Savings between friends

WibblyWobbly

As I understand it friends who share a savings (rather than bank) account are not financially linked. However many banks who offer savings accounts seem to warn that we might indeed be financially linked.

So does anyone know any specific products that would mean we are not financially linked? I'm aware there are other issues (such as what happens if/when you are no longer friends), but here I want to focus on the implications for credit scores.

bowlhead99

WibblyWobbly wrote: »

As I understand it friends who share a savings (rather than bank) account are not financially linked.

I assume that's a typo and you mean "savings (rather than current)"


Generally credit products and current accounts (capable of being overdrawn) are reported to credit agencies.

If a bank or building society or credit union's savings accounts t&c or general t&c says they may share your data with credit agencies and they do in fact share it with credit agencies, the agency receiving the data will see the two joint owners of the accounts.

If two individuals jointly own an account together it's difficult to argue that the people are not financially associated with each other and the credit agency may be reluctant to accept a 'notice of disassociation' implying you didn't have any connection with the person. However, having some joint savings is not as strong an association as being able to take on debt for which the other person is jointly liable.

So really you are just looking for an account which isn't ever reported to credit reference agencies, as it's the agency that make the assumptions based on the data they're given, rather than the bank making decisions about what might be an associate in the eyes of the agency.

But in terms of specific products reported or not reported, I don't know. I mainly bank with Lloyds, Nationwide and Citi, who all report my current accounts, credit card accounts and mortgage accounts to credit agencies and none of whom report my various regular savers or instant access savings accounts to credit agencies as they are not the kind of accounts that can leave me owing any debts to the providers of the accounts, as they don't have fees or debit cards or the ability to pay out more money than is in the account.

WibblyWobbly

> I assume that's a typo and you mean "savings (rather than current)"

Oops, yes

> So really you are just looking for an account which isn't ever reported to credit reference agencies

Yup, I presume that's the case, and that a savings-only account might work in that respect. Unfortunately the easiest way to set something up like this is with the likes of Monzo, but (being based on a current account?) they do warn accounts are financially linked implying they report to the credit reference agencies. This a shame as I use the card as a pre-pay card anyway and can't go into debt with them/use them for credit :-P

PRAISETHESUN

In my experience, only credit products (including current accounts as they have the ability to go overdrawn) are reported to the CRAs - pure savings products are not. I don't have any experience with joint savings accounts, but I suspect that they will probably not be reported, and as such there shouldn't be any financial association between the two of you.

MovingForwards

None of my savings accounts are mentioned on my CRA reports.

Zero_Sum

Savings accounts dont show up on credit reports but the problem you could have more so with online accounts is that theyll usually require a linked account to withdraw money. This means that the other person(s) cant access the cash & you'll need to go down the old fashioned route of a building soc. passbook