Joint Account Advice

poorjim

Hi All

I am thinking of making the big step of having a joint account where both of our wages are paid into it.

It would be really helpful if you could recommend a decent account for this.

Also any suggestions on how to manage an amount we can spend each month. e.g. is it best to still have our own personal account to spend from?

thanks in advance
pj

nessquic80

hi poorjim, my husband and i have a joint account previous to that we had seperate accounts that we each had different things coming out of, he would pay the bills from his bc and id pay the mortage, but since the last year we had had a joint account too so each month we get paid and we pay exactly the same amount each month into the bc so now all the dd come from one account, and any monies left over from the month run over into the next month for joint treats ie day out. so we still have our own accounts so what is left from paying our share of the bills is my own and whats left from his wahes is his to spend. i think the best place to look for the account is on the banking and savings tab, but i think it will be A&L i switched to these last feb cus the interest rate was the best at the time,,hope that helps

CLAPTON

all banks offer joint a/cs

if you're happy with your current banks why not choose one of those?

remember that transfers between a/cs at the same bank are often instanteous (but do check this point explicitly ) while those between difference banks take 2/3 days of more.

whether its a good idea and how best to manage it depends upon why you want a joint a/c and your circumstances which you haven't said.

ryandj

Me and my girlf have a joint account. We each have our own seperate accounts where the wages get paid into, and which we use for our own spends, eg mobile phone bills, play- money, going out, presents, whatever.

Then we each pay the same amount by standing order to the joint account. This covers all the bills, mortgage, shopping, travel together, and whatevers left over we spend on booze - I mean save at the end of the month! Works quite well really, seems fair to us. And its nice to have a bit of your own money for independence! If you are into that kind of thing!

dellwear

CLAPTON wrote: »

all banks offer joint a/cs

if you're happy with your current banks why not choose one of those?

remember that transfers between a/cs at the same bank are often instanteous (but do check this point explicitly ) while those between difference banks take 2/3 days of more.

whether its a good idea and how best to manage it depends upon why you want a joint a/c and your circumstances which you haven't said.

One thing to note - this is only untill May the 27th as the Faster Payments system starts then and you'll be able to transfer money between the big banks in minutes.

We have two joint account and one current each. Wages go into the sole accounts and we both but the same amount of money into each joint account. The bills go out of one and we use our Maestro card on the other for our household spending.

Makes life much easier - you know that the bills will get paid and the spending money can't be over drawn and force the bills to bounce.

I like having my own account also - that way special presenets and the like don't show up on the joint account

efallai

Me and my other half have got a joint account and both have sole accounts all with HSBC. We have our wages paid into our joint account within a day of each other, so after my pay goes in after his one of us transfers personal spending money to each of our sole accounts. All of our direct debits get paid out of the joint account but we only use the joint card for household spending and things we do together. Any other spending comes out of our personal budget.

Works well for us, but not maybe for others...