Merging family finances to one account

wallyUK

After many years of having 2 sole accounts and one joint we have decided to merge everything into one joint account. The current system isn't working for various reasons and my income will drop significantly in coming months so it seems to make sense. We do OK with budgeting and are not in debt. Having read the MSE advice on piggy banking I'm not sure how that will work - since we are trying to get less accounts, not more! Does anyone do this and if so how do you set up the separate accounts? In particular I want to make sure we set aside the shopping money because I use an AA nectar card to get the points which is paid off in full. I don't want that money lurking in the joint account so my OH thinks he can spend it!

Thanks!

getmore4less

wallyUK wrote: »

After many years of having 2 sole accounts and one joint we have decided to merge everything into one joint account. The current system isn't working for various reasons and my income will drop significantly in coming months so it seems to make sense. We do OK with budgeting and are not in debt. Having read the MSE advice on piggy banking I'm not sure how that will work - since we are trying to get less accounts, not more! Does anyone do this and if so how do you set up the separate accounts? In particular I want to make sure we set aside the shopping money because I use an AA nectar card to get the points which is paid off in full. I don't want that money lurking in the joint account so my OH thinks he can spend it!

Thanks!

Sounds like joint won't work if you have that issue.

Budgets is about planning spending and tracking that you spend as planned.

Where the money is is irelivent, using the current ballance to guess what you can spend is not budgeting.

If you can't spend to budget then you need a different solution.

What is it about the current system that is not working?

wallyUK

Lost my reply.... No problems with budgeting, tracking or debt. We simply want the finances to be more transparent and accessible to all. The sentence of mine you highlighted was meant to be tongue in cheek.

molerat

I use one account and an excel spreadsheet. All account users need to accept and fully understand that the balance figure you get from a mini statement is not how much money you have to spend, it is just a number and as long as it stays above £0 everything is OK. Time and time again you see people on these boards complaining that they have racked up bank charges "but the atm said i had £100". I have current, visa cc, mc cc, budget and savings columns. The bottom of the current column shows how much I have left to spend this month, the cc spends are deducted from the current balance to give this. The credit balances in the current and small savings balance, no more than £100 or so, offset the occasional negative in the budget. Quite simple once set up. With 3 pay packets a month, all different dates, it helps budget.

pmduk

I urge you strongly to avoid having just one account. Preferably have another account with a different institution in case your main bank has technical problems, or you run into problems with them.

getmore4less

wallyUK wrote: »

Lost my reply.... No problems with budgeting, tracking or debt. We simply want the finances to be more transparent and accessible to all. The sentence of mine you highlighted was meant to be tongue in cheek.

If budgeting is under controll you don't need to do piggy bank banking just one account will do.

pqrdef

Debit cards on a joint account are a disaster. The bank is never up to date, so only the person spending knows what's been spent.

Ring-fencing the shopping money and bill money won't help, because you still won't ever know where you stand with the rest. You have to ring-fence the debit cards and cheque books.

This needs a 2-phase campaign. First get the OH's income paid into the joint account, by closing his own account if necessary. Then, get him to give up his debit card on the joint account, in favour of having pocket money allocated to a separate account.

getmore4less

pqrdef wrote: »

Debit cards on a joint account are a disaster. The bank is never up to date, so only the person spending knows what's been spent.

Ring-fencing the shopping money and bill money won't help, because you still won't ever know where you stand with the rest. You have to ring-fence the debit cards and cheque books.

This needs a 2-phase campaign. First get the OH's income paid into the joint account, by closing his own account if necessary. Then, get him to give up his debit card on the joint account, in favour of having pocket money allocated to a separate account.

As long as you budget and only make planned spends there should be no problem.

If it becomes an issue that means the budget is wrong.

jaysb

I have an amex creditcard - and OH has another amex card which is linked my account, mainly used for family spend such as shopping. OH has own bank accoutn and debit card - this works well for us.

callum9999

pqrdef wrote: »

Debit cards on a joint account are a disaster. The bank is never up to date, so only the person spending knows what's been spent.

Ring-fencing the shopping money and bill money won't help, because you still won't ever know where you stand with the rest. You have to ring-fence the debit cards and cheque books.

This needs a 2-phase campaign. First get the OH's income paid into the joint account, by closing his own account if necessary. Then, get him to give up his debit card on the joint account, in favour of having pocket money allocated to a separate account.

I don't know about you, but if I was told not to use the joint account and get given "pocket money" buy my OH instead, I'd be pretty angry... These aren't children!

They seem to think their budgeting is fine, and the comment about spending money just because it's there seems to be a joke. I see no reason why they can't just use a joint account but consult each other before they make an out-of-the-ordinary expense on it.

And what exactly does "the banks are never up to date" mean? My available balance generally reflects all payments etc. instantly - it won't show on the statement for a while, but it tells you in the "available balance".

I'd also agree with the other person who said you shouldn't have 1 bank account. Keep at least 1 of your existing accounts (if not all of them) open just in case.

bmwboi99

my advice would be not to get a joint account as they can cause alot of hassle for somebody if their OH spends too much or empties the account