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Yikes, this sounds like a really good question for your bank (one that you trust... banks are scuzzy). That being said, I would deposit half the checks into a savings account and half into a checking account that you can use to buy things off your registry. Don't want incur those penalty charges for withdrawing too much out of your savins account!
You should definitely check with the individual banks, but my bank told me that if I got checks in my "married name" (which doesn't really exist since I'm not changing my name), I could sign them Real Name a/k/a Married Name. Depending on your bank's rules, you might be able to deposit those checks before your get your name changed.
Just make sure you look at any minimum balance requirements. I skipped that and was litrally a couple bucks under in my savings one month after buying a car and they charged me for it!! Also, look at overdraft charges JUST IN CASE!! Now, I know you are a responsible person right, but crap happens... I was in the midst of switching to a new acct with my FH and a payment I had on prepay decided to debit from my acct a few days earlier than normal... I was planning on puttin a little in there to cover it before it came out...opps... and I didn't know it was overdrawn until I got a notice in the mail with not only the one time fee, but if it were to stay negative for more than 4 CALENDAR DAYS they would charge like $8/ DAY... I find that to be a little excessive with I have been in good standing the life of the account for about 6 years now....
Just READ the FINE PRINT!
I didn't change my name with my old bank but they let me cash the checks with my married name on it. Honestly, I'm not sure how much they actually check those things or who signs the checks even. You might want to check with your bank to be sure, but mine was a local credit union and they were fine with it.
Not sure if you are looking for the highest interest rates but you can find those on bankrate.com. The only problem with non local banks is that it is hard to deposit checks unless you mail them in. We have a combination of a local bank account for deposits and an online bank for savings.
What about the Electric Orange Account from ING Direct? That way you can draw interest AND use it to buy things together. You'd have to each get debit cards, though, as you can't really write a paper check on the spot. It has a higher interest rate than most brick&mortar bank standard savings accounts, too.
My best advice is to go through a Mutual Bank or Credit Union. These financial institutions tend to be much more customer oriented and have better rates than the super banks (because as organizations they are owned by their accountholders). In my experience it is much easier to work with these types of banks when you have a unique situation. I work for a Mutual Bank and hear about people's terrible experiences with the "big banks" all the time!
I've been told credit unions are the best idea. I'm starting to research bank stuff too right now. I'm going to go onto my fiance's account but I'm still keeping an account at my bank for work-related (self-employed so must deal w/ own deductions from paychecks). I was asking at my bank about it yesterday and the teller had no idea what I needed to do for changing my name. I want to change my name to his, but for work/school everything is in mine, not sure how to handle it. Plus, my dad only had daughters, so I don't want my last name to totally disappear that way either :( Oh well, I need to decide soon! yikes.
Here is what we did:
We deposited the cash gifts into our ING savings account (1.3% interest). When we want to buy something jointly as a kind of wedding expense (example, finish getting our china) we use our credit card. Then we innitiate a transfer from ING to one of our checking accts, and use that account to pay the balance on the credit card. Doing this we 1) gain interest on the cash gifts that we couldn't get at a brick and mortar bank, 2) get points on our rewards card by putting the charge there first, and 3) maintain credit history.
Its real important to pay the credit card bill off everytime though. If you don't, the amount of interest they will charge you for carrying a balance far out weighs the benefits of that small amount of interest gained at ING.
We have different last names, and some of the checks were made out to me and him with only his last name. This has not caused us a single problem. On ING you each have to do a credit check and identity verification to open a joint checking or savings account, but its pretty simple. If you want to be able to write checks I think you will have to stick with brick and mortar banks.
We have had pretty good experience with ING. The interest rate isn't the highest out there, but its definitely better than at our local bank where a savings account will gain you .3% and you have to maintain a $250 balance. ING minimum is $1.
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With the wedding checks we've received we'd like to open a joint checking/savings account until we finish getting ourselves together and figure out what else we need. I guess I'd a bit prefer a savings account so we can get the small bit of interest as we're a bit slow moving and have our own checking accounts we can draw from to buy gifts. Any advice or good experience with banks, interest rates, etc in opening one together. I'm also in the awkard position of having mixed last names, some people writing things out to my maiden name, some to my married name, and I've made no attempt to officially change my maiden name except on fb.