Can I open a joint account with a family member?

Beenie

Long story short, I want to put money aside for someone who cannot be trusted with cash.

My plan is to open a bank savings account in both our names. The reason is that if anything happened to me, and the account was in my name, the other person wouldn't get the money.

Will the bank need to see/meet the other account holder before such an account can be opened?

jimjames

You can open an account with anyone as joint account. You are then financially linked to them though so it may affect your own credit file afterwards.

grumbler

Beenie wrote: »

Will the bank need to see/meet the other account holder before such an account can be opened?

Yes as the second account holder is jointly and solely responsible for the account. Typically the bank needs to see both of you at the same time.
However, many my joint accounts were opened online without visiting a bank or even using a phone.
If the addresses are different, most likely the bank will ask both applicants to visit a branch together.

colsten

Beenie wrote: »

Long story short, I want to put money aside for someone who cannot be trusted with cash.

My plan is to open a bank savings account in both our names. The reason is that if anything happened to me, and the account was in my name, the other person wouldn't get the money.

If you have a joint account with someone else, they can withdraw money from the account in the same way you can, whether anything ever happens to you or not (hopefully).

Have you considered making a will?

securityguy

"If you have a joint account with someone else, they can withdraw money from the account in the same way you can,"

In principle you can get two-signature accounts but (a) that might not solve the problem the OP is setting out to address and (b) banks are very reluctant to open them.

There is also the issue that if the OP were ever to need benefits, the balance in the account would probably be counted as theirs (they could claim it's in joint names, but if all the funding is coming from the OP's account it's not, for the purposes of benefit calculations, anything other than theirs).

OP, you need a will.