Do you keep details of your accounts anywhere (in the event of you dying for example)

JustAnotherSaver

Something i discussed with my wife recently.

She leaves all the banking to me & knows what i do (opening a stack of accounts, credit cards, paying them off in time, so on & so forth) to squeeze the interest out of our money.

Though she doesn't know how many accounts we have etc. Not because i hide it, because i don't. She just leaves it to me that's all as she doesn't have as much interest (no pun) in it as i do.

But if i was to get hit by a bus tomorrow, she'd be kind of snookered when it comes to knowing what money is where exactly.


The thing is, accounts change. Not daily but they change. A regular saver will mature, money will get dumped somewhere, another account opened, another one closed, a credit card needing to be paid off, etc etc.

So it'd need to be easy to update. I guess maybe with sort codes & account numbers?

Not convinced putting it down on paper is the best thing, but would something like a shared dropbox account with an Excel file maybe be ok or is this a bad idea also?


I'm sure many of you have measures put in place so your other halves know exactly what is where 'just in case'. Some of you probably have OHs who are just as interested in all this money movement as you are, but surely others have you have OHs like i do who appreciates the interest, but wouldn't get in to it like you do.

So what do you do?

Ballard

Oddly enough I brought this up with my parents yesterday. I'm single so it's only me with any idea of my finances. I keep all of the debit/credit cards in a small safe to which my parents have a key so I told them to look in there should anything happen to me.

markwilkinson

I'm in the same situation although we dont have credit cards to worry about, we have a joint credit card account which is for extreme emergencies only. I know that doesn't make much sense with the 0% deals around but hey, I'm old skool and was born a Yorkshireman.

Keep everything in paper form in a lever arch file. As soon as something matures and is dealt with, old paperwork is shredded and new added.

I also ignore the advice and use the same few passwords for everything and my wife knows them ( as I know hers). Should be very easy to deal with in the event of anything unexpected.

Dan83

We have talked about it and she knows where all the info is. I've told her as soon as I'm in a position where I might die, empty all banks

veryintrigued

Good thread.

OH knows where the paper work is but it would take some unpicking.

glider3560

I manage everything using Microsoft Money on my computer.

Every few months, I produce a report of open accounts (bank name, account name and account number) and leave this in a lever arch file with other important documents.

Alongside this, I have instructions on how to access Microsoft Money on my computer and how to access the important reports (e.g. account balances). Elsewhere in my house, I keep a "clue" to my computer password that my will's beneficiaries would be able to easily guess.

The names of the banks are the only really important thing. Everything else (like up to date balances) are just a bonus.

tacpot12

I keep my account numbers on an excel spreadsheet stored on Dropbox. I also have them stored on a online password manager.

enthusiasticsaver

My OH is like yours in that he knows I have a lot of accounts (in my name as he is a higher rate taxpayer) and the details are all in our safe. OH retires in October so we will be reorganising our finances then so I may aim to keep it simpler. At present I have 6 personal current accounts in addition to our joint current and 4 regular savers along with 1 fixed cash term isa and 1 stocks and shares isa. He looked horrified when I said if anything happened to me he would need to get probate to access them.

mpet

My uncle died a year ago and had many investments of which took my cousins and a solicitor months to unravel as no details were held in one place. It made me think - even with relatively few investments- how difficult it would be for someone to sort out if I died suddenly.

I keep a spreadsheet and update monthly of various account balances. I have added a summary sheet showing account numbers and balances and print this page when I update each month. I then store this with my will.

Pincher

The idiot successor can't even type in the Wi-Fi password correctly.

I have a bundle of printed statements, so at least they know the accounts exist.

It's mostly doomed to pay 40% IHT right now.
£325k! I need £3.25million.

Yes, the solution is to find a 30 year old partner who is bright, beautiful, and won't run away with my money if I told her where I keep the pass words.

Speculator

I have everything on Spreadsheets and Word but my wife hates anything to do with finance apart from ordering me to the nearest ATM when she's low on cash.

Luckily, my 9 yr old daughter is showing an interest so I might have to start teaching her.