Bank account recommendation for joint rent/bills account

miracleboy

Hi everyone. I'm soon moving in with my girlfriend to a rental property and we wanted a joint account to transfer our halves of the rent and bills into from our own accounts.

Is there anything we should be looking for specifically, or will any account do?

Does anyone have any recommendations?

Thanks everyone! 

colsten

Good website here: https://www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk/en/articles/joint-accounts

miracleboy

Thanks for the link. This bit worries me, as I have a poor credit rating but my partner doesn't.

"If one of you has a poor credit history, it’s not normally a good idea to open a joint account. As soon as you open an account together, you’ll be ‘co-scored’ and your credit ratings will become linked." 

colsten

Perhaps delay the joint account plans until you had time to improve your credit files? A joint account isn’t mandatory as there are other, and arguably better, ways to manage a joint budget.

PRAISETHESUN

I agree - don't join your finances unless you need to IMO. 

In any case, if you're going to be using the account to pay for bills it might be worth checking out accounts that pay cashback on your bills (eg. Santander 123 Lite).