Should we open a joint current account?

Jond

Morning all! My wife and I are finally working together on our finances. We've always had our heads stuck firmly in the sand, and if I'm being honest I was never as forthcoming about the financial situation as I should have been. I told myself that it was because my wife stressed about the debt and that I was trying to shield her, but I think that I didn't really want to own up to it myself.
Anyway, that's in the past and everything is transparent and clear now, and we're determined to become debt free eventually!
So my question is whether we should open a joint current account (if we can!). We've started using YNAB to budget our money, and obviously this takes our income as a whole and allocates it throughout the month. But I earn a lot more than my wife and so we're still juggling money each month to ensure that there is enough in each account to pay the bills. It's not a lack of money, but rather a lack of clarity about where the money is!
We'd both really appreciate your thoughts.

Thanks!

PinkPoppies

We find having a few different current accounts useful, joint or not.

Keeping monthly outgoings like bills in one account and having another for general spending helps keep things nice and clear. Probably easier to set up a standing order to put budgeted spending money into a new account rather than having to change all your direct debits.

dano17439

I really don't understand married couples who have separate bank accounts. Surely if you in a happy marriage you are a union therefore all your assets are jointly owned. I wouldn't care if I earned 500k a year and my wife didn't work. it would still be "our" money.

I firmly believe separate accounts for married couples causes petty arguements

Jond

dano17439 wrote: »

I really don't understand married couples who have separate bank accounts. Surely if you in a happy marriage you are a union therefore all your assets are jointly owned. I wouldn't care if I earned 500k a year and my wife didn't work. it would still be "our" money.

I firmly believe separate accounts for married couples causes petty arguements

I don't think that it was a conscious decision to have separate bank accounts, it's just that we had both had our own accounts for over ten years by the time we got married, and just didn't think about it until now. I agree with the last sentiment in some ways though - not being clear about money can definitely cause arguments! But I have always seen our money as 'our' money. My wife earned MUCH more than me for about five years. Now I earn more than her. But we always look at the pot as a whole.


Thanks too PinkPoppies - I think it's certainly a road we will look to go down.

chrisfreelander54

Having a joint account makes life sooo much easier, as we found out.

This is how we work our finances as a married couple and we find it works perfectly:-

Both my wife and I have a current account each, into which our salary's get paid into, mines paidfweekly and the wifes monthly.

As well as a current account each, we also have a joint current account from which all direct debits go out from to pay the bills, I pay in X amount weekly and the wife pays in X amount monthly, this ensures that all bills are paid and all other money is kept separate.

Besides the accounts mentioned above we also have a couple if high interest current accounts which pay us 5% in interest each month, one of which is used to save for our emergency fund and one which is for our rainy day funds, as we too are users of YNAB.

Apart from that anything left over stays in our single current accounts for everyday spending.

HTH
Chris

dano17439

chrisfreelander54 wrote: »

Having a joint account makes life sooo much easier, as we found out.

This is how we work our finances as a married couple and we find it works perfectly:-

Both my wife and I have a current account each, into which our salary's get paid into, mines paidfweekly and the wifes monthly.

As well as a current account each, we also have a joint current account from which all direct debits go out from to pay the bills, I pay in X amount weekly and the wife pays in X amount monthly, this ensures that all bills are paid and all other money is kept separate.

Besides the accounts mentioned above we also have a couple if high interest current accounts which pay us 5% in interest each month, one of which is used to save for our emergency fund and one which is for our rainy day funds, as we too are users of YNAB.

Apart from that anything left over stays in our single current accounts for everyday spending.

HTH
Chris

Why don't you just have one joint current account which everything goes into and everything goes out from?

Puddylove

My parents (married for almost 50 years) always said 'never have a joint bank account' and I've always been glad I listened to their advice.

If you must, keep separate bank accounts, and have a joint one for bills - much easier to track.

sourcrates

Money and Love seldom make good bedmates, but then I am separated !!!
You could have a joint account for bill paying etc, maybe your relationship is more solid than mine was lol.
I would not do it again myself.

Dobbibill

I think it's personal preference whether it is joint or not, another account could be opened in a sole name purely for the purpose of paying the bills/debts from directly.

I find joint accounts work for me and my OH for bills and sole accounts for spends. We earn approx the same so contribute 50/50 to the bills account, which also funds the Christmas savings and Emergency Fund as S/O's from the bills account thus giving us 1 transfer each to make on payday.

Good luck.

DB