4 way joint account

LeAliceofWonder

Zanderman said:

CappersM said:

Thanks.  The idea was that my husband and I would predominately use the account and add money to it but the girls have access to the account also so if they had an emergency and we were not around.  We are likely going to be spending several months of the year in Spain so thought a joint account was the easier solution.  Im assuming from the comments that thats not the best route/option?

Joint accounts do come with hidden risks - getting one will create a financial association between you all - so, if one of the 4 has, say, a bad credit history, it will reflect on you all. Which might be a problem for one or more of you in future.

It's certainly an odd approach to deal with the problem you have.

I thought being married made this financial connection regardless of whether you share an account or not. 

JGB1955

LeAliceofWonder said:

I thought being married made this financial connection regardless of whether you share an account or not. 

Not in my experience.  Married 45+ years, always had sole bank accounts + one joint account.  My husband doesn't appear to be 'connected' to me according to the 3 credit reference agencies I'm signed up to.  In contrast, my daughter's address is - because I used to pay her mobile phone bill 12 + years ago!

eskbanker

JGB1955 said:

LeAliceofWonder said:

I thought being married made this financial connection regardless of whether you share an account or not. 

Not in my experience.  Married 45+ years, always had sole bank accounts + one joint account.  My husband doesn't appear to be 'connected' to me according to the 3 credit reference agencies I'm signed up to.  In contrast, my daughter's address is - because I used to pay her mobile phone bill 12 + years ago!

If the joint account was opened early on, it probably predates the routine reporting of current accounts to the credit agencies, which I believe only started less than 45 years ago - if the joint account is shown on your credit files then I'd expect the financial association between the parties to be visible there too....

Daliah

LeAliceofWonder said:

I thought being married made this financial connection regardless of whether you share an account or not. 

Definitely not.

You only have a financial association if you have joint credit, e.g. through a mortgage, a loan or a current account. Obviously, it is not unusual for married couples to have joint mortgages etc but if they don't have any of these, they have no financial association with each other on their credit reference files.

daveyjp

Times must have moved on as back in my student days we had a household bill account with four account holders and two signatures required on cheques.

Zanderman

LeAliceofWonder said:

Zanderman said:

CappersM said:

Thanks.  The idea was that my husband and I would predominately use the account and add money to it but the girls have access to the account also so if they had an emergency and we were not around.  We are likely going to be spending several months of the year in Spain so thought a joint account was the easier solution.  Im assuming from the comments that thats not the best route/option?

Joint accounts do come with hidden risks - getting one will create a financial association between you all - so, if one of the 4 has, say, a bad credit history, it will reflect on you all. Which might be a problem for one or more of you in future.

It's certainly an odd approach to deal with the problem you have.

I thought being married made this financial connection regardless of whether you share an account or not. 

Just being married doesn't make a financial connection. It does change some financial processes, like making each spouse more eligible for share of pensions etc, but if bank accounts are held in sole names, they're still in sole names.