Joint bank account for bills

jbrassy

Hi, I was hoping for some advice around getting a joint bank account with my wife. We've just bought a house together and we're thinking of getting a joint bank account for the first time, purely for the purpose of paying bills. I've noticed some accounts pay cashback for direct debits and want to make sure I'm not missing anything.

The monthly bills for our new house are:
Council tax: £212 
Water: £58
Gas/Electric: £150
Broadband: £26
TV licence: £15

I noticed that Santander offer an Edge account which pays 1% cashback on bills, but the £3 a month fee wipes out most of the cashback. I note that in the past the Santander 1/2/3 account paid cashback on mortgages and I happen to have a Santander mortgage (for which the monthly payments are much higher than the aforementioned bills). I don't suppose there is anyway to open a 1/2/3 account still?

Aside from Santander, I also note that Natwest Rewards pays £5 a month cashback if you have 2 direct debits and log in once a month. With the £2 fee, this nets out at £3 a month which still isn't great, but seemingly better than Santander. 

While I'm veering towards Natwest, I just wanted to check I haven't missed an account which is more generous when it comes to cashback on bills? For context, I already have cashback credit cards (Amex Cashback, Capital One Platinum, Barclaycard Rewards) which I use to get cashback on spending at supermarkets etc, so I'm not really interested in cashback on spending. 

Thanks a lot in advance

flaneurs_lobster

Might not be enough but the Santander Edge cashback can also include your household's mobile phone bills and any TV services paid by DD (usually the ones you add to your broadband with BT/EE, Virgin etc).

eskbanker

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

jbrassy

flaneurs_lobster said:

Might not be enough but the Santander Edge cashback can also include your household's mobile phone bills and any TV services paid by DD (usually the ones you add to your broadband with BT/EE, Virgin etc).

I don't subscribe to Sky or Virgin as I use Freeview. Mobile bills won't add much either. 

Jami74

Club Lloyds give a reward. We get Disney+ from ours. They also pay a tiny bit of interest, think it's 1.5%. We keep a one month buffer so nice to get a few pennies on it.

moneytorques

Most of these rewards accounts are best utilised in unison with their own 12month offer on boosted savings rates. Both Santander and Natwest offer these, Santander do a 6% on upto 4k and Natwest offer a 6% on £150pm upto 5k total so you can do the maths on your own circumstances.

PRAISETHESUN

Another thing to possible consider is a packaged bank account, assuming you'd make use of all the various insurances and perks they offer. For a joint account they can be particularly good value since a single monthly fee will provider cover for both account holders.

jadex

PRAISETHESUN said:

Another thing to possible consider is a packaged bank account, assuming you'd make use of all the various insurances and perks they offer. For a joint account they can be particularly good value since a single monthly fee will provider cover for both account holders.

OT but many (if not most) personal packaged accounts' insurance products cover household / family / partner anyway as long as they live at the same address as account holder (no need to go joint);

Re Natwest Rewards, there is also a requirement to pay in £1250p/m which is way more than all of OP's bills (another admin job to cycle money through).

I would go for Santander but only if 6% Edge saver would be utilised, otherwise forget about cashback and go for Starling or Monzo joint and pay bills from spaces/pots (Starling was better with interest on account balance but it is now ended, and with paying bills directly from Spaces for free - Monzo ask for monthly fee to be able to pay directly from Pots). TSB Spend and Save also have pots but their app is miles behind.

jbrassy

jadex said:

PRAISETHESUN said:

Another thing to possible consider is a packaged bank account, assuming you'd make use of all the various insurances and perks they offer. For a joint account they can be particularly good value since a single monthly fee will provider cover for both account holders.

OT but many (if not most) personal packaged accounts' insurance products cover household / family / partner anyway as long as they live at the same address as account holder (no need to go joint);

Re Natwest Rewards, there is also a requirement to pay in £1250p/m which is way more than all of OP's bills (another admin job to cycle money through).

I would go for Santander but only if 6% Edge saver would be utilised, otherwise forget about cashback and go for Starling or Monzo joint and pay bills from spaces/pots (Starling was better with interest on account balance but it is now ended, and with paying bills directly from Spaces for free - Monzo ask for monthly fee to be able to pay directly from Pots). TSB Spend and Save also have pots but their app is miles behind.

On Natwest Rewards, I could also pay my mortgage using the account. The monthly repayments are well above the £1250 requirement. 

I'm also not convinced by packaged bank accounts. Firstly, I don't own a car, so any account which includes breakdown cover would be wasted. Second, I already have home emergency cover through my home insurance and it costs £4.50 a month which is not that much. The only thing I would potentially be interested in is travel insurance, but the cover provided through packaged bank accounts seems quite low compared to what you can get separately. 

The only other account I have considered is Natwest Premier Rewards. My wife and I earn over £150k between us so we would qualify and we'd get £8 a month cashback (net of fees) with two direct debits. The only downside is they say you must have your income paid into the account, however we'd rather have our income paid into our own individual accounts. Does anyone know what would happen if we opened a Premier account and didn't pay our income into it?