New relationship joint account? Good or bad idea

boliston

separate accounts seems much better as one partner can just bacs over their share of any bill dd payments each month

18cc

There are some hits on Google which suggest that if you open a basic bank account together then you do not create a financial Association however I'd check if I were you s

see also

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2567065/joint-account-without-creating-financial-association

colsten

boliston wrote: »

separate accounts seems much better as one partner can just bacs over their share of any bill dd payments each month

People haven't used BACS, which took 3 working days to send money, in years for transferring money. It's Faster Payments we have been using, for some 10 years now. Most Faster Payments usually arrive instantly now.

I agree, there's not really a need for a joint account, as transferring money from one account to another is very quick now.

If the OP and her partner would find it easier to do all their bills from one account, they could consider setting up a separate, sole, account in the name of one of them. One of them would have to administer the account, and both of them would send their share of money to this account, just like they would send their share of money to the joint account. Having visibility of the transactions in the sole account should be very easy to arrange for both - - for example, the account owner could sit with the other person for 5 minutes a week, or ten minutes a month, to go through the account.....

Mojisola

Polly3105 wrote: »

My partner has recently suggested we have a joint account when we start renting.

I feel uncomfortable with this and refusing to have a joint account while we are both still married to other people.

Ben8282 wrote: »

Don't do anything that you are uncomfortable with.

This ^

As it is easy to sort out your finances without having a joint account, why is he pushing for one? Is he taking your feelings seriously?

It would be worth having a spreadsheet of household spending and having regular sessions together going through it so that you both know how much is going out, where it's being spent and that you're sharing the bills fairly.

EachPenny

Polly3105 wrote: »

...We are both going through divorce with our ex’s. My partner has recently suggested we have a joint account when we start renting. I feel uncomfortable with this and refusing to have a joint account while we are both still married to other people. I don’t feel the need to have one. He has reassured me that he has no financial ties with his ex wife so it wouldn’t matter. Can anyone give me any input on this please?

I think you are right to feel uncomfortable with this.

What stage have your respective divorces reached?

Do you both have Court approved financial settlements in place? Unless your partner has then he is possibly/probably wrong to say that he has no financial ties with his [STRIKE]ex[/STRIKE](?*) wife.

Simply from a practical point of view, entering into a joint financial arrangement before completion of the divorce process creates additional hassle (and potential expense). If either of you haven't yet completed the financial resolution process then the joint account would probably become a material consideration as part of the other's divorce. As it stands, your finances and accounts are none of his (ex)wife's business, but a joint account could be subject to requests for financial information and scrutiny of transactions to and from it - including ones to/from your sole bank accounts. Even if you aren't bothered about the scrutiny of your personal information, the additional cost and hassle involved should not be ignored.

(*Your posts suggest his divorce is not completed, and therefore his wife is not yet an 'ex'. Although emotionally you might both feel she is his 'ex', legally he is still married to her and with that comes ongoing financial obligations)

JGB1955

We've been married for 40 years. Both have independent current accounts and one joint account which pays the bills. My husband pays into the joint account monthly and that covers all the household bills apart from the food costs, which I pay. I contribute absolutely £0 to the joint account (and he has no idea how to access it , but it works for us). I have friends who share all of their income and expenditure - that wouldn't work for either of us!

davethorp

I personally wouldn’t open a joint account again unless it was absolutely necessary.

Your credit files become linked once you do and should the relationship not last it can in my experience be a nightmare becoming unlinked from your previous partner especially when banks are slow at reporting account closures or removal of names from accounts

Plus once the link is in place his credit rating can affect yours and vice versa which can affect your entitlement to credit cards, loans, etc etc

If you are uncomfortable about this (and you should be) then listen to what the uncomfortable part of you is telling you

cloud_dog

Been together and married for many (many, many years), and have had pretty much the same set up since we got a house together...

Joint Account - Both salaries paid in to it. All expenses (bills etc etc, pension contributions (outside of works), savings, everything paid from there.

Individual Account - We each have one. We agreed a monthly amount that we should each be 'paid' to us from the joint account, and this money can be used however we wish on ourselves.

There is no right or wrong way, and if you are uncomfortable with it then you need to consider if this is something you would consider once the divorce is finalised or it is something you simply do not feel comfortable with? Also, without actually saying it, you also need to feel comfortable that financially you are compatible and that the relationship will be strong enough to stand the strains that will come your way.

I have friends who operate differently to ourselves, i.e. they each pay a set amount in to a joint account to cover the bills but, everything else is undertaken from their individual accounts. Same friends often experience financial frictions because of this 50/50 approach.

One example was a holiday where one partner couldn't afford the 50% for the nicer/more expensive holiday (the higher earner paid more). This then led to some frictions later when the bathroom needed re-fitting because the one who had the larger salary / paid more for the holiday felt that perhaps the other should be contributing more towards the bathroom. This person couldn't, or found it difficult to finance their 50% of this task. We then entered the situation that the bathroom was re-fitted using lower cost (quality) products and it became a bit of a griping point for the higher earner.

Now, you could simply say that perhaps the higher earner should have either agreed to pay more or accepted that a lower spec bathroom was what could be achieved. You could argue that perhaps one or the other, or even both were being a little childish but, this sort of thing, this feeling, these little steps towards resentment / friction will happen when money is involved. I guarantee it.

boliston

colsten wrote: »

People haven't used BACS, which took 3 working days to send money, in years for transferring money. It's Faster Payments we have been using, for some 10 years now. Most Faster Payments usually arrive instantly now.....

Businesses still use bacs a lot as it as far cheaper than faster payments, but 'bacs' is generally used as a generic description like 'hoover' even if you use a dyson to 'hoover' your room

colsten

boliston wrote: »

Businesses still use bacs a lot as it as far cheaper than faster payments, but 'bacs' is generally used as a generic description like 'hoover' even if you use a dyson to 'hoover' your room

This thread is not about businesses but about personal banking. To call Faster Payments BACS is wrong on multiple grounds, not least because of the time the transactions take, and the fact that private individuals haven't actually been able to use BACS for many years now. I don't hear many people saying they "bacs" some money. None besides yourself, actually.