best joint bank account

tillypops

My hubby and I are looking to open a joint bank account. We have a large credit card bill that we would like to pay off, whilst also saving for a house. My hubby isn't very good at controlling his spending/budgeting so we thought pooling our income and setting targets/budgets from one account would be easist. I've looked at the recommendations here but as I'm not very financially minded I am struggling to pick the best one.

We both pay in over £1000 per month to our current accounts and use overdrafts but never go over our OD limits. We are trying to save for our first home, living with family at the moment - so would not benefit from the cashback accounts as we have no household bills.

His current account is with N/wide - no monthly fee & no interest paid out.
My current account is with halifax/BOS - £15.00 monthly fee with benefits.

Can anybody give me some advice?

YorkshireBoy

How large is your credit card debt?
It would appear, since you're also using your overdraft, that it's not only your husband that's poor at controlling spending and budgeting?
It doesn't make sense to save at the expense of paying down debt, so I assume your credit card debt is at 0%?
Do you think £300 a year in account fees is a good use of your cash when you seem to have other priorities more pressing? Having said that, it's 2-for-1 if you add him to your HBoS account.

Unless you're already financially associated, I wouldn't link your CRA files yet...and until you're ready to go with your mortgage application.

And finally, how on earth do two people get through £2K+ a month whilst living with family?!

Archi_Bald

Joint accounts are no panacea for managing your finances. You still need to budget and control your spending.

Also, joint accounts create financial relationships. Before you commit yourself, make sure you understand the contractual terms, and also have a browse through the forum for threads started by people who want to come out of current accounts.

But if you have decided that a joint account is right for you, any current account can be operated jointly.

tillypops

I'm ashamed to say we have approx £5200 on a credit card.
We got married 8 months ago and stupidly put a lot of the costs on a card (wedding dress, honeymoon etc).
I hold my hands up and admit I too am awful at controlling finances, but the majority of time I go in to my overdraft because he has spent all his money and I end up covering our fuel/food for the rest of the month. We are in a vicious circle of being overdrawn everytime our wages go in.
Also ashamed to say that we manage to blow the majority of our money on buying food/ eating out and selfish purchases. It has been a real eye opener looking through our accounts. But I am here to try and sort us out.

I don't think paying £15 a month in account fees is beneficial whatsoever, which is why I'd like to find a joint account that doesn't charge a fee but doesn't penalise me heftily when I have an arranged OD.

Archi Bald - any account can be operated jointly - do you mean adding him to my own account?

YorkshireBoy

tillypops wrote: »

I don't think paying £15 a month in account fees is beneficial whatsoever, which is why I'd like to find a joint account that doesn't charge a fee but doesn't penalise me heftily when I have an arranged OD.

Archi Bald - any account can be operated jointly - do you mean adding him to my own account?

Your account has substantial fees for overdraft use (above any buffer).


Even downgrading it to a standard Reward account (ie without the insurances), whilst saving you £15 a month, would mean the same fee based overdraft charging structure.


Why doesn't he open a FlexDirect account with Nationwide and try and get his overdraft on 0% for a year?...plus 5% AER interest whilst he's in credit.

tillypops

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

Why doesn't he open a FlexDirect account with Nationwide and try and get his overdraft on 0% for a year?...plus 5% AER interest whilst he's in credit.

That account looks really interesting, do you think it would be worth me also opening one? Or even doing it jointly?