Best account for paying the household bills

andr3w

I have been a money saver and debt free wannabe for a while now and have been lurking around the forums but this is my first real post so I would like to say a big hello to everyone.

I have a question about piggybacking.

My girlfriend and I are moving into a flat in a few weeks and want to setup a join bank account to pay the bills from. We will be transferring £1000 a month into the account to cover everything.

Can someone advise us on the best account to use for this job? It will need to be fee free and have an interest free buffer zone. We were looking at the Halifax high interest account due to the amount we will be paying in monthly but it would be great if someone could point towards the most appropriate one.

CLAPTON

I know this is very unromantic but...

just be aware if you open a joint acount then

-you will both be jointly and severally responsible for the a/c so if you split up etc and one refused/couldn't pay then the other would be responsible for the full amount outstanding.

- you will be considered to be financially linked together, so if one of you has excellent credit rating and one not so good the excellent one will suffer without any compensating improvement in the other.

If you are very committed to each other..just bought the flat for example then by all means go ahead but if it not so definite then maybe just come to some other arrangement .. each pay some bills and reconcile the total once a month.

andr3w

Thanks for the reply,

Yes we will be jointly responsible but we have been in a relationship for a long time and do trust each other. The idea is for us use to both pay a set amount into the account to cover the bills and whatever is left in our own current accounts will be are own spending money.

What I need is advice on the most appropriate account for this job.

Cheers

techno_geek

The Halifax/Bank of Scotland Ultimate Reward account has a £300 interest-free overdraft buffer zone, but it has a £10/month fee (but you get all kinds of benefits, such as discounted insurance and mortgages, free worldwide travel insurance, free car breakdown cover etc.) You also get 6.17% interest on credit balances. http://www.halifax.co.uk/bankaccounts/ultimatereward.asp

If you don't want to pay a monthly fee, you should go for the NatWest CurrentPlus or RBS Interest-Paying Current Account. They offer the first £100 of any agreed overdraft limit interest-free. I'd personally go for RBS as the service you'll receive is miles better than Natwest (but the choice is yours, you might want to choose one over the other based on proximity of branches, etc.).

With NatWest and RBS there's no monthly fee, but you only get 0.1% interest. Also, don't get sucked into paying for the Advantage Gold or Royalties accounts, as they charge a higher monthly fee and don't offer the same value for money as Halifax/Bank of Scotland.

Hope this helps you!

McSaver

The halifax account you mentioned yourself is indeed a good choice because they currently offer £100 incentive for opening that account with them.

regularsaver1

McSaver wrote: »

The halifax account you mentioned yourself is indeed a good choice because they currently offer £100 incentive for opening that account with them.

the switching offer ended on the 11th august

the Halifax high interest account does not offer an interest free overdraft. as said the first £300 of the Ultimate reward is though

[Deleted User]

Coventry BS First Account pays 6.35% for the first year (then 5.5%) and comes with a £250 interest free overdraft and a debit card (but no cheque book). There is a bill payment facility and this coupled with the debit card (and a direct debit facility) should enable you to pay all bills. I've found their customer service excellent. It does require a £1,000 per month credit but you say you'll meet that.

http://www.coventrybuildingsociety.co.uk/coventryfirst/home.aspx

Lyndsey_2

I just opened up an A&L account for this purpose and got an £2000 interest free OD! ( oh and its a no fee acc)