Combining bank accounts

[Enema]

So how do you pay the mortage/rent or bills?

 

We split it up almost the same as carhill:

 

We both pay X towards the mortgage each month.

 

I pay electricity, water, rates, phone, cable, internet etc..

She pays for all the groceries. Works out fairrrrly even.

 

When we go out, I usually pay because I'm a lovely chap, but she will every once in a while too.

[Lauriebell82]

My wife and I have separate businesses and also have/had separate finances. I took care of the mortgage and other home-related expenses (utilities, taxes, insurance, etc) and she handled health care, food and sundries, clothing and entertainment. It worked out pretty well. We each handled our own auto-related expenses, since I had/have many more vehicles than she. I fixed everything but she bought her own parts.

 

Like I said upthread, YMMV. Your situation will be unique to you

 

That sounds like a good way to split things up with seperate accounts. I just do a lot of check writing right now, it's kind of a pain. And the other thing I noticed was that I don't know when he cashes it so I have to wait to see if/when it cashes in order to balance my checkbook. That's the only downside, which is why having a joint account would be so much easier for that.

 

I actually thought of another idea: I think we would be okay sitting down and working out the bills from his checking account. I thought about keeping my checking account and putting my share of the spending money into my current checking account, therefore we wouldn't have to constantly tallying up how much we are each spending in personal money. As long as I can have debit cards I'm happy!

 

The other thing I was curious about is that my fiance uses his credit card and pays it off at the end of the month. I use my debit card from my account and don't have a credit card. Any suggestions on how to spend?

[parrotlover]

My husband and I have our own seperate accounts. We have seperate credit cards and a couple together.

 

He pays ALL the bills. I use electronic transfer to just transfer over roughly half what I make. I purchase all the groceries. He pays all the other bills.

 

My husband makes roughly twice what I make.

 

He can log onto my checking account and transfer money to me and I can do the same thing from him (and we both have, with the other persons knowledge of course).

 

We purchased our first home together before we were even married. We got married 2 months after our home purchase, so our finances were VERY intertwined before our marriage.

[Star Gazer]

I will restate what I say in every single one of these threads. This obviously only works for couples where there are two incomes (I haven't worked out the details about how to handle accounts if one parent stays home).

 

For me, the key is separate AND a joint accounts.

 

The joint accounts (checking and savings) pay for joint things - joint bills, joint savings, joint vacations, etc. The couple each puts a percentage of their income into the joint accounts (a large majority, say, 75%). The amount put in will obviously vary depending on the individual's income level, but remains a set percentage.

 

The separate accounts pay for whatever the individual wants. The individual gets to keep what isn't put into the joint account (in this example, 25% of their income). This allows the individuals to have their own play money for whatever their sweet little heart desires that they don't have to answer to the other about, and allows for some privacy where gifts are concerned. Because it's a percentage of one's own salary, this also prevents one spouse from kinda mooching off of the other's salary, and instead encourages upward mobility of the individual to make more money to increase their own play money.

[Lauriebell82]

I will restate what I say in every single one of these threads. This obviously only works for couples where there are two incomes (I haven't worked out the details about how to handle accounts if one parent stays home).

 

For me, the key is separate AND a joint accounts.

 

The joint accounts (checking and savings) pay for joint things - joint bills, joint savings, joint vacations, etc. The couple each puts a percentage of their income into the joint accounts (a large majority, say, 75%). The amount put in will obviously vary depending on the individual's income level, but remains a set percentage.

 

The separate accounts pay for whatever the individual wants. The individual gets to keep what isn't put into the joint account (in this example, 25% of their income). This allows the individuals to have their own play money for whatever their sweet little heart desires that they don't have to answer to the other about, and allows for some privacy where gifts are concerned. Because it's a percentage of one's own salary, this also prevents one spouse from kinda mooching off of the other's salary, and instead encourages upward mobility of the individual to make more money to increase their own play money.

 

Yeah, thats a good idea, seperate play accounts. I was thinking of something similar like taking a set amount of play money for each person and put it in accounts for each person.

 

My fiance makes over twice what I make, but we have agreed that it's our money as a unit (both our salaries). So the percentage of salary thing is hard for us because of the huge discrepancies in salary.

[sb129]

The only thing that I would wonder is how you deal with personal spending. Like do you see everything your H buys and vice versa?

 

Yes, if I wanted to I could. We have a rough "set" amount each month that we are allowed to spend each. Recently that has been spent on more joint stuff though, like baby stuff and puppy stuff and things we do together.

 

We see everything the other buys. It's all there on the credit card bills, receipts, etc.

 

Likewise.

 

Is that ever a problem? Do you give each other like a set amount of spending money each month?

.

 

See above.

 

You can do automatic payments LB- much much better than cheques for so many reasons. (welcome to the 21st century honey!)

 

I actually like SGs suggestion better than what we actually do- the way we do it means there is no secrecy which means few surprises for gifts etc, however we agreed that while we were saving for a house, and now that we are having a baby (and I won't be working) it works better, because any joint surplus money will go towards helping out when I am on maternity leave.

 

Also, we decided to do the whole allowance thing but the reality of it is that at present we often end up spending that money on other stuff (baby, pets, eating out etc) so recently we have both curtailed our own personal spending.

 

The key thing for us is communication.

Neither of us are "denied" anything, but our circumstances at the moment dictate that we need the extra money more for things like baby/pet expenses than eating out and new clothes. (well for me at least, not much point going shopping here!)

 

We talk about our finances all the time and are very aware of whats going on, and we are both happy.

[JamesM]

I am with Touche on this one. After all these years of marriage, I think anything but having joint accounts would be difficult. When you separate the money, then it becomes a mine versus his/hers...instead of ours IMO.

 

One of the major reasons people divorce is over money. So, it is best IMO if all money issues are open.

 

If each of you cannot budget play money for the other, then there are bigger issues than simply having money in the same account. Having said that, "demanding" play money when there is no money available indicates another problem.

 

Hopefully, the two of you can discuss these issues openly with each other. What works best for you is what is best. Remember, it is a partnership....not simply two people who room together. And you may find as we did..what you do now may change as you learn about each other. Do not be afraid of change.

[SpanksTheMonkey]

I guess after marriage its all fair game but I wouldn't if it were just a partnership I'm still on a old joint with my ex cant get my name off it with out his permission and he cant kick me off with out mine its a stale mate so far lol...

[Lauriebell82]

So I spoke with fiance last night and he seemed surprised at my suggestion. he saw i was a little nervous before bringing it up and he thought I was going to suggest that he sell his motorcycle. lol

[Woggle]

My wife and I have our own accounts and it works for us. Neither one of likes being bossed around and told what to do with our money so this is the best way. As long as we both contribute our half to the bills and expenses we don't question each other about how we spend our money.

[Lauriebell82]

So my fiance and I talked and he was surprised by my session and said that it might be more fun to combine bank accounts when we are married lol. Im not sure how that is fun but ohwell. He did agree though but asked if I would care if my money went to pay off his car. I said I didnt care because we would do it eventually anyway when we get married. We could actually pay it off sooner. We are also going to do what Touche and her H do by just spending money out of our bank account even on personal stuff. Neither of us are huge spenders so it should probably work out.

[sb129]

The other advantage to that is when you come to buy a house and have children, all those expenses will be automatically covered jointly.

[Lauriebell82]

The other advantage to that is when you come to buy a house and have children, all those expenses will be automatically covered jointly.

 

Yeah it would just be so much easier. It would cut out the "okay who is paying, oh well it doesn't matter, somebody can just do it." Or I break out the disney checks.

[sb129]

Agreed. You can't just "combine accounts" without having a good discussion about what is going to happen with the money once its in there.

 

You probably need to do some kind of budgeting until you get into the swing of things and can track exactly where your money is going etc.

[Lauriebell82]

Just make sure you're really on the same page regarding personal spending before you do this, or it won't work for you guys.

 

We don't ask each other permission or "boss each other around" as another poster mentioned. Not at all...no need since we're already on the same page about our spending.

 

LB, you did once mention that he's more conservative than you are regarding spending. It kind of surprises me now that he is asking you to pay his car payment but anyway...yeah, make sure you're in total agreement before you do this.

 

We said the same thing about the spending, like if we want something we go buy it (unless it's very expensive of course).

 

He used to be VERY conservative (nicer word for cheap lol) but he has loosened up a ton. We both have more money because we share the expenses so maybe it s that he can afford to buy more things for himself.

We do spend the same amount, neither of us really go on a spending spree. He buys orks off the internet and I buy books.

 

Since he is in more debt than me (I'm actually in no debt at all) I know that I will be helping to pay off his stuff (loans, car payment). He is not even in that much with school loans because he got so many scholarships and grants that he didn't have to take out all that much in loans. His degree gave him a lot of earning power though, so paying off the school loans are worth it. Its pretty rare to find someone with no school loans like me anyway.

 

Anyway, I'm okay with paying his debt, I expected to do that since we are getting married.

[Lauriebell82]

Agreed. You can't just "combine accounts" without having a good discussion about what is going to happen with the money once its in there.

 

You probably need to do some kind of budgeting until you get into the swing of things and can track exactly where your money is going etc.

 

He actually already keeps track of all our/his bills in a spreadsheet so it will be easy to set up a budget from both of our salaries.

[sb129]

Well he earns more than you do anyway so that evens it out.

 

I pay my student loan debt out of my business account, just makes it easier to keep that separate. Having said that, WB is going back to school next year to do a part time grad programme and we will be paying for that upfront.

 

Swings and roundabouts LB, swings and roundabouts.

[Lauriebell82]

Well he earns more than you do anyway so that evens it out.

 

I pay my student loan debt out of my business account, just makes it easier to keep that separate. Having said that, WB is going back to school next year to do a part time grad programme and we will be paying for that upfront.

 

Swings and roundabouts LB, swings and roundabouts.

 

Yeah we probably come out with the same amount of money at the end of the month even though he makes so much more than I do. He makes enough to support us both so most of my salary will go to savings probably.

[Lauriebell82]

Good idea.

 

 

 

Yep, I had to help pay off stuff for Mr. T since his ex kind of wiped him out and I had no debt and had savings when we met.

 

It's good that you're doing that spreadsheet.

 

And ahaha about the conservative thing being another word for cheap. But not really, LB. We don't really deny ourselves much. We've taken 7 or 8 cruises, gone to Europe, bought 2 RV's, etc. etc. I mean we're not cheap. But we're very conservative and discriminating in how we spend our money. For example, we don't buy new cars every 3 or 4 years like so many people do. We feel that's just throwing good money after bad as a car just depreciates the minute you drive it off the lot. My car looks fine and has only 42,000 miles and is 13 years old! Mr. T's is 8 years old..not sure on the mileage but it's more than mine. We keep them up though. And we have no car payments.

 

All that to say that we're not cheap, just picky about where our money goes.

 

Anyway, sounds like you're figuring out what works best for both of you.

 

Okay, now can I get put on my fiance's checking account or do we have to open a "joint checking and savings account"? That's what my fiance says we have to do which means we will need to change all of our bills.

[sb129]

You should be able to be put on your fiances checking account- thats what H and I did when we came back to NZ as he didn't have a bank account here anymore but I had kept mine open. It took all of 5 minutes to do we just had to take some ID into the bank branch.

(To be fair, banking in NZ is very easy, and very up to date technologically because lots of banking systems get tested here first due to the small population. Nobody uses cheques anymore! Things in the UK were much harder to get done efficiently, and I have no idea what its like in the US.)

[Lauriebell82]

I'm not sure about that. You have to ask the bank..unless someone knows. It's been too long for me to remember how we did that.

 

As for the bills...why do you have to change all the bills? Some of our bills are in my name and some his...like all of our insurance is in my name and so is our Direct TV bill and some other stuff, other things are in Mr. T's name. I don't see why you'd have to put all those things in both your names. Sounds like a big hassle for no real reason if you ask me. But maybe there's some reason to do that that I'm not seeing.

 

No they can stay under his name, what I meant was that all the bills are taken out of his checking account automatically every month. So we would have to change all the checking account info on all the bills and set up new automatic payments if we were to open a new checking account.

[sb129]

PS- agree with Touche about the bills, they don't have to change, esp if the bank account number they are being paid from remains the same.

We have bills in one name/the other name/ both names/ my married name/ my maiden name and they all get paid from the same account.

[sb129]

If its the same as here, things get updated automatically, so you don't have to do anything other than change the account into joint names. Go into your local bank branch and ask them, I can't see how it would be any more difficult than it was when we did it.

You may both need to go in person though, and take some valid ID.

[Lauriebell82]

You should be able to be put on your fiances checking account- thats what H and I did when we came back to NZ as he didn't have a bank account here anymore but I had kept mine open. It took all of 5 minutes to do we just had to take some ID into the bank branch.

(To be fair, banking in NZ is very easy, and very up to date technologically because lots of banking systems get tested here first due to the small population. Nobody uses cheques anymore! Things in the UK were much harder to get done efficiently, and I have no idea what its like in the US.)

 

It's spelled "checks!" (lol j/k)

 

Nobody actually goes to take money out of the bank, it's mainly just the ATM. I don't carry cash ever so I use my debit card religiously. I can get a debit card on his account too which is good because I would miss it so much!

 

I haven't tried to change any bank account info so I don't know what it's like here. We will find out this weekend I guess!

[Lauriebell82]

If its the same as here, things get updated automatically, so you don't have to do anything other than change the account into joint names. Go into your local bank branch and ask them, I can't see how it would be any more difficult than it was when we did it.

You may both need to go in person though, and take some valid ID.

 

What we think we will have to do is tell the bank to close my checking account and transfer all my money into his account. Then we will put my name on the account and order new checks with my name on it and a debit card for me. Hopefully that is all we will have to do.