Joint Account Queries.

wyattjnr

Hello Everyone,

So I am a couple of months from moving in with my partner. I will be moving into her house where she has a mortgage.  In order to make budgeting easier and accountability, we thought a joint account would be the easiest way to go.  
My partner has a CCJ (Unknown Parking Ticket) which was settled 6 weeks after the judgement and that is the only issue on her report. I on the other hand battled a gambling addiction (hopefully over now) and as such have a few defaults that I am half way through on my report and as such my credit score is pretty poor.  
My question is, do we enter into a joint account (if we are even able to) that links us financially? It won't be either of our main accounts and it won't be used for her mortgage payment, or would it affect my partner mainly adversely?  Don't want to mess up anymore than I previously have.
Thanks

xylophone

In your position, I would avoid opening a joint account and would wait for a couple of years to see how  matters turned out.

Would your partner wish to consider opening another account with her existing bank into which you would make a regular payment by standing order from your own bank account?

The payment would cover your share of living expenses and she could transfer to her main account as required.

Zanderman

wyattjnr said:

Hello Everyone,

So I am a couple of months from moving in with my partner. I will be moving into her house where she has a mortgage.  In order to make budgeting easier and accountability, we thought a joint account would be the easiest way to go.  
My partner has a CCJ (Unknown Parking Ticket) which was settled 6 weeks after the judgement and that is the only issue on her report. I on the other hand battled a gambling addiction (hopefully over now) and as such have a few defaults that I am half way through on my report and as such my credit score is pretty poor.  
My question is, do we enter into a joint account (if we are even able to) that links us financially? It won't be either of our main accounts and it won't be used for her mortgage payment, or would it affect my partner mainly adversely?  Don't want to mess up anymore than I previously have.
Thanks

The fact that it wouldn't be your main account is not, I think, relevant. A joint account would link you to each other regardless of whether it was your main account. Probably not a good idea at the present time.

Rob5342

I'd avoid it at the moment and wait until you are closer to a time where you don't have marks that will affect each other.

You might find getting Monzo accounts useful if you don't have them already - for each transcation there is a split the bill option that lets you request payment from another Monzo user. That might be useful for splitting your shopping or a restaurant bill.

Budgeting and accountability shouldn't be too much of a problem. You could create a spreadsheet of all the bills and work out how you'll split them all.

pridehappy

Most banks will identify that you will share financial responsibility with a joint account. This means that it your partner did something which would harm her credit score related to your joint account, it would impact you too.

However, if you still have individual current accounts/savings accounts/credit cards/mortgages, they will stay solely in your/your partner’s name. As a result, your mortgage will stay as the responsibility of your partner.

If your credit score is quite low, it’s likely you’ll only be offered a basic joint account. This could be upgraded to a standard current account later down the line when you have improved your score, but you’ll most likely need to approach the institution and request this. These basic accounts lack access to some features, like chequebooks and overdrafts. 

Some popular accounts that still offer some features are Cooperative Bank Cashminder, Virgin Money M Account or Nationwide FlexBasic. HSBC do offer a basic account with an ‘emergency’ unarranged overdraft but this can be very harmful to your credit score so I wouldn’t go for it personally.

However, it would be best to go for an account and do an eligibility check with someone who only does soft checks. For example, Monzo, Starling Bank or even a Metro Bank Cash Account. If you can get one of those now, I would do so and if you wish to switch to a standard current account when your score improves, you can. Or if you are happy with the offer, simply stay!