Pros and cons of having a joint bank account?

[Lsquiggles]

My partner and I have been together almost 4 years, have a mortgage together and a 5 month old daughter. I've been thinking that it's time we get a joint bank account for simplicity, my partner doesn't seem that interested and thinks it's an unnecessary move (probably out of laziness honestly).

Each month I transfer my half of the mortgage and bills to him and any time we do food shopping we take it in turns but I'm sick of the "I paid for x and y so you should pay for this" everytime we go shopping or do anything.

Neither of us spend frivolously and have no large outgoings that we don't approve of, so am I mad for thinking it makes sense to just have one account where everything comes out of each month?

When did you and your partner get a joint account?

I wouldn't just have a joint account, but it makes sense I think to have one for joint bills/household spending/childcare.

Cons are mostly if you split up and one of you creates an overdraft you're both liable for.

@MsPepperPotts

I doubt it's down to laziness that you don't have a joint account after 4years.

Yes , because you know the OP's husband better than she does, can we not just look at the facts given and query raised, instead of trying to turn it into another round of gender bashing

PROS

Makes managing budget for a household easier

Easy to see what spending and income are

Only one account to monitor

No secrets

CONS

As you’re not married there can be issues with access in the events of incapacity or death of one account holder, if you split there can be issues with the account being misused, bank can choose to freeze it if there’s concerns about access/debt. On mn there’s a great focus on separation/divorce as the end of a relationship but death can and does happen unexpectedly and poor financial organisation can be a nightmare to deal with at such a traumatic time.

No discretion it’s all laid bare so everything from surprise birthday gifts to saving money to leave the other will be obvious

If either party is irresponsible with money or becomes so then their actions affect the others

If either party is remotely controlling with money it can cause issues

Having had a joint account with my ex which he then emptied days after we split without warning leaving me and then toddler dd penniless I would caution anyone against ONLY having that one joint account.

I’ll never have a joint account with anyone again and even if I did I would only have it for joint expenses and pay into it from a separate individual account which I would maintain. The 2 accounts would not even be in the same banking group (if one party of a joint account incurs debt with the bank that they then seek to recover if you have an account within the same banking group in certain circumstances the bank can withdraw funds from an in credit personal account to pay off debt in the joint account)

“We have an account that all the bills come out of and we each pay a set amount in on payday which covers them. It’s not joint though as my DH was bankrupt so we can’t have a joint account. But essentially it is a joint account as we can both access the app, its just in my name only as a technicality.” I believe I’m correct in saying that’s not a “technicality” that’s breaking the law! Certainly the terms of your agreement with the bank!

Your child is only 5 months old, are you on mat leave or a sahm?

You’re extremely vulnerable as a sahm if not married.

It’s also sensible to always have more than one source of funds in case of things like a particular banks card system crashing (which has happened a few times in recent years!)

I now have a current and savings account with one bank but a credit card (that I only use for major purchases for coverage reasons which I pay off immediately but I have it for emergencies too) with a different company and a credit union savings account with a 3rd organisation.

It’s never a good idea to have “all your eggs in one basket”.

Keep your own account that any salary and any money for dc goes into is my advice.

You don’t have to have one account that everything comes out of (I think it sounds like madness when people do that, unless only one of you has an income anyway).

We have a joint account for joint expenses and we both still have personal current and savings accounts for everything else. I couldn’t stand not having my own money and knowing exactly what’s in my account. But the joint account makes it easier to keep track of joint money and then we always know that we’re both contributing the right amount to everything.

Joint account from the point at which we bought our first flat together, before we got married, and DH just came into my existing account as I had had it for a long time. He is still second named on the bank account .

All our savings are joint too, as is our credit card, again in my name. It's all on-line and he doesn't really have a clue how to access it as I do all the admin. As long as he knows roughly what we have in hand, he is relaxed.

We are very lucky that we are very compatible on spending habits, as neither of us spends much at all. In fact we both regularly suggest one or the other spends some money on something ! We seem to be quite unusual, but we are a little older I suspect, than some posters on here.

Don't have joint. Never had. But complete transparency with our bank accounts, we both know our passwords to each other's accounts although we don't use them. Something i have to pay he transfers into my account and the other way round. Any left over goes into savings account. Any expense is made on credit card and then the bill is paid in full. Works for us for 15 years. Pros and cons: joint account-you are both responsible for debt and any bad financial decision /default will affect both credit scores. Separate accounts: hassle and have to keep track what direct debit comes when from which account. Pain in the arse. Whatever works for you.

Been with partner 5 years and have a 7 month old. Bought our first house in 2017. Got a joint account a couple of months before we moved in especially for mortgages and bills. We both transfer our respective amounts once a month and everything comes from there. I also put ad hoc shopping and stuff in there and if we go overdrawn we transfer half the overdrawn balance each. I found I was putting cat food and odd bits of house stuff on my own account and it wasn't fair. But now it's fairer. We have a joint savings account now too where we put anything left over from the joint at the end of the month.

At the bare minimum I would get a joint acc for all your Direct Debits. My parents-in-law always had separate accounts & when Grandpa died suddenly recently & they closed his account, the bank also had to cancel all his DD's. They gave his widow a list (2 pages of A4) of all of them & she (on top of the shock of his death / organising the funeral, etc) had call all those organisations & get the accounts & new DD set up. She'd have had to change the account names at some point but the DD changes had to be done ASAP. I can't imagine how awful this would be if his death had been more traumatic.

We have joint everything & each others passwords. DH's spending improved once we had a joint acc as he could no longer kid himself that I had some "spare" cash at the end of the month to bail him out - he could see that was literally all there was to spend. Re presents - we just don't ask too many questions in the month before our b'days or use cash.

Do you both earn the same amount? If so you could have a joint account for bills and both txf an amount each month keeping your account account for spends.

We have a joint current account, plus each have own current account. Salaries are paid into the individual's accounts, and we then transfer money into the joint account for household expenses etc. DH earns multiple times my PT salary, so he contributes multiple times more. When I was on Mat Leave he upped his contribution to cover my normal contribution.

I'd saved additional money into my own account during my paid 6 months leave, so that I had my own spending £ during the last 6 months and didn't feel I had to go to him, although if anything was beyond my means I'd just use the joint account. All DH's earned salary and mine is seen as 'family money' but the separate accounts allows us more privacy around private spending, presents etc. We know how much the other earns, can access payslips etc, so there's nothing hidden.

We're very open with money, and both also save into individual accounts, moving money between us so as to be most tax efficient.

I think we started the joint account when we moved in together after we'd been together 4 years, certainly by the time we had our first child. We have similar approaches to spending and are both quite modest spenders. I'd be concerned about a DP refusing to have a joint account once you have a child, it means you have to go to him, hand held out, for spending money like something from 1950, just to get money for your own clothes, make up, DC clothes etc.

@Cheeseandwin5
Here have a

@Graphista has summarised everything pretty well there!

I've always had an account for bills and another for "fun" or non-household. When my fiancee moved in, we opened a new account to act as the household/bills, and we both pay a set amount into it to cover bills. Currently, our wages go into our own accounts then back of for savings... It's a mess. Once married (a year from now), both our wages will go into the joint for all household stuff, and then we'll each get the same amount for "fun" and personal costs. Means we can do surprises and no-cares about a lunch out, or the small things. Having one pot for household makes it so much easier to manage when you're both ultimately saving for the same big things. We're setting it up that way so that when we have kids, the system still stands no matter who is earning. Future-proofing.