Can I save in my wife's account?

zagfles

There's a lot of wrong answers in this thread.

No, you can't open an account for your wife, unless you have a POA for her (eg if she's mentally incapacitated). And you can't save your money in her account, unless perhaps you have some complex trust arrangement.

What you can do, is suggest to your wife that she opens an account. You could then gift her money to invest in the account. She is then free to do with that money and any interest it earns what she wants. It's hers.

So yes between you you can probably achieve what you want, ie use up any spare personal allowance, PSA and starting rate band etc your wife may have, but you need to understand you can't go round opening accounts for someone else, unless they're a minor child or you have POA, they have to do it themselves, and you'd be gifting them any money you contribute to the account.

Doubleshotdamo

zagfles said:

There's a lot of wrong answers in this thread.

No, you can't open an account for your wife, unless you have a POA for her (eg if she's mentally incapacitated). And you can't save your money in her account, unless perhaps you have some complex trust arrangement.

What you can do, is suggest to your wife that she opens an account. You could then gift her money to invest in the account. She is then free to do with that money and any interest it earns what she wants. It's hers.

So yes between you you can probably achieve what you want, ie use up any spare personal allowance, PSA and starting rate band etc your wife may have, but you need to understand you can't go round opening accounts for someone else, unless they're a minor child or you have POA, they have to do it themselves, and you'd be gifting them any money you contribute to the account.

Wrong. I opened it on her behalf, with her permission, using her details. 

zagfles

Doubleshotdamo said:

zagfles said:

There's a lot of wrong answers in this thread.

No, you can't open an account for your wife, unless you have a POA for her (eg if she's mentally incapacitated). And you can't save your money in her account, unless perhaps you have some complex trust arrangement.

What you can do, is suggest to your wife that she opens an account. You could then gift her money to invest in the account. She is then free to do with that money and any interest it earns what she wants. It's hers.

So yes between you you can probably achieve what you want, ie use up any spare personal allowance, PSA and starting rate band etc your wife may have, but you need to understand you can't go round opening accounts for someone else, unless they're a minor child or you have POA, they have to do it themselves, and you'd be gifting them any money you contribute to the account.

Wrong. I opened it on her behalf, with her permission, using her details. 

So the organisation you opened it with knew it was you opening it on her behalf then? Otherwise, she opened it as far as they are concerned.

km1500

Doubleshotdamo said:

zagfles said:

There's a lot of wrong answers in this thread.

No, you can't open an account for your wife, unless you have a POA for her (eg if she's mentally incapacitated). And you can't save your money in her account, unless perhaps you have some complex trust arrangement.

What you can do, is suggest to your wife that she opens an account. You could then gift her money to invest in the account. She is then free to do with that money and any interest it earns what she wants. It's hers.

So yes between you you can probably achieve what you want, ie use up any spare personal allowance, PSA and starting rate band etc your wife may have, but you need to understand you can't go round opening accounts for someone else, unless they're a minor child or you have POA, they have to do it themselves, and you'd be gifting them any money you contribute to the account.

Wrong. I opened it on her behalf, with her permission, using her details. 

yes you might have been able to do it, but since you weren't her when you opened it technically you are committing fraud
 

Qyburn

zagfles said:

And you can't save your money in her account, unless ...

Depending on the savings account you can most likely pay into it. For example I can use my Lloyds login to send money from any of our accounts into my wife's Santander savings account. Some savers will only accept money from a predesignated "linked account", but if that linked account is in your joint names then again you can make the payment.

Of course once you've done this it becomes her money.

zagfles

Qyburn said:

zagfles said:

And you can't save your money in her account, unless ...

Depending on the savings account you can most likely pay into it. For example I can use my Lloyds login to send money from any of our accounts into my wife's Santander savings account. Some savers will only accept money from a predesignated "linked account", but if that linked account is in your joint names then again you can make the payment.

Of course once you've done this it becomes her money.

Yes you can send payments to most accounts, what I wrote was "you can't save your money in her account". Once sent, it's her money, ie a gift.

zagfles

km1500 said:

Doubleshotdamo said:

zagfles said:

There's a lot of wrong answers in this thread.

No, you can't open an account for your wife, unless you have a POA for her (eg if she's mentally incapacitated). And you can't save your money in her account, unless perhaps you have some complex trust arrangement.

What you can do, is suggest to your wife that she opens an account. You could then gift her money to invest in the account. She is then free to do with that money and any interest it earns what she wants. It's hers.

So yes between you you can probably achieve what you want, ie use up any spare personal allowance, PSA and starting rate band etc your wife may have, but you need to understand you can't go round opening accounts for someone else, unless they're a minor child or you have POA, they have to do it themselves, and you'd be gifting them any money you contribute to the account.

Wrong. I opened it on her behalf, with her permission, using her details. 

yes you might have been able to do it, but since you weren't her when you opened it technically you are committing fraud
 

Indeed, this might all sound pedantic but it's important to understand who should be doing what and who owns the money. If for instance you had a problem with an application you'd be stupid to phone the bank and say "I was opening this account in my wife's name but the application went wrong...", instead your wife would need to phone and say "I was opening this account with my husband's help and the application went wrong...", and they'd probably be OK if she asked them to speak to her husband for the details.

ZeroSum

zagfles said:

Qyburn said:

zagfles said:

And you can't save your money in her account, unless ...

Depending on the savings account you can most likely pay into it. For example I can use my Lloyds login to send money from any of our accounts into my wife's Santander savings account. Some savers will only accept money from a predesignated "linked account", but if that linked account is in your joint names then again you can make the payment.

Of course once you've done this it becomes her money.

Yes you can send payments to most accounts, what I wrote was "you can't save your money in her account". Once sent, it's her money, ie a gift.

What if its joint money? Since not all banks do joint savings accounts, and need to be in one name or t'other to get best rates

xylophone

What if its joint money? Since not all banks do joint savings accounts, and need to be in one name or t'other to get best rates

It may well be joint money but once paid into a sole account it becomes legally the property of the sole account holder.

Let's say that Mr and Mrs Brown have £6000 in their joint  current account, being their salaries for the month.  Of this, £1500 was Mrs Brown's salary.

A joint account normally gives both parties to that account completely free access to the funds therein.

Either party could choose to open a sole savings account and transfer in money from that joint account.

Once in the sole  savings account,  that money becomes the property of the sole account holder.

BooJewels

I would also add to what has been said that if you do transfer funds into savings accounts in your wife's name, that you've made the appropriate contingencies in the potential event of divorce or death. 

For example, if your wife's Will says that she leaves her half of the marital home to you, but all her money to the local pet charity - you might find yourself making an unscheduled and substantial donation.  Perhaps the hundred quid of tax you were trying to save won't feel quite so worth it then.