moving house. setting up joint account. advise needed

tarab1986

Hello, my partner and I are moving into our first home together soon. We want to streamline our finances and have concluded that the most straightforward way to do this is to open a joint account that our wakes go into so that mortgage and all bills are together in one place.
Can anyone recommend a good joint account?

Currently I have 2 barclays current accounts and a natwest current account (from my graduate house sharing days). I only really use 1 of the barclays accounts and am clearing the small overdraft in natwest. I also have a instant access isa with natwest.

Partner has 1 current account with nationwide and an isa also with nationwide.

We've worked out our finances and also plan to overpay on our mortgage so we are also thinking of a joint savings account to hold what's left over each month so that we can make an annual overpayment.
We will probably also each keep a current account going - with "pocket money" and birthday money ect in it for ourselves.

Where do we start?

All advice welcome

SuperHan

I'll let you know how my finances work, as it may give you some inspiration!

We each have a sole account with Halifax where our salaries get paid in to. About 75% of each of our salaries then moves in to the joint account on respective pay days. All mortgage payments/bills etc come out of the joint account. All personal mobile phone bills, life insurance etc come out of our personal accounts.

We also each contribute £250 to a "joint" savings account each month (we have the maximum number of TSB interest paying accounts and a Lloyds current account. The money is split between these to ensure maximum interest is earned, but it is essentially joint money even though some is in a sole name).

There's no benefit with sticking to your current providers, as they don't have the best offerings on the market at the minute - Halifax pay me £5 pm on each account, Santander is known to be the best place to have your main account for cash back purposes as the 1-2-3 pays on the bills you have set up.

I personally prefer that my sole and joint account are with the same bank for ease of checking, and that my savings are elsewhere so I'm less tempted to dip in to them. There's no need to operate like this though, you can spread your accounts across as many or as few providers as you wish.

Also - if you do look to change, keep an eye on switching bonuses. A few providers are offering c. £100 free cash if you switch your old account to them!

tarab1986

Thanks superhan. That's definitely food for thought

anoncol

Definitely Santander 123 for the bills account. Lots of Cashback!

xylophone

is to open a joint account that our wakes go into so that mortgage and all bills are together in one place.

A variation on a pre-paid funeral plan?:)

Dobbibill

Santander 123 is good for bills with the cashback (they have a cashback calculator on their website, this will help to check you will earn more than the £24 annual fee) and also savings for the 3% interest (this is on balances between £3k - £20k) so certainly a good starting point for both bills and savings. The fee is debited at £2 per month but the cashback & interest still makes this worth it for me personally.
If you are considering moving your account to get the switching bonus then also check TCB as there was more money to be earned by going via them. (I think this was with Hfx & Nationwide though but always worth a quick check)

Hope this helps

Purplesky_2

Have you considered your credit files?

Living together won't mesh them but a joint account will! Also, you are BOTH liable for any shortfall. Best to get one without an overdraft, I would say! Santander gives you £12 overdraft free anyway. If one of you has a better history with debt etc then you may be better off financially.
EDIT:- I see you're getting a mortgage (presumably joint), so this won't apply to you, but may apply to a lurker, so I'll leave it there!:rotfl:

You really don't need to have a joint account, and there are two ways of doing it, even if you do!
1) you both pay your wages into the account and withdraw some pocket money, either a set amount of money (say, £200), or as a percentage of what you put in (say 15%).
2) you get your wages into your existing accounts and pay into the joint enough to cover the bills/joint savings and a 'buffer' amount (say £20-£50 more than you need each month). Then the rest of the money is your to do what you wish! This can end up with one person saving and the other spending, which may lead to resentment further down the line, so be careful.

My partner and I bought a house 18 months ago and have lived together almost six years. We have yet to combine finances. We each pay some of the bills out of our accounts and if there is a change in circumstance, we can always set up a standing order to transfer money around. :beer:

The other thing to consider is how you divvy up the bills.
Maybe you've lived together before and you have a system that you can just tweak, but if not, you can either
-pay in 50% of any joint bills (Usually best if salaries are similar, because otherwise one person ends up with much more of their income being swallowed up by bills and having to scrape by),
-or you can pay a percentage of your income to the bills (I.e if bills come to 40% of your total income, then each person puts 40% of their respective wages into the pot!).

We do the latter. It can still lead to one person having more play money than the other, but means that fluctuating incomes can be accounted for (I.e. the balance can be readjusted incase of unemployment/promotion/illness etc) somewhat more readily. It also allows more independence to someone who is on a much lower wage, allowing them to start building up savings etc.

It's a totally personal thing, so it needs to be discussed. What works well for others won't necessarily work for you both!