Joint bank account for travelling

mikefm

Can anyone recommend a good joint bank account that my girlfriend and I can apply for? We are travelling through SE Asia, Australia and NZ. We also could use some advise on travel insurance/overseas phone tariffs Any help appreciated! Apologies if this is not in the right section!

grumbler

MSE article: Your Card's Overseas Charges
Debit cards - Metrobank
Credit cards - Halifax Clarity

Why does it have to be joint? Are your credit histories equally good or bad so that you don't mind creating a financial association?

For insurance see Cheap Travel Insurance

mikefm

How can I check my credit history? Would that affect opening up a joint debit account? What is the alternative?

grumbler

mikefm wrote: »

How can I check my credit history?

• Credit Ratings

Would that affect opening up a joint debit account?

Yes, opening a current account involves a credit search and credit scoring.
x2 for a joint account.
If you get a joint account a financial association gets created for all future credit checks.

What is the alternative?

Two single accounts;
A credit card with a second cardholder (one credit check, no financial association);
Prepaid cards (see the article).

danandjens_worldtravels

It makes much more sense to open two separate accounts. You can put equal amounts into each and use both of them at the same time, so there is always enough in one of the accounts for 'emergencies'.

This way you will/should always have access to at least one account should you lose a card, forget the pin number (happened to us in India and the card was taken by the machine) or you may decide to go your separate ways for a while. I know with a joint account you can have two cards, but should the account get frozen, there be fraud or money stolen you have a second account.

We have separate UK accounts and separate Metro accounts and transfer money between them as we need more funds.

Take a netbook or tablet and use this for your banking and skype for phone, there is loads of free wifi around SE Asia, phoning home is rare for us, we will chat on FB or skype if really need to sort out something.

Google backpackers insurance and you should find a variety of companies that will insure you for up to 18 months. I would however take nothing that you are not prepared to lose, I have been lucky in only breaking one camera, but I don't carry things that are valuable - they stay at home!

I'd also recommend you take out a credit card if you don't have one, for Australia and New Zealand you may find you need them for deposits for hire cars or booking hostels online.

Maybe pop over to the 'Overseas holidays and travel planning' board you will find lots of travelling tips on there.

InsideInsurance

grumbler wrote: »

Why does it have to be joint? Are your credit histories equally good or bad so that you don't mind creating a financial association?

Given they were talking about bank accounts and travel/ mobile insurance the guess would be they are looking at a package account in which case a joint account can make sense as for 1 fee you get cover for both people (though often the travel insurance is for the "family" as long as the account holder is travelling)

System

It would depends on the timeframe as normal travel insurance isn't meant for long term travel or back packers - they normally have a 90 day limit.

Other options for bank accounts would be N&P or Nationwide FlexPlus but they both have strings or fees attached.

InsideInsurance wrote: »

Given they were talking about bank accounts and travel/ mobile insurance the guess would be they are looking at a package account in which case a joint account can make sense as for 1 fee you get cover for both people (though often the travel insurance is for the "family" as long as the account holder is travelling)