Best Joint Savings Account?

Neonitrix

Hi Everyone,

Myself and my fiancee both moved to the UK from Ireland / Canada respectivly we are currently in the process of building a UK credit history while saving to buy a home and towards our wedding next July, we have just recently both set up Help to Buy Cash Isa with Halifax and loaded each with 1000 plus set up standing orders for 200 each month into each account.

We started saving in March 2014 and have now just over 11,000 in a joint account with Halifax earning very little interest sub 1% we are saving between the two of us 2,000 into this account each month.

We are letting this account pay the ISA's via standing order towards the end of each month. And halifax is where we both hold our current accounts.

At this point in time we have 13,000 between joint and the two ISA accounts.

We are living on one wage and saving the main wage into the house, we are currently renting and looking to buy a home in the next year or so, our lease is up end Sept so we are trying to time things for then

We both want to keep the joint account as our main savings but we are getting a dreadful rate with Halifax,

Can anyone point us towards the best joint account options rather than independent savings accounts.

We are currently renting and other than rent / tax / utilities / expenses have little outgoings and are working very hard to save towards our wedding and the purchase of our first home together.

Any help appreciated - also thank you for the information about the help to buy ISA very informative. as you can imagine having arrived into the UK just over a year ago its difficult to keep ontop of some of the differences in the financial offerings available to us.

YorkshireBoy

Neonitrix wrote: »

We are letting this account pay the ISA's via standing order towards the end of each month.

Any particular reason why you're leaving it languishing in an account paying next to nothing before moving it to an account paying an excellent 4% AER rate at the end of the month? You're losing money each and every month you do this...not an awful lot on £400 granted, but maximising interest is a good habit to get into, especially with £11K and £2K a month going forward.

There are loads of current accounts paying 3/4/5%, but saying you only want joint accounts is going to limit your returns somewhat. I think you should re-consider that approach.

colsten

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5374614

Neonitrix

Thanks for the information guys, in response as to why the money we have is earning next to nothing, to be honest since October last year we had so much else on our plate with trying to open accounts / find place to live and get a solid grounding under us having just emigrated from our respective sides of the planet that it proved itself non important until we had x amount savings put away. Now we have time to sit back and assess what we have accomplished since arriving in the UK and plan better for our future.

Thank you for the account information we will have a read over and see what our options are.

As regards to the Joint account this is purely to prove on paper that we are a couple day to day we are getting married next year but as my fiancee is not from Europe you cannot imagine the hurdles that are in place when we want to stay in England full time. ie: it helps in proving our relationship to the powers that be in immigration.

Superscrooge

Neonitrix wrote: »

As regards to the Joint account this is purely to prove on paper that we are a couple day to day we are getting married next year but as my fiancee is not from Europe you cannot imagine the hurdles that are in place when we want to stay in England full time. ie: it helps in proving our relationship to the powers that be in immigration.

In that case it might be worth keeping the joint account with a small balance and opening a high interest account for the rest of your money

colsten

Superscrooge wrote: »

In that case it might be worth keeping the joint account with a small balance and opening a high interest account for the rest of your money

Nothing to stop you from having a high-interest paying account (or two) as a joint account.

Neonitrix, if you aren't with Nationwide already, you could try and find someone [a friend who is a Nationwide account holder, or someone on the Referrer's board] to refer you and switch for £100. Once there, you can refer each other at least once more (using some donor accounts you'd have to set up).........should be at least £500 extra for you. Nice pair of bridal shoes, perhaps.

Neonitrix

Learn something new everyday can I ask when ur talking joint account are you talking current account or saving account. If current account I was not aware a current account could actually operate as a joint Account

colsten

Either. It is probably more common to have a joint current rather than a joint savings account. As basically all savings accounts apart from some Regular Savings [that pre-req current accounts] are pretty carp, people are not likely to queue up for them, solely or jointly.

Aside from the interest rates, the main difference will be that the joint current account will result in a financial association on your credit files. A joint savings account won't as no savings accounts get reported to credit reference agencies.

If one of you has a bad credit record, that will unfavourably reflect on the other once there is a financial association between you.

Things like a joint mortgage will also create a financial association. Just living at the same address, even as a married couple, won't by itself produce a financial association.

Neonitrix

Thank you for the explanation makes perfect sense I will look into nationwide switch from a first direct account I don't use and go from there

colsten

Hold fire.

Your First Direct gives you access to a 6% Regular Saver, one of the very best Regular Savers you can get. Why not use it?

You could still open a 2nd First Direct account (a 'donor' account) and switch that one to Nationwide.

YorkshireBoy

colsten wrote: »

Just living at the same address, even as a married couple, won't by itself produce a financial association.

It's been reported on the credit rating board that some water companies (and possibly other utility providers?) will report an association with the CRAs if both your names are on the bill.