Joint account strategies

munted

Hi all. Wondering if I could get some ideas from you lot.

I'm trying to come up with a way of effectively managing my family accounts and attempt to get us out of our overdrafts. For the past 13 years, my wife and I have had our own accounts plus a joint account for the mortgage/rent. Over the years our accounts have slowly drifted into our overdrafts and we've been living out of it.



Last year I switched my HSBC current account to Monzo (after trialling them ever since they were a prepay card) and managed to finally sort out my spending/overdraft. While I do have one with them, I haven't gone into it for 6 months. A real achievement for me. Now I'd like to try and sort out our joint.



I did want to use some of the new fintech/challenger banks for a new joint but none of them offer overdrafts for joint accounts.



Does anyone have any suggestions on how to effectively manage a joint account? What companies are good to deal with?

cloud_dog

I come at things from a different angle; the companies (banks) you deal with / use are simply a tool you use to implement your financial plans.

We have our own individual accounts, and a joint account. We pay our salaries in to the joint account, we pay ourselves an allowance, the remainder stay within the joint account and is managed. By 'managed' I mean if there is money left over it goes in to the savings, if there isn't enough in the joint account we withdraw from the savings account.

I'm old school and am quite happy running our finances using MS Money.

xylophone

Are you in a position to repay the existing overdraft on the joint account?

If so, do so and then switch to an account which will give you cash back on "household" bills.

Create a cash buffer on the account and then make sure that the account is credited with enough each month to pay your bills - use it for no other purpose.

Look at your spending as a whole and identify waste and extravagance.

Do you have any savings for emergencies?