Joint or Single Bank Account?

RecoveringDebtaholic

Hi Everyone,

This site and it's forum has been invaluable to me as I have been doing what I can to grow up, save money and clear my young adult debts all while finding my feet with raising a family. A massive thank you!

My partner and I wish to put all of our income into one place so that we have a central bank account in which all of bills get paid from and that we would then have our own personal allowances which we keep in our own Personal Bank Account.

However, I have a Poor credit rating and I am unable to open up a current account (though I do hold one with Barclays from when it wasn't so bad). I have a few settled defaults (incl mortgage) and a few small unsettled defaults. My partner has limited credit, but with no defaults, she just has never had much credit.

I do not want her to suffer by being linked to me but ideally an account where we both have access is what we need as we will need access to the account for food and petrol.

Does anyone have any advise or able to point out potential pitfalls with various options?

Thanks in advance!

grumbler

The only a joint account has that a singe one doesn't is a second debit card.

Instead your partner can get a credit card and add you as a second cardholder.

Alternatively you can use a prepaid card, e.g. http://www.pockit.com/fees. It's free to use except initial 99p for each card.


A recent thread: Joint Bank Account

user1168934

IMHO avoid joint account if you can. Your partner's rating will definitely take a hit although if you keep paying it back afterwards then with time both of your ratings will improve.
I am telling you from personal experience, the only reason I opened a joint account was because my partner was new in the UK and no bank was prepared to offer a free basis account to her. The immediate effect on my immaculate history was that even new mobile phone contracts got declined ...... five years down the line its all good and now she has her own credit cards even though she is not employed.

Decide what works best for you.