Can I have two current accounts, one for bills and one for spending?

[ShitWithMoney]

Hi Everyone

Name change for this. Name states the obvious.

I've read some threads on here about couples having a joint account to put all the money needed to pay the bills, then keeping a personal account for their own spending.

This is what I need, only it's just me, and I need two current accounts really. The one I have where the bills are paid from, and one where I can transfer my spending money to.

I am in dire need of separating the two. Do any of you know how I could do this? Or if not, are there any ways to separate the money?

I have a Santander, Monzo and Starling account
I prefer the interface of Starling for using pots.

This is what I do. Nationwide for bills, Chase for spending.

I'm very tempted to get a Starling account, I love the idea of pots with direct debits.

I think it's a good idea to have different banks. That way you've still got the ability to pay bills/buy things etc., if one bank's systems are down or they freeze your account for any reason. I've got accounts with 3 different banks, being Halifax, Santander and Monzo, and also credit cards with other banks being Tesco, Marks & Spencer and Virgin.

It sounds good, doesnt it?

I didn'trealise there were so many options to choose from!

I have my main account with Lloyds and another current account with Nationwide which is mainly used for moving savings about, I also have 3 credit cards. This means I can access money if there an outage of one of the banks. DH is with Nat West, we have no joint accounts

Monzo

I have one main account with four attached pots (Monthly bills, yearly outgoings, work expenses, saving).

I also use 4 virtual credit cards, one for each of the pots (except saving) plus one extra for online payments. I never use my main card number.

I find it excellent.

We have a joint current account both our salaries are paid into.

A joint bill payment account (same bank as it makes online banking and transfers between accounts easy) we transfer money from current account to cover monthly/annual DD/SOs and other bills.

A joint savings account (again same bank and visible in same app) that gets topped up each month.

Personal ISAs/premium bonds (cant be joint/with different providers). They get added too when our savings account gets above a certain level.

We tend to use a joint credit card for our personal spends through the month then clear it at the end of the month.

Works well for us.

I love my starling account. You can set up “spaces” - as many as you like and you can have bills paid from them. So you could have one for your household direct debits and one for anything car related.

You can also set up virtual cards to spend from the spaces (I think you can only have 5 or 6 virtual cards).

So you could have a space for general spending or a space for eating out money and a virtual card linked to each space (you can use them online and with Apple Pay).

I use YNAB and have for years but you could definitely the starling account for zero sum budgeting - the spaces are effectively virtual envelopes. You obviously just need to keep an eye on the spaces especially if you have direct debits coming out of them but you can automate it all - either transfer a set amount each month or top it up to a certain amount each month (it tells you the estimated value of the bills being paid from each space).

Of course you can have more than one account, in fact, it's strongly recommended that you do, so have a second option, should you lose your card to your first account, or your bank has technical problems.

For any account that has a minimum pay in requirement, you can meet this by setting up a standing order.

Eg receive your salary in one account and on a convenient date (eg the day after your salary goes in) set up a standing order to move some money from account A to account B. If the amount needed is too large, you could set up one that is the right amount, then another back to fill up your bills account.

Or you could get paid into account A, spend from that account and pay your bills from account B, and set up the SO to fund that account each month, assuming your bills are more than your spending and your bills amount meets the minimum pay in requirement.

You also want to put some money aside each month, for annual and irregular expenses like insurance, car costs, Christmas, holidays, white goods replacement etc. You might even want to divide this into pots, for things that are very likely to happen in the next year vs things that could happen but your not sure when.

Plus you can always move money between different accounts, eg if you have a big car repair bill, but all your electrical goods are fine for now (plus if you urgently needed something like a fridge or washing machine, chances are you could get it on an interest free credit deal).

On the matter of cars, it's a case of 'it depends'. It could be that, if you've replaced a few key parts, it will run cheaply for the next 2/3 years. But you're right that you should save with a plan to replace it, and when you do, it depends how much you have in savings on how much you spend as ideally, you shouldn't borrow to buy a car, but in reality, a lot of people do and it's fine, if an expensive way to run a car,but it's likely to cause financial strain if they lose their income and still have to pay for the car.

DP is always laughing at how many I have. I open them when they have a good offer.

first direct has a regular saver account that’s offering 7% after a year if you save regularly every month (up to £300 a month)

I have a NatWest account where I'm paid into and where all my bills and direct debits for savings come out of. Anything spare for spending money, I transfer to my Monzo. The pots in that are super useful, as I separate out money for groceries, travel, beauty, I also use it for short term savings for things like trips and stuff in the coming months. It's also great for spending money abroad on your card as there's no foreign transaction fee and great exchange rates.

I have three

a Hx for our main joint account used for almost everything. A Nationwide one that’s connected to savings and used to move money from savings to current and a Starling that I put money into “pots” for car and house insurance and holidays savings and then use abroad as there’s no transaction charges.

You can have as many account as you like with whichever banks you like, so long as:

1. You meet the conditions for each of them - which may include a minimum monthly deposit, though not necessarily;

2. The multiple accounts are not in order to facilitate illegal activity, such as money laundering or tax evasion. Which they are not in your case.

I have two. My main account were salary goes in and bills get paid from and a second account with Chase that I use for spending (and now saving as the interest rate is better with them then my main account). I have pots in there too which I find useful, I have the round up feature switched on and it rounds up my spending to the nearest pound and it’s saved and I get cash back too.