Opening a joint account, and which one

eyeamthu1

Hi there - sorry for some rookie questions, but my partner & I are wanting to open a joint account, and we're a bit confused about how these work versus individual current accounts.

We want...

• to keep our own personal current accounts (I'm with HSBC, my partner is with Santander; we both have a Monzo account).
• to have an additional joint account, into which we're going to each put a certain amount of money per month: this pot will then be used for any shared spend (e.g. shopping, bills etc.). We obviously each need a card for the account, and access to it (e.g. via app).

Unfortunately, Monzo won't let us open a joint account for some reason, so we need to look at alternatives. As I said, we want to keep our own personal current accounts - with our existing providers. So what is our best approach here?

Do we just open a new current account, but as a pair? - is this the same as a regular individual current account?
I am getting a bit confused as there's a lot of information on MSE about 'switching' current accounts, but we don't want to do that: we want to open an additional joint account.
Also, we are wary of restrictions - some banks (e.g. Starling) seem to only let you open a joint account if you each have a personal current account; we also don't want to have to change where our salaries get paid or anything like that.

Given all of this, what should we be looking at?
Obviously also keen to get any 'rewards' or best interest or whatever, just like I would be when looking for an individual current account.
Thanks in advance for any help  

grumbler

Did you consider a credit card instead? Unless you withdraw a lot of cash, it's a better alternative in many respects.

It's a one-person (main cardholder) credit account with an extra card for a second cardholder.

Daliah

May be this helps: https://www.moneyhelper.org.uk/en/everyday-money/banking/joint-accounts

penners324

Starling....?

where_are_we

Because it would be for paying bills a good option would be a Santander 123 lite joint current account. You get cashback on gas, electricity,water,council tax,mobile,broadband,home phone and paid for TV packages as well as Santander mortgages and insurance as long as they are paid by direct debit every month. There is a £2 monthly fee, you need to pay in £500 a month and have 2 active direct debits. We get about £6 cashback every month so we are gaining £4 a month. Be aware that transferring money from his personal Santander current account won`t count towards your £500 pay in, but this can be got around by your partner paying your HBSC account his share of the bills by standing order each month and you then you pay at least £500 into the new 123lite. If your bills don`t come to £500 each month you can always set up a payment back to your account.