Do you and your partner have a joint account?

[EverythingButNotNow]

Hi guys

I’m thinking of setting up a joint account with DH but wanted to see how many people do this?

If you don’t mind me asking, do you both earn the same amount or does it vary a lot

Thank you

We've had a joint account once we moved in together, which was about 4 years before we got married (celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary last year ). We both kept our own separate accounts.

Over the years, we've alternated who is the bigger (and sometimes only) salary earners. We tend to get our salary paid in to the joint account and then take whatever money we feel we need, if any, into our single accounts.

We treat all income as communal. The only issue has been that dh sees savings as a black hole that can never be accessed, whereas while I also like to save, I do occasionally like to spend from savings!

We have two joint accounts, and a personal account each. One joint account is where everything gets paid in, and the vast majority of bills go out, the other is for food and family stuff, then personal accounts for our equal Spends to spend on our hobbies/ourselves/save up. We also have numerous joint saving accounts which are for various different things.

Joint account.

I treat him like a teenager and give him a cash card with a set amount of money for "spending money" on otherwise he'd be in the overdraft a day later.

Wow!! Thank you all for your responses. I guess I’m worried about setting up a joint account as we are complete opposites. DH spends a lot probably more than he has ha! I like to save. 😕

Old school here so everything joint. Savings split into individual to get the best rates.

We get paid into own accounts and then transfer an agreed amount into a joint account to cover mortgage, bills and money related to our children. Child benefit is paid into here. What's left in our own accounts a spending money and we aim for it to be roughly equal. I don't mind this but it does create more conversations about money than I would like when it comes to unexpected extras which are inevitable. I'd rather everything went into a joint account but DH doesn't want it to so this works fine

We have always had a joint account, and we've both earned different amounts over our 21 years together. All DDs come out of it and we both buy what we want / need. Both have access to the banking app, big purchases discussed first, works for us

If you are at opposite ends, I would definitely suggest to keep your separate accounts and keep salaries going in there. Then open a joint account and set up a standing order/dd for e.g. 70% of salary to go from each personal account into the joint account the day after payday. All bills, living costs etc get changed to come out of the joint account.
That leaves you both to use your individual accounts as you see fit. Him spending, you saving, everybody's happy.

We don't. I don't work. Dh does.

I would recommend wages going into a joint account with all bills coming out of that then a standing order each to your personal accounts for personal spending.

Worst case scenario, but if something dreadful happens to one of you, you know where all the money is straight away and that the bills will be paid. One less thing to worry about.

If you have a spender (I'm a spender) it's better to have a weekly amount. I'm a stay at home mum with a disabled child plus 3 other DCs so DH is the only earner. We have 3 main accounts. DH's account pays all the bills, the remainder is transferred to a joint account which he mainly uses. I then have a weekly amount transferred from the joint account into my own separate account which I use for "housekeeping" We have separate savings for annual bills, holidays, clubs, Christmas, bigger projects etc. We also both have separate spending money for ourselves. It's quite complicated but I find it easier to have pots so you know what all the money is for.

DH and I have a joint account. He earns about six times what I do and I spend about six times what he does. Everything is “ours” and has been for over 30 years. This method has seen us through years when I was the sole earner, years when I was the higher earner, many years when he was the sole earner and now when he is the (much) higher earner. All our savings are in my sole name though - started for tax purposes and now it’s a mixture of too much faff to change and our bank doesn’t offer a high interest joint savings account. DH trusts me not to run off with all our money!