Pros and Cons of Joint Account

DivineSaver

Hi all.

I know this topic has probably been done to death but I was wondering if anyone could advise me...

Bit of background, we have been together 5 years and purchased our first house (joint mortgage) last year. Prior to purchasing, we opened up a joint account with the plan of using it for all household expenses: mortgage, gas, electricity, council tax etc. As it stands at the moment, we both have separate accounts where our wages go into, and we then transfer a set amount each month to the joint account to cover the bills (not equal as our wages aren't equal.. it's kind of a "I pay for mortgage, you pay for council tax" etc arrangement). The rest is kept in our own accounts to do with as we wish.

I am now in a position where I want to get a new current account (it is a student account and I am no longer a student) so I thought why don't I just put my wages directly into the joint account, OH could do the same, and have one big household pot and both can take out a set monthly amount as "pocket money" if we want non-essential treats for ourselves.

My OH however is dead against it, he said he wants to just continue to transfer money into the joint account as and when and keep his money for himself. When I tried to explain my POV he just couldn't grasp the idea and kept referring to it as "my money" "your money" instead of "our money" :undecided

Bearing in mind we are not married yet, is there any actual need to do this? What are the pros and cons of having completely joint finances when you live together?

Thanks

lika_86

I'm not entering into this argument (it has been done to death) but, if he's against it, why not have a halfway house ie. a joint account which you use for things other than bills that benefit you both? My boyfriend and I maintain our own separate accounts (all our direct debits and standing orders are set up and I get certain bonuses from my bank account like mobile phone insurance, but we also both contribute each month to an account that buys all our food and that we also use for things like dinner out or train tickets when we're travelling together or stuff for our house. We also have a separate bills account for the rent and bills. It helps us to have things split so we can budget and know what we have to spend (either from joint or our own pots).

Will your student account not just turn into a regular account? Or are you specifically looking for one with better benefits?

fairy_lights

I would have thought your student account would be changed to a regular account by the bank when you stop being a student? Mine got converted to a graduate account for a year, and then to a normal current account. It might be worth looking in to the terms and conditions of your account to find out what will happen to it before making any decisions.


You're not wrong though, it is a subject that has been done to death on these forums and the conclusion seems to be that there is no right answer, different banking arrangements suit different couples.
Personally, me and my OH have separate current accounts and separate savings accounts, as well as a joint savings account that we use to save up deposit money for a house. We're thinking about opening a joint current account too for household bills to come out of.
At the moment what we do is pay all of the bills out of either one of our accounts, and then work out how much money in total we have left over. We then split this evenly between us, so even though my OH earns more than I do we have the same amount of disposable income. So we have 'our money' which is what we put in to the joint savings account and what we use to cover bills and rent, and 'my money' which is what we each have left over and can do what we want with.
So that's what we do and what works for us, but there are lots of different methods and you need to work out what will work for you.

DivineSaver

Hi lika,

Thanks for your suggestion that is a good idea, at the moment we take turns buying dinner out and buying stuff for the house, I feel it would be good to do these things jointly but OH likes things the way they are.

My student account will turn into a graduate account but I was watching Martin Lewis speak about current accounts recently and realised a graduate account isn't what I'm wanting.

Buzzybee90

There is no right answers, everyone has different ways of doing things (and yes this argu-discussion has done the rounds!)

Good luck

onomatopoeia99

Whatever works for you both and you can agree on. Everyone has different circumstances and different personalities so there is no definitive correct answer.

DivineSaver

fairy_lights wrote: »

I would have thought your student account would be changed to a regular account by the bank when you stop being a student?

I thought this too but I still have the student account despite not being a student for nearly 3 years (bank are aware of this and haven't changed it).

fairy_lights wrote: »

At the moment what we do is pay all of the bills out of either one of our accounts, and then work out how much money in total we have left over. We then split this evenly between us, so even though my OH earns more than I do we have the same amount of disposable income.

This is the bit OH seems dead set against. Even though putting our finances jointly would benefit him with me being the bigger earner, he can't get his head around "where the money comes from. is it mine? is it yours?" and wants to keep everything separate.

CathA

My OH and I have a joint account for the bills, although he was very against it at first. Slightly morbid, I know, but I pointed out to him that if I died, he'd have to deal with all the companies that we pay; mortgage, gas, rates etc and sort out new DDs and SOs. Did he really want to do that, as well as organising a funeral and other things related to a death? Not necessarily what people want to think about but if, as in most relationships, one person deals more with the finances than the other,it's one less thing to worry about. We also have separate accounts. As previously said, it works for us.

tea_lover

DivineSaver wrote: »

This is the bit OH seems dead set against. Even though putting our finances jointly would benefit him with me being the bigger earner, he can't get his head around "where the money comes from. is it mine? is it yours?" and wants to keep everything separate.

When my OH earnt more than me I was against us having a totally joint account. I'd lived on my own for years, always paid my own way, and it just didn't seem right to me in some way. When I was earning more than him I was happy for everything to be joint and considered it all 'ours' anyway.

It may be that on some level he doesn't want it to look like he's taking advantage as you earn more - even though that's probably that last thing you'd think anyway.

DivineSaver

Thanks for your replies so far guys.
I'm not looking for confirmation about whether he is right or I am right, I understand there is no wrong or right in this situation.

I'm just wondering if there are any financial advantages or disadvantages in his case that is making him so wary.

I just made the suggestion as I thought it would be easier for us and would help us save jointly for our new kitchen and bathroom.

DivineSaver

tea_lover wrote: »

It may be that on some level he doesn't want it to look like he's taking advantage as you earn more - even though that's probably that last thing you'd think anyway.

That's a very good point actually, I never thought of it this way!