Joint bank account for paying bills

Guest2

Guest2

Guest2

Soldato
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I was thinking about setting up a joint bank account with my other two housemates for paying bills however after speaking to someone in TSB today, it sounds like if I have a good credit rating and one of the people listed on the account has a bad credit rating, their bad rating will drag down my good.

If none of us wants it in our names, is there a specific type of account that we can setup to pay bills, maybe even a prepaid bill card that acts sort of like a direct debit.

There will be around £450/month going in
Would like to be able to view the amound in the account online
Would like it to have an overdraft
 
Not to my knowledge you could not have an account with them named on it. I am certain you could not do it with an overdraft.
 
Do you need direct debit to pay bills? You may be able to get your bills in multiple names to avoid one person being solely liable.

The Lloyds person is correct - joint bank account link you financially and credit reference agencies will take account of that.
 
Direct debit is the best way to pay bills, so you need a bank account. If you're living with people who have poor credit histories then don't share a bank account, someone needs to look after the money.

If you do it then you have control over it, but you have to shake them down for money every month, if you don't do it then the bills won't get paid.

Such is life sharing. There is no way around it to the best of my knowledge.
 
I've always just had a spare account and then my housemates had £XX set to go into the account each month. Works perfectly if they've got it to go out on say the 29th as a standing order and have all your bills go out on the 1st of each month.

If there's a few of you and you all pay £150 each

Get person A to pay £150.01, person B £150.02 etc. Makes it much easier to track if someone decides not to pay.

Always a good idea to overpay by say £5-10 each a month, and offer to pay more to your gas/electricity company. Then at the end of the year, get the difference back from the utilities company and split the remaining money you have between you.
 
Seems too complicated - just find the most responsible person to set up the DD (on a separate account would be sensible), and ensure everyone sends their contributions on a standing order to that account holder.
 
Find out who has the lowest rating and just make one in their name? Don't use direct debit though as that could screw you over eventually.
 
bledd. said:
I've always just had a spare account and then my housemates had £XX set to go into the account each month. Works perfectly if they've got it to go out on say the 29th as a standing order and have all your bills go out on the 1st of each month.

If there's a few of you and you all pay £150 each

Get person A to pay £150.01, person B £150.02 etc. Makes it much easier to track if someone decides not to pay.

Always a good idea to overpay by say £5-10 each a month, and offer to pay more to your gas/electricity company. Then at the end of the year, get the difference back from the utilities company and split the remaining money you have between you.
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That's what we do - except the girls in our house seem to think they don't need to pay bills, and they always have the heating on.

Just be careful, I'd never have anything to do with bills in a shared house again.
 
I do trust them, however anything could happen and they could stop paying into the account meaning me being screwed. If i don't set up a direct debit, how do you pay for certain things. I know stuff like Sky requires a direct debit - I currently pay this and get money off them and we use a prepaid card to pay gas (as we are on a meter)
 
I'm trying to work out how to do this at the moment too. We're moving into an 8 person house and while I want to er, control all the bills and the like as I know what I'm doing, I don't want to be responsible for issues regarding nonpayment with others.
 
Dont all do it from one person, im now owed almost £200 from my housemates and im fuming.

Either take a bill each and keep a spreadsheet of whats gone out and every month or 2 sort out everything gone out and split the payments but it depends how many of them there are
 
I think i will just end up getting an account in my name and have them set up standing orders.

The latter is too much to sort, spreadsheets, splitting payments etc.

A few years back i had a 'board of owe' one housemate owed me £650! I knew i wod get it though or i would have sold his car and all his stuff
 
When I was a student, I lived in a house with two other guys. We each took a bill (me Internet, one guy water bill and the other guy gas & electricity) and I always owed them more money each month than they owed me so they never had to pay me anything and I knew I would never get into trouble with them not paying me back. The guys were completely trustworthy though so we had no issues.
 
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