Is it possible for two people (husband and wife) sharing one current account?

Mrs OBumble

Sue Pa Key Pa wrote: »

Perhaps we're lucky in that money was never scarce (or overly plentiful I might add), so individual spending never had to be apportioned

And she is lucky that you aren't an assh*le. And vice versa.

But there are some right numbers out there of either gender, and if you're unlucky enough to fall in love with them it could be you in the homless shelter because they stripped the account and fecked off.

MarkR

Polo_Mint wrote: »

Myself and my partner have a our own BOI accounts as well as a Joint BOI account.

We both put a set amount into the Joint account to cover all bills and joint payments.

We both use our own accounts for what we do individually.

That's what we do too.

Electric Sheep

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

And she is lucky that you aren't an assh*le. And vice versa.

But there are some right numbers out there of either gender, and if you're unlucky enough to fall in love with them it could be you in the homless shelter because they stripped the account and fecked off.

And a man who knows his wife is financially independent and can afford to leave him if she want to will be less inclined to act the prick. A woman with her own money (or vice versa) will be less likely to take abuse when she knows she can walk.

I would never put my salary under someone else's control, even that of my husband, and I have been married for many many years.

seamus

seamus wrote: »

Children also changes things, a lot. We operated separate accounts until our first came along because we had no reason to change. Now I cannot imagine how you could run a household with children if you didn't have a joint account for all income.

I'm fully in agreement with having a joint account as I said we don't have one yet and keeping all recipients of who pays what and then working out who owes what to who is getting annoying so a joint account that both pay "x" amount into every month or when ever its running low on money etc is an easy way to sort it. But only for shared expenses and not all other banking day to day. Even with kids etc each could just transfer money into the joint account for household and kids expenses but operate out of their person a/c day to day for their own spending and personal bills (car expenses, phone, lunch, nights out etc).

Again it does come down to person preference though.

Electric Sheep wrote: »

I would never put my salary under someone else's control, even that of my husband, and I have been married for many many years.

I'd agree with this.

Ayuntamiento

This exact same thread came up just before Christmas (advantages/disadvantages of joint accounts). I believe after pages and pages of discussion (all following the same pattern as above), the conclusion arrived at was- every couple is different, do whatever suits your relationship.

Sue Pa Key Pa

Electric Sheep wrote: »

I would never put my salary under someone else's control, even that of my husband, and I have been married for many many years.

Put if one party brings in the money and the other is a homemaker, or works part-time, should the latter have to ask for money? Is that not a more severe control?

Electric Sheep

Sue Pa Key Pa wrote: »

Electric Sheep wrote: »

I would never put my salary under someone else's control, even that of my husband, and I have been married for many many years.

Put if one party brings in the money and the other is a homemaker, or works part-time, should the latter have to ask for money? Is that not a more severe control?

In that case I would arrange with my partner to transfer an agreed amount monthly to his personal account, in addition to the already agreed transfers to the joint account. I would still have my salary paid to my personal account.

ScottSF

My wife and I prefer joint accounts to simplify finances after being married for many years but of course every couple is different. It helps if either one of us needs to call the bank or go into a branch to deal with a problem as we are both authorized to make inquiries.

FYI with AIB...
I was told you cannot change an existing current account to be joint. So you'll have to open a new joint account if you want to merge finances and then redirect salary deposits and modify standing orders and automatic bill payments.
Also you cannot open up some of their savings account as joint. Their Online Saver cannot be joint and the Notice Savings can only be joint if you go into the branch (says so on AIB website). I believe these are more technical limitations and not related to what customers want or prefer.

Polo_Mint

As I said before but will expand is that a joint account is great when 2 people are working.

Myself and my OH totted up all bills which we both use:

TV
Gas
Rent
Petrol
Insurance
etc

If all this comes to €1800 a month we both put €1,000 onto the joint account.

If we are buying Furniture or appliances we also use the account with the extra few euro.

It leaves both of our own accounts to pay for what ever we like eg: My own mobile bill and everything else

Electric Sheep

Another advantage to having personal accounts in addition to a joint checking account is that I tend to be more aware of the balance and incoming/outgoing flow as I need to check to see that outgoings are covered, and transfer more if necessary.

Ayuntamiento

My personal opinion is that if a couple are able to happily operate a joint account as their ONLY account (all income deposited there, all outgoings coming from it), it tends to signify a very strong relationship with a well defined mutual outlook.
If you really can't trust your partner enough to share an account or you're sitting on the fence about it because you're worried it will all turn sour, it doesn't sound like you're 100% committed to the relationship.
Of course not everybody is in a relationship for the long haul so I can see why it doesn't suit lots of people.

Alun

I agree. We're married over 30 years now and have had a joint account only for all that time. It never even occurred to us to do otherwise to be honest, or that other couples did any differently.

Ayuntamiento

Alun wrote: »

I agree. We're married over 30 years now and have had a joint account only for all that time. It never even occurred to us to do otherwise to be honest, or that other couples did any differently.

Married 3yrs and totally agree so it's not even a generational thing! I don't understand the need to keep a separate account for your own disposable income spending.
I spend money on all kinds of crap (as does he) and we've never even discussed it, let alone argued about it.
If he wanted to spend a huge amount of money on something, like a guitar that costs 3k, he'd run it by me first and vice versa.
I think that's important because if you had 3k lying spare you'd have to ask yourselves as a couple whether a guitar is worth that amount when it might be better going into a mortgage overpayment, etc.
I think managing joint finances is a bit like strategic business management :pac:
Having said that, if either of us really wanted something, there'd be no objection because it genuinely makes me so happy to see him happy and vice versa.
I understand we sound like the Brady bunch but that's how it is.

okiss

My advice is to be carefull of join accounts.

1. If one person dies in a couple with a joint account. The account is frozen untill the legal details are sorted out. You could have a woman or man left with childen and bills to pay and no access to money.

2. Work out how much your bills are each month, the bills that have to be paid every 3 or 6 months or yearly. When you get this figure add €100 per month on top of it for each of you and lodge this money into a joint account. This account is used to pay bills and it has some extra money for any extra large bills ie the higher esb bill in jan ect.

3. Do not have a joint account that you pay both your salaries into each month. One of you could walk away with all the funds in this account and leave the other person with nothing.

4. I know a woman who split up with her husband a number of years ago. Everything was in joint names including what she saved with him over the years. She has to start to build up her own savings again. She had not as much as a bill in her name so even opening a basic bank account was hard.

Ayuntamiento

Ayuntamiento wrote: »

My personal opinion is that if a couple are able to happily operate a joint account as their ONLY account (all income deposited there, all outgoings coming from it), it tends to signify a very strong relationship with a well defined mutual outlook.
If you really can't trust your partner enough to share an account or you're sitting on the fence about it because you're worried it will all turn sour, it doesn't sound like you're 100% committed to the relationship.
Of course not everybody is in a relationship for the long haul so I can see why it doesn't suit lots of people.

I don't see how the a couple not wanting to operate a joint account as their main account could be looked on as a lack of trust or commitment as a definite.

Yes it may be the case but it also may not be. I just like looking after my own account, having full control over the in/outs from it etc and knowing where every euro goes. A joint account for shared stuff is fine but otherwise I see no reason not to operate out of your own account for stuff that's not shared. I would be the same with savings. I would keep the majority of savings separate also particular as people contribute different amounts to savings or have different amount of historic savings so its really only fair that they are not joint. One joint savings account that both contribute a portion of their overall savings to would be fine but not everything combined.

Electric Sheep

Antonella Cuddly Seal wrote: »

I don't see how the a couple not wanting to operate a joint account as their main account could be looked on as a lack of trust or commitment as a definite.

Plenty of people trusted their spouse until the day they woke up to find their accounts cleared out, whether through marriage breakdown or mental illness or gambling or any other reason that makes one partner decide they deserve all of the joint money.

Protecting your own financial security and that of any children should always be a priority. Circumstances change, and so do people.

In the long run, in case of marital breakdown, the assets will be split anyway, it is having access to funds in the short term that can be crucial.