Until now we’ve had a current account each, a savings account each and a joint current account and joint savings.

We both get paid into our own accounts and move most of it in to the joint account each month.

Pay is now going to go straight in to the one joint account.

Is there any reason not to just have a joint current account and a joint savings?

We’re married if that makes a difference.

Cheers

Of course. Why not?

Is there any reason not to just have a joint current account and a joint savings?

We’re married if that makes a difference.

Messy in the event of a divorce?

If nothing else I’m struggling to see why you’d need three savings accounts. That’s at least two too many.

No need what so ever.

I have three, one for house related things, one for savings, and one for coke and hookers and other extravagances.
When the latter is quite literally spunked up the wall, it doesn’t matter as I only ever put in it what I can afford to spend.

I’d have a backup with a different bank, in case one bank screws up, and blocks your account, or the card doesn’t work etc.

Or taking advantage of special offers or interest rates etc. Some current accounts give you a better interest rate on balances up to £2000 or so.

Cougar wrote:

If nothing else I’m struggling to see why you’d need three savings accounts. That’s at least two too many.

Spread the risk if you’re minted

Under the FSCS the first £85,000 (as of January 2017) of your savings (or £170,000 if your money is held in a joint account) is protected in the event that the bank or building society goes bust.

I wouldn’t only want joint accounts because it’s shit for stuff like buying presents, and frankly whilst I don’t care about mrs njee20 knowing I don’t want to feel I have to justify all my expenditure. We have personal accounts and both pay into a joint account.

I’ve also got a Monzo account because it’s good for foreign transactions, and I’ve never closed my old current account, and two savings accounts where the introductory rate expired, plus one I still use, and an ISA, and I’m not totally sure I ever closed my old joint account because we both had to be there in person. So that’s 9 accounts. Is that excessive…? 🤔

At present I’ve got 6 cards for current accounts in my wallet – each annotated with sharpies to remind me which card does what.

Seems bonkers.

I’m not a high rate tax payer though so I just have a current account, credit card account and an isa.

Wages go into the current account with automated fixed transfers to joint account for domestic expenses and another to my isa for savings.

So 3.5 accounts technically speaking.

Joint accounts can get messy in cases of divorce, best avoided if not needed. We have a credit card & Mrs Db is named card holder, that we use for all domestic stuff & gets paid off each month.

^ yes, we have found that a joint credit card is easier to manage than a joint account for shared expenses. At the end of the month you just split the bill (50/50, 60/40, whatever) rather than having to guess what your groceries, meals out, holidays etc are going to cost in advance. And you get big points on that kind of shared balance.

I’m basically in the same boat as Phil556. We always had a current account and a savings account each, but when we got married thought it’d be handy to have joint current and joint savings.

My pension is spread over 5 different providers just to spread the risk, not that they go bust, but just if one gets hacked and my money vanishes, it’s only 20% at stake (and I’d probably get it back eventually).

Wife and I each have our own bank accounts from before we met. We just transfer money between them for joint expenses etc. Edit we do have a joint CC for household expenses / holidays etc and the John Lewis vouchers….

Joint accounts can get messy in cases of divorce, best avoided if not needed.

Messy in the event of a divorce

I’m not planning on getting divorced 😃 And I’m a bit surprised it’s come up a few times as a reason not to use a joint account.

If nothing else I’m struggling to see why you’d need three savings accounts. That’s at least two too many.

We’ve got three because we’ve never closed our own ones, or two individual ones don’t have much in, and about to be emptied in to the joint one.

I’d have a backup with a different bank, in case one bank screws up, and blocks your account, or the card doesn’t work etc.

Or taking advantage of special offers or interest rates etc. Some current accounts give you a better interest rate on balances up to £2000 or so.

This is about the only reason I can think of, was it Barclays a couple of years ago that stopped everyone getting their money?

At the moment interest rates are so low that I’m not sure it makes much difference where your money is? And I’m not one for switching accounts to get the £150 etc incentive

I wouldn’t only want joint accounts because it’s shit for stuff like buying presents,

Oh and this was the only other reason we could come up with too.

Spread the risk if you’re minted

Unfortunately the £170k more than covers us

I’m not planning on getting divorced 😃 And I’m a bit surprised it’s come up a few times as a reason not to use a joint account.

Nor was I, till I came home one day to find she wasn’t here. But,

To my mind, it wasn’t so much a case of having reasons not to have a joint account (though, thank the gods multiple times) but rather I never saw a compelling reason to have one in the first place.

My reason for multiple accounts is it earns me some interest and cashback for doing nothing I wouldn’t already do.

We have a joint account at Santander, who also provide our mortgage. Not only did they offer the best rate at the time we also get cashback on that mortgage plus other bills (massively outweighs the monthly fee). Some money then goes into a regular saver @ 3%.

The current account interest is 1.5% so I pay out a chunk each month to a Nationwide account. On opening the Nationwide account earlier this year through a referral I got some cash, an intro rate of 5% up to a few thousand of balance, opportunity to pay cash into a junior account (at decent rate) and another regular saver @ 3%.

I also run 2 credit cards for my everday spending. One Amex with cashback and a backup Mastercard with Tandem which offers a small amount of cashback (but better than nothing).

I will switch out of Nationwide soon as deals are ending and there are some ‘bribes’ out there for switching, but the Santander account more than covers itself on mortgage cashback alone.

Joint account with Mrs S and a Starling account for my Matched Betting hobby which pays for our holiday spends when we go away as well as other treats.

We both earn money, we both put in 1/3 of our wages into the joint account pot and keep the rest to ourselves.

I don’t feel the need to have control over my wife’s money, she can do what she likes with it without recourse to me.

We’ve both got multiple savings accounts, just because of previous deals. Not all of them have money within…

Never really felt the need for a joint account. All the expenses go on my credit card (wife has a card for the same account also), and I pay it off each month. Mortgage is paid by my wife. We have our separate savings accounts (mine is usually empty after bicycle related purchases of course)

We’ve been simplifying things at home.

I think a lot of it comes down to trust, I was 33 when we moved in together and it was my first ‘proper’ relationship so I came with a lot of ‘baggage’ as they say.

At our peak we had.

4 CCs.
7 Bank Accounts (Joint, Household bills, Savings, 2x ISA my old Personal Account and that had a Savings account too, but empty).

I’ve settled and closed 2 of the CCs and we’re down to 3 accounts now. (Joint, Household bills, Savings) the 2x ISA are being closed in the next few weeks when we move house.

One thing that really bugs me is that the Household and Savings accounts aren’t joint – when we went to the bank to make the current joint we assumed that they all would be, but we’re back in the bank next week for more mortgage stuff so I’ll get that sorted then.

I know, one day I could come home to find her gone and my current account empty, but I really doubt it, and if it happens well going a few weeks broke won’t be the focus of my mind. I’ve learned in the last few months that making things really ‘efficient’ is really just making things more complex and stressful for me. I might lose a few pennies in cash-back, or whatever but I’d rather just KISS.

Nor was I, till I came home one day to find she wasn’t here. But,

Ouch, yeah that’s pretty rubbish sorry.

I don’t feel the need to have control over my wife’s money, she can do what she likes with it without recourse to me.

There’s no controlling planned on either party, mostly convenience. Most of our money goes in the joint account as it is anyway. We have some different hobbies & tend to have a holiday/weekends away separately when we can’t get leave together and a lot of that gets paid out of joint account anyway.

Never really felt the need for a joint account. All the expenses go on my credit card (wife has a card for the same account also), and I pay it off each month. Mortgage is paid by my wife.

Surely it’s just easier if it all comes out of the one account and the credit card can also just be paid off from the same account each month?

We have 2 credit cards, one was wife’s originally and one was mine but now we just share them and have a card for each.

but I really doubt it, and if it happens well going a few weeks broke won’t be the focus of my mind. I’ve learned in the last few months that making things really ‘efficient’ is really just making things more complex and stressful for me. I might lose a few pennies in cash-back, or whatever but I’d rather just KISS.

I feel the same, I like it all to look after itself and me have to spend as little time as possible swapping money around and opening / closing accounts to earn the odd hundred quid.

And like you I like to assume that I’m not going to come home one day and find my wife gone, I think you have to live life assuming you’re going to stick together! It actually seems a bit sad that some couples appear to live in fear of the other running off 🙁

Personal current account (1 for me and 1 for Mrs T).
Personal savings accounts (1 for Mrs T, 2 for me, one is for holiday spending, the other is a rainy day fund, both get used regularly so interest isn’t a priority or much financially).
ISA, Mrs T holds the ISA
Bills (joint) account for boring stuff.
Monzo for me with a pot for home improvements, most of my day to day spend is done via this account.
Credit card where we both have a card linked to the same account, stems from a period where I was the only 1 working and it didn’t make sense to have 2. This gets used for food, petrol all the crap I buy online (bike lights, bike clothes, gig tickets, bbq stuff, coffee related paraphernalia)
Credit card for overseas use, backup if Monzo is having a bad day and with limit enough to get me out of trouble and with no fees for overseas transactions.

In essence, way too many, but they all serve a purpose.

If nothing else I’m struggling to see why you’d need three savings accounts. That’s at least two too many.

Long term, mid term, short term?

Current account each for no questions asked spending with a budgeted amount put in there each month. A joint current account where the wages go to fund the aforementioned accounts. A couple of joint savings accounts.

Herself does the budgeting, I’m not to worry my pretty little head about money.

And I’m a bit surprised it’s come up a few times as a reason not to use a joint account.

Probably because you’ve never been divorced and tried to get your name off one… I ended up paying the £2k overdraft off that my wife’s ex had run up on theirs to get her name off it, don’t get me started on trusts as they are even worse.

joint account, regular saver, main savings, stocks & shares isa, LISA and current account. Plus 4 different credit cards and a mortgage. so 11?

“was it Barclays a couple of years ago that stopped everyone getting their mone”

Barclays froze my savings account a fortnight ago. It’s going to be six weeks before they unfreeze it.

Another reason to have separate accounts is that it’s much easier to limit the fall out if one of you goes mad.

1 income, 1 account, 2 kids = no savings. What we have, we have, it is OURS not any individuals. As for savings…i have often heard of these mystical things and wondered what it would be like to have some.

One joint current account, one joint savings account, wifes current account (her salary then gets transferred into the joint account where mine is), holiday savings account, gifting account, mortgage, TransferWise European (Euro) account (for travelling), wifes European account and a credit card.

9

I have about 16 accounts of one form or another. When interest rates where good I bounced 1k around eight banks and 1.5k around the rest. Not bothered to alter that yet. And then the accounts gave good rates on regular income plus isa’s etc. Must sort them out one day but waiting to see what brexit brings regarding interest rates.

I have about 16 accounts of one form or another

Your executors will be cursing you if you don’t kill those of before you pop your clogs.