Joint Expense Account - Recommendations Required

Cptralls

Hi All,
My wife and I at present do not have a shared bank account. We are looking to set one up to enable us to pay joint expenses such as childcare, does anyone have any recommendations? My wife was hoping for something that offers cashback, however, I don't know if such is availabe.
Many thanks.

eskbanker

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/compare-best-bank-accounts/#cashback

PRAISETHESUN

Assuming your bills are able to be paid by direct debit, then the Santander 123 lite account is your best (and only) bet. Check beforehand if your bills are covered by what their cashback offer using their calculator as not all bills are covered. Otherwise a rewards credit card might be another option. These can't be held as a joint account, but you can add your wife as a second card holder on your account (or vise versa) for places you can't get cashback from using your bank account: https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/credit-cards/best-credit-card-rewards/

davidexmachina

PRAISETHESUN said:

Assuming your bills are able to be paid by direct debit, then the Santander 123 lite account is your best (and only) bet. Check beforehand if your bills are covered by what their cashback offer using their calculator as not all bills are covered. Otherwise a rewards credit card might be another option. These can't be held as a joint account, but you can add your wife as a second card holder on your account (or vise versa) for places you can't get cashback from using your bank account:

There's also Natwest Rewards (even better if you qualify for the Premier version) - I have that as well as Santander and after fees, with the right balancing of direct debits, it's worth about £25/month.

As an aside Praisethesun, you may notice that I had to edit your post slightly. Because as a newbie, I can't include links, even when embedded in a quote, and even when it's to one of MSEs own pages. Some very interesting rules around here  

PRAISETHESUN

The NatWest Rewards account doesn't pay direct % cashback on DDs anymore - it hasn't for some time. It does give a fixed £4/month for paying out 2+ DDs though. Way I see it if you can get a direct % cashback on your bills then this will probably be the better option unless you have really small bills, but could be useful if the OP's DDs don't qualify for cashback from Santander. Outside of that, the % cashback on debit card spend they offer can occasionally be useful, but from my limited experience it's usually beaten by the likes of TopCashBack or Quidco on any of the offers I'd actually consider using.

davidexmachina

And that's really my point, used together, Natwest and Santander can both be useful/rewarding because of their different criteria. Nearly all of my DDs get benefit from one or the other (plus Natwest gives you £1 as well just for logging in). By the way, I'm with you on TCB etc... but that doesn't really help for regular contractual payments.

Ultimately it will come down to what bills the OP really wants to pay through a joint account, and what their view is on effort versus reward!

george9071

As a PP has said the best account in my opinion is the Santander 123 lite account in terms of perks. 

colsten

PRAISETHESUN said:

The NatWest Rewards account doesn't pay direct % cashback on DDs anymore - it hasn't for some time. It does give a fixed £4/month for paying out 2+ DDs though. Way I see it if you can get a direct % cashback on your bills then this will probably be the better option unless you have really small bills, but could be useful if the OP's DDs don't qualify for cashback from Santander. Outside of that, the % cashback on debit card spend they offer can occasionally be useful, but from my limited experience it's usually beaten by the likes of TopCashBack or Quidco on any of the offers I'd actually consider using.

Agreed. The retailer rewards at both, Santander and Natwest/RBS are highly unexciting. TCB/Quidco are generally much more interesting, and people working for larger companies could have access to a reward scheme that often even beats TCB/Quidco.

The 1% cashback in supermarkets on the Natwest Reward Credit Card could, however, be of interest to those who qualify for it (when taken out in conjunction with a Reward Current account, to save the annual fee).