Joint account for mortgage- norm

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bish123

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Married for last 15 years but Mrs and me never had a joint account. We have joint mortgage that comes from my personal account and she pays into my account by direct debit at the moment. I also have another personal account which is basically salary account. We are using all these accounts for shopping, paying bills, insurances etc. which is working fine but sometimes difficult to manage budget.

So the plan is to close one of my personal accounts and instead open a joint account for mortgage, bills, grocery shopping etc. Will appreciate if someone can share their experience of managing joint account specially pros/ cons and what do they generally use joint account for ?
 
Seems like a bit of a strange question to me - do you not trust the missus or something? Or yourself?
What "experience" is really of relevance here - you use the joint account to pay for the stuff that you mention.
And trust that neither of you will clear it out.
 
We had separate current accounts for years and only got around to getting a joint current account when I took 6 months unpaid leave and separate accounts would have been messier.

We both have a very similar attitude to spending / saving and a similar income so we have never had any disputes about money which makes any joint financial planning easy.

The joint account makes day to day spending very easy once you have both agreed on a plan for saving etc. and both stick to it.

The only con is that you have no financial privacy what so ever. We both have credit cards and CC bills are private to give us a bit of privacy ( occasional blow out purchases, presents for each other etc.)
 
All bills for year calculated/estimated and paid from joint account - house, children's expenses, car taxes, insurances, shopping and savings.
Salaries paid into our own personal accounts and we transfer to joint so each left with same amount. If one gets a salary increase, split adjusted so both benefit.
Money left in our own accounts can be spent or saved as we wish. Works for us but downside is running 3 current accounts. Free fees on joint as mortgage taken from that account.
 
ClubMan said:
Seems like a bit of a strange question to me - do you not trust the missus or something? Or yourself?
What "experience" is really of relevance here - you use the joint account to pay for the stuff that you mention.
And trust that neither of you will clear it out.
Click to expand...
It wasn't about trust but practical tips to manage joint account.
 
Thanks everyone for sharing their experience. Can we get two debit cards for grocery ? Also is there specific requirement to use it online
 
yes, you get a debit card each . We both have a separate login to the PTSB online banking . When I login , I can see the details of the joint current account, our joint savings account and a savings account which is in my name only . Similarly , he sees joint accounts and his personal savings account only
 
Me and Mrs have joint ac for all household bills, mortgage repayments, shopping, pharmacist/meds, kids clothes etc.

We each pay a fixed amount each of €X per month into it by direct debit to cover all the above. Children’s allowance gets paid into this account.

Works well. We top up as necessary. Two cards on the account.

We each have our own separate personal current accounts to which our salaries are paid.

We also have a separate joint savings account which is supplied by monthly direct debit by each of us equally.
 
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I agree, a great question, and a topic often ignored.

people do things in very different ways, and this one is particularly sensitive.

This is what we do:

We both pay our full nett pay, into a joint account, all payments we receive goes in here, including Childrens Allowance.

Out of that account, we pay, all household bills, mortgage,health insurance, car & house insurance, motor tax, sim free phone bills, car servicing etc, all flights, hotels and meals out, drinks out - (where we both attend). We no longer have any seperate car fuel costs, as we recently both got Electric Cars, that just goes onto the electricity bill.

From that main joint account account, we are both paid a fixed amount each week, and we each split the weekly shopping bill from those funds, if we go out seperately, or buy something for ourselves, we pay for that ourselves.

So, we have our own funds, to spend, as we like, but all funds go into joint account.
We’ve been doing this for more than 10 years. Prior to that, we were transferring a fixed amount each into a joint account, that became problematic, when incomes varied, as we both have gone ahead or behind the other at various times over the years. The current setup, is all nett pay and any other payments go into main joint account, and almost everything is paid for out of that, except whatever we do individually.

The main joint account has built up, and as we have both lost our jobs on different occasions, we simply reduced the amount paid out to us individually, when that happened, cut our cloth, so to speak.

It brings a lot of certainty, and a sense of fairness & trust, and has become easier to manage some “income shocks”, which has happened a few times.

The system, is not for everyone, but works for us.
 
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We have a joint account. Both salaries used to go in. Some money was then diverted to savings accounts. Everything came out of that account. Usually discuss purchases over a few hundred euro with each other (and often less than that). Both had debit and credit cards. Worked well for us. Never a problem as neither of us is a big spender and we both trust each other to not take the piss.

Have since opened an account in another bank. Partner doesn't want the hassle of switching so only my salary goes to the new bank (for better rates and charges). Someday I'll convince her to close the old account...
 
bish123 said:
So the plan is to close one of my personal accounts and instead open a joint account for mortgage, bills, grocery shopping etc. Will appreciate if someone can share their experience of managing joint account specially pros/ cons and what do they generally use joint account for ?
Click to expand...

We've had a joint account for 7/8 years now since before we were married and it's so much easier than what we used to do (which is what you have described).

Very simple now, all bills, groceries, household items, diesel, eating out (together) are paid from the joint account. We are fairly consistent on how much we spend every month so we each have a standing order set up from our own personal accounts. We've kept the split 50:50 despite a small difference in incomes but we are not ones to worry about that. It all works itself out in the end.

Larger ticket items we usually use our own credit cards and then pay it through the joint account. Saves the hassle of going through each card to see who paid for what. We just add an extra bit to the joint account and clear the cards for anything shared like hotels, flights etc

We've kept our own accounts as well so whatever is left over in those is for whatever savings/spending we choose to do ourselves.
 
Joint account works very well for us. Joint account with KBC. We both get our salaries paid into it and have a standing order set up to pay us both a weekly 'allowance' based on our salaries, i.e. my wife gets a little bit more as she earns more. This allowance is quite small as every joint cost comes out of the joint account. This gets paid into our own personal accounts, both N26 at the moment.

Mortgage, bills, groceries and everything car/house/baby related comes out of it.

We're able to over pay mortgage, save €1k a month and have a good surplus build up in the joint account. We were able to absorb quite significant car repair costs (€2k+) from the joint account without having to borrow or use savings.

Should be no financial secrets between spouses in my opinion.

Edit: Actually we use my KBC credit card as a joint account too. That usually takes the brunt of the spending and we clear it every couple of weeks from the joint account.
 
Around here, everything that comes in goes into the one joint pot, everything that goes out leaves from the same joint pot.

Doesn't matter who earns or spends whatever, a team effort in many ways not just money.
 
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