Joint bank accounts

[Priapus]

Anyone have a joint account with their partner?

Trying to figure out if, it would be better than running the house on two separate bank accounts between my misses and I. And we split bills by % of salary - like we've done for a long time now. However with the recent changes and the move etc, we are now wondering if a joint account would make things easier.

How do you split up the finances and do you still keep a solo account? And who is your joint account with if you have one.

 

[Priapus]

Thanks all, seems super common thing to do.

I've just opened up a Monzo account and the misses is doing the same and then will open up a joint account with them to get the ball rolling. Decided on a 60/40 split as I earn more than she does by a fair margin so, seems fair I should pay a higher %.

Will then move all DD and bills to come out of that account and give it a trial run for a few months. Seems like it would make managing things much easier for the bills.

Not sure what we will do with our savings though. We have a few thousand in each personal account that we consider "ours". Might move that to the joint account too, if there is a separate "pot" there for it - will see how it works once the misses is done opening her Monzo account.

 

[Priapus]

Yeah I pay 1100 and she pays 900 due to salary differences.
That does cover basically everything we share including car insurance/petrol.

Expect we'll have to increase that now with more expensive energy bills.

We do not have joint savings

Our childcare cost is set to reduce by a few hundred £ starting in Jan, so that means we each get an extra hundred or so per month to do with whatever.

Octopus is being weird with my account. It’s in credit and I owe them but they have not debited the owed amount yet. So will keep paying them the same DD amount for now but it might reduce soon

 

[Priapus]

When child care costs vanish it must feel like getting a huge pay rise! I can't imagine my sister is looking forward to that Bill coming!

Definitely will feel that way for sure. Not long to go before our son will start reception. In 2026. But the childcare bill will be sub £400 by then (currently £800)

 

[Priapus]

We each have individual accounts but we have a Monzo joint account that all bills come out of and we pay into each month

Yeah, that’s what we are going to try doing from next month.

I think it depends on how good you, or your partner, are with money and also how long you've been together (trust and knowing somebody well). With my ex, she was very good with money so easy no brainer to just lump all in and have one joint account. She earned less than me but after the bills came out we budgeted for the month and if we had anything spare and we wanted something for ourselves, we'd just ask each other. I had no issue in knowing that most of that spare money was mine. If you or the other person aren't the most responsible then yep, keep what is left seperate.

We’ve known each over for over 20 years. Been together for 8. So trust isn’t an issue but it’s a fair point. There was a post on these forums when someone emptied out a joint account.

 

[Priapus]

It's an interesting point to be made about just "Our" money into the house and joint account.
It might be worth exploring the idea more that all monies goes into the one account and all comes out of it, including spending on ourselves etc. I've just had my own account and control over my own money for far too long. But since moving to the UK this year, for some reason I am more open to the idea of joint account.

Still waiting for the misses to setup her account on Monzo. She didn't want to do it last night because "I need to do my hair before I do that stupid video to sign up on Monzo" - Told her no one is looking at the video lol

If we were to put all monies into the joint account. Then how do we manage larger purchases? For example, say I want to buy a MTB (I do) which is £950. Wouldn't be fair as then she'd not have enough funds to spend that much if she wanted to.

I think it will have to be a trial and error approach. As mentioned we are starting off with just switching all bills to the new account for now and putting some monies in there from our salary and seeing how it goes.

Then we might move our savings into there as well - but not sure if Monzo provides a separate "pot" for that in the joint account- will have to see. If they do, that'd be really helpful.

 

[Priapus]

I think a good way is to not put all your salary in. Keep some back into personal account/savings. When that's built up, spend it on your MTB.

This is the way we do it. If I want to buy a new part for PC, then it comes out my savings, wife hasn't contributed to it. Similarly, when she spends 100's at the hair salon, I'm not contributing to it either.

You could argue technically we are contributing to it, since we're a family unit, but it feels like it's just personal spends.
As long as we both put enough into the joint account to cover all joint expenditure, then that works fine for us.

Yeah that seems sensible and the approach we will start out with. We spoke about it last night and agreed on that approach to see how it goes. She’s very indifferent to either approach though.