance, TV Licence & children's clothing. Will be our 22nd wedding anniversary next month.

atush

Having just done the poll and seen the results, they are more or less where I would expect. The higher amt of commitment to a realtionship (ie getting married vs cohabs vs single/dating etc) has more joint acct for everything, while singles pretty much don't do joint at all or just for utilities in a flat/house share.

It is what I would have guessed if I hadn't seen the results. My hub and I only have seperate accts where we have to (for pensions, reg savers and the like). And yes, we know each others login details. But then again we've been married a fairly long time now.

But I don't see anything wrong if others like to do things differently. It is interesting to read.

BobbinAlong

Never again. Been there, done that, got the divorce.
Had joint bank account for twenty years and it was always the cause of arguments. Now living with lovely partner and keep single accounts and have no money problems to argue about.
We have agreed about who pays what bills and we both chip in for things or one buys one time and another the next and it evens out happily.

Even holidays are easy as we pay for the chunnel with clubcard vouchers!

jayII

Married for many years, and we've always had a joint bank account for everything. We've never argued about money or accounts in any shape or form.

Torry_Quine

walkerno5 wrote: »

We are married and have a joint account. We have some friends who are married but don't have a joint account. It is always a pain in the fundament going out for dinner with them as they negotiate the bill between the two of them.... I understand they also do separate shopping. I just couldn't live like that, it's hardly a recipe for domestic bliss is it?

Married but seperate accounts here. Had our own already and just didn't think of it. Agree though that your friends are strange, I know a couple just like them. They talk about owing each other if one pays for something!

Dave101t

married, no joint accounts, no bills in both names or anything.
she pays the bills and i pay her back the money. system works!

FATBALLZ

Nope and I will never get them as for me there is no point whatsoever in having one. Every month we total up what we get paid, minus off all the bills, then split half the remainer, half in my account, half in my partners. So there's no confusion, no arguments and no unfairness. And of course we've all read the stories of one partner cleaning out the joint account and doing a runner - I do trust my that my partner would never do that, but so does everyone else who ends up having their savings wiped out, so why put yourself in a situation where it can happen?

I do have a joint mortgage but that's not really the same thing.

Oliver14

FATBALLZ wrote: »

Nope and I will never get them as for me there is no point whatsoever in having one. Every month we total up what we get paid, minus off all the bills, then split half the remainer, half in my account, half in my partners. So there's no confusion, no arguments and no unfairness. And of course we've all read the stories of one partner cleaning out the joint account and doing a runner - I do trust my that my partner would never do that, but so does everyone else who ends up having their savings wiped out, so why put yourself in a situation where it can happen?.

I'm sorry but you obviously don't otherwise you would have no problem with a joint bank account. You either trust or you dont and by your actions its obvious you dont.

Just to add another spin on it. A friend of mine her husband recently died (well last year). They had seperate accounts. he was the main earner so the money went into his account and then he transferred money to hers. Also the main savings account was also in his name. After he died it took 6 months before she could get access to the money due to the fact that they didnt have a joint account. So she spent 6 months of stress having to borrow off family in order to pay bills and feed herself and her children.