Joint name account

AlanaJ

I read a threat earlier today where the subscriber had bought a house with her partner and wanted gas/electricity bills etc put into joint names (I cannot find it). My husband has recently asked Virgin Media to do just that and they said they cannot do it. What they can do is get my husband to 'sign over' the account to me, charge us £20 in the process and then restart a new contract with me (SHAME ON THEM). We wanted 'our' account in joint names due to illness and to lessen any worry we might have in future but, no they can't do it. The monies come out of our joint bank account but Virgin only have accounts in one name. My husband also wrote to our gas/electricity supplier about a month ago, to date he has not received a reply.

Utility bills are used to provide proof of address and many institutions ask for them for this purpose. The sooner these Utility Companies come into line with what their customers need and want the better it will be.

footyguy

AlanaJ wrote: »

I read a threat earlier today where the subscriber had bought a house with her partner and wanted gas/electricity bills etc put into joint names (I cannot find it). My husband has recently asked Virgin Media to do just that and they said they cannot do it. What they can do is get my husband to 'sign over' the account to me, charge us £20 in the process and then restart a new contract with me (SHAME ON THEM). We wanted 'our' account in joint names due to illness and to lessen any worry we might have in future but, no they can't do it. The monies come out of our joint bank account but Virgin only have accounts in one name. My husband also wrote to our gas/electricity supplier about a month ago, to date he has not received a reply.

Utility bills are used to provide proof of address and many institutions ask for them for this purpose. The sooner these Utility Companies come into line with what their customers need and want the better it will be.

I cannot comment on Virgin Media as they do not supply gas or electricity.

The earlier thread you refer to relates to Eon. They were the supplier who said they would only put a gas and/or electricity account in a single name. Eon do not speak for all suppliers.

Energy suppliers have up to 8 weeks to resolve & respond to complaints.

Good luck!

I'm not quite sure what you mean by wanting a ultity account in joint names in case one of you falls ill. The supplier doesn't care where the money comes from to pay a bill they send out, but the best energy tariffs usually involve paying by DD.
If you are worried about falling ill and unable to handle financial agreements, consider setting up a Power of Attorney - that is what it is designed for

(The "vent" board can be found here:
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=82 )

I think this was the thread you were referring to
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5599656

Dobbibill

With the energy bills - could one of you take the gas bill and other the electric if they won't set it up as joint or find an alternative supplier that will.

The thread footyguy kindly linked in only refers to Eon, and their policy from their rep is they haven't done this since 2012 but other companies may not have the same procedure.

The other view is that many people don't have joint bank accounts now so would rather not be linked via utilities on their credit file. Horses for courses and all that.

Pop back and update us if you find a companies that allows joint names as it may help others.

Alter_ego

SSE / Ebico did it for us.

GunJack

What the OP is probably referring to is that if the "named" person is unable to deal with said company, a lot of companies won't deal with even a spouse due to "data protection". Joint names on the account would get over this.....