Joint account good or bad

vicky1001

Hi all

me and partner have seperate bank accounts - should be better to have joint one so all wages go in one and all outgoings come out one

what does everyone else do?

rising_from_the_ashes

It all depends on how your finances are arranged - ie, once the bills are paid is your money "yours" & his "his"?

If you go out - do you split things or does one pay / do you alternate etc?

Personally, I'd rather have a joint account where both parties pay in a set amount each month to cover all household expenditure (and a little extra for the odd treat / build up an emergency fund etc).

Obviously these can be different amounts depending on salary levels & the split of bills etc

What's then left in each partners personal accounts is then "theirs" - whether it's to spend it / save for something etc

HTH:)

vicky1001

this how we split


wage 800

management - 13
Ace life cover - 18
just giving -6
hughs rentals - 65
phone cover - 5
petplan - 40
pet club care plan - 24
fraudlock-8
3 mobile - 30
3 broadband - 19
lovefilm - 15
ics - 70
open uni - 35
food - 365



here what out of partner account

wage paid weekly but if 4 wk month 1160

think insure contents - 14.08
npower - 94
rent -500
water -33
life cover - 8
3 mobile - 30
admerial car - 52.92
bt package tv/phone/bb - 46.60
rac- 9.83
healthcare - 28
council tax - 102.74
phone insure - 4
DMP- 123
HDC overpayment - 40

this per month

would love help on budget the little things - hair cuts about 22 month

but petrol he would like 30pm and said mot like 50 when it needs it , car tax is 77 for 6 months runs out may 12 mot run out may 12 too

happy_bunny_2

We have one for household (joint) and one each for other stuff.

Joint accounts link you financially via credit reference agencies, which can have an impact if one of your files is better than the other when applying for credit

HTH

MockTurtle

We have a joint account from which all the bills are paid. We each put in a set amount each month and there's usually a bit left over each month after all the bills have been paid.

What's left in our personal accounts is ours to do with as we please. The extra left over in the joint account is for meals out or other joint treats.

This works for us. Personally I wouldn't want to have to justify what I spend my money on. I wouldn't feel right buying an expensive lipstick as an occasional treat, or getting my hair done and the money coming out of the joint account. Also, if we only had one account, we would know how much we spend on each other for birthdays/christmas etc. And that just wouldn't be right!

vicky1001

MockTurtle wrote: »

We have a joint account from which all the bills are paid. We each put in a set amount each month and there's usually a bit left over each month after all the bills have been paid.

What's left in our personal accounts is ours to do with as we please. The extra left over in the joint account is for meals out or other joint treats.

This works for us. Personally I wouldn't want to have to justify what I spend my money on. I wouldn't feel right buying an expensive lipstick as an occasional treat, or getting my hair done and the money coming out of the joint account. Also, if we only had one account, we would know how much we spend on each other for birthdays/christmas etc. And that just wouldn't be right!

so this is just me coming up with an idea here

if we got a savings account and for each to put £15 pm into out of our spare money

SOT2011

Hi Vicky,

I would agree with the others, I've split from OH now, but we did have a joint account for bills, so much easier to work out what you have left as spends if you can move the money for bills etc to a different account and have the direct debits go out of that account.

Even though I'm not with OH anymore I still have two bank accounts running. A bills accounts where I transfer enough to cover the direct debits for the month the day after I get paid, and what is left is what I have available to spend.

Wishing you the very best for getting on top of your finances.

SOT

camuk81

Vicky,

I have to say I agree with Mock Turtle & SOT. I only have a joint account for bills and savings. What his is his and whats mine is mine.

having worked in a bank a long time ago I used to see a lot of people who had one bad debtor and one who was struggling to keep the account afloat.

The worst I saw was where the wife had spent nearly all of a very good salary before the mortgage had even gone out.

I also suffered myself when I applied this rule and an ex took all the funds out just before he up and off!

Leaving me with £250 out of the pot and bills to pay!

rising_from_the_ashes

SOT2011 wrote: »

Even though I'm not with OH anymore I still have two bank accounts running. A bills accounts where I transfer enough to cover the direct debits for the month the day after I get paid, and what is left is what I have available to spend.

I've done the same SOT .... it worked well when I was with OH and it seemed the easiest way to do it when I became single (I'm useless at budgeting:o).

I've now also got several "pots" set up into which I transfer set amounts from "my money" each month (car, pets, house insurance, new boiler etc) so once these are all done & I've paid the cc bill, I know that what's left is mine ...... just wish it was a bit more than it is!:o

camuk81

rising_from_the_ashes wrote: »

I've now also got several "pots" set up into which I transfer set amounts from "my money" each month (car, pets, house insurance, new boiler etc) so once these are all done & I've paid the cc bill, I know that what's left is mine ...... just wish it was a bit more than it is!:o

I cant keep track above 3! And I think we all wish it was more then we currently get!

rising_from_the_ashes

On the positive side, at least I am sticking to them now! (Fingers crossed!)

I did try leaving the money in "my" account - but spent it:o.

Then I tried putting the total amount into one account but I a) raided and b) couldn't keep track of what belonged to each budget.

Luckily with my bank you can have up to 12 pots! (even I've not got that many!):D

Maybe once I get a bit better at budgeting I'll be able to go back to one account with a spreadsheet to keep track .... but not there yet!:)