USA GBP CHF Joint Account Confusion

Picard91 · 5 August 2018 at 9:13PM

Hey everyone,

I've read numerous posts on this but all from a few years ago, maybe times have changed a little and I am missing something, So a little bit of advice and a detached view is needed.

I'm British my partner is Swiss. We both work abroad and get Paid in USD.

I am lucky enough to get paid into my US Bank account, I use transferwise to convert into GBP when I need as I still have Bills etc at home.

Hers gets converted and put in her Swiss CHF, Although she gets a great conversion fee and doesn't pay Bank Fees like we do in the UK so it works out pretty similar.

We want to start a joint account, both paying in a set amount to pay for Flights, Holidays and investing in the future. The question is, where do we do this? and in what currency as we are likely to spend money in all three, USD, GBP & CHF.

The GBP is up and down more than a yo-yo, neither of us visit/live in the US we just get paid in USD and hers automatically gets converted anyway, surely it doesn't make sense to convert it back? That leaves CHF if I can get an account there, we aren't married so its a more difficult.

Does anybody have any thoughts on this? What we could use for a Joint Debit Card, Transferwise haven't released there's yet and its not joint. Also what currency should we save in primarily?

Any advice is appreciated

Picard91 · 8 August 2018 at 8:31AM

Does anybody have any thoughts?

eskbanker · 8 August 2018 at 3:34PM

Perhaps the lack of votes in your poll reflects the difficulty anyone would have in making any meaningful judgement given the absence of some key details from your post. For example, where you live - you say you 'work abroad' but without actually saying where, while seemingly referring to the UK as 'home' and Switzerland as 'there', so where would 'here' be? Where are you taxed?

In terms of deciding on a 'base currency' for your finances, where you live is obviously significant in terms of ability to open accounts, but much also depends on where you plan on spending your money and in which currency?

Minimising conversions would generally keep costs down, as you say, but you may find it worthwhile to have accounts in each of the currencies you feel associated with, depending on the split of expenditure, rather than trying to consolidate onto one....

eDicky · 8 August 2018 at 3:41PM

Not a joint account, but if you both sign up for a Revolut account you can each load and keep various currencies, convert at the interbank rate (weekdays), send to each other instantly, and there's a 'split bill' function.

Picard91 · 10 August 2018 at 3:48PM

eskbanker wrote: »

Perhaps the lack of votes in your poll reflects the difficulty anyone would have in making any meaningful judgement given the absence of some key details from your post. For example, where you live - you say you 'work abroad' but without actually saying where, while seemingly referring to the UK as 'home' and Switzerland as 'there', so where would 'here' be? Where are you taxed?

Thanks for the response, when I say I work abroad I mean I don't have one country as a set base. I work all over the world, a different country every two days more or less. Some currencies repeat obviously. Anyway, I am registered in the UK for tax which is why I called it home. But i admit I could have been clearer.

eskbanker wrote: »

but you may find it worthwhile to have accounts in each of the currencies you feel associated with

Yeah, after advice from a few friends also they have all said the same thing. I spoke with HSBC and they can create me a CHF account then when we both go back to England on Vacation I can add her to the account. I think consolidating into one as you said, would only loose us money..

Thanks for your advice

Picard91 · 10 August 2018 at 3:54PM

eDicky wrote: »

Not a joint account, but if you both sign up for a Revolut account you can each load and keep various currencies, convert at the interbank rate (weekdays), send to each other instantly, and there's a 'split bill' function.

I think thats quite similar to transferwises borderless account? Maybe Revolut will give a slightly better rate? I will have a look into it.. thanks for the recommendation..

USA GBP CHF Joint Account Confusion

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