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We both had seperate accounts before getting married. Since I loved the BoA website, online banking etc - and since I take care of most of the finances - we just closed his account, and made my account into a joint account. (I've been with BoA since way back and thru many bank mergers. Something - Something - Nations Bank - Bank of America)
For me I love the national banks - they usually have far superior websites and online banking options than the local banks. That's a big deal to me. Local banks can be better to work with if you're starting a business or need a loan - but we don't have those needs. Also credit unions are good for loans. I had an account with my college credit union for a long time and had my car loan through them - but finally got so fed up with their online banking that I closed the account.
Also with BoA - I can pretty much gaurantee no matter where I travel in the states I can find an ATM. I love that. I WILL NOT pay the service charges!
we opened one about 8 months before our wedding, when wedding expenses started rolling in, and we both put equal amounts into it monthly. we used to split everything anyway, but it was still weird at first to share cash. id suggest somewhere where you earn interest (like ING direct) which is what we use. problem with that is you must mail in checks to be deposited & everything is online so you must be comfortable w that. if you travel a lot, id stick w national chains like bank of america or if youre more of a regional traveler (west coast vs east, etc) a regional chain would be just as good, plus you might get better customer service. it really depends on where you live, but td banknorth is really great for no atm fees ANYWHERE but i think it may be a regional perk.
BofA is great - even internationally - and you get can a nice rate of exchange buying foreign money before a trip. We will definately have a joint account, as I am going to be responsible for making sure the bills get paid. He has money, he just isn't very responsible about getting things paid on time, so I will be responsible. And online is the way to go - bank from anywhere, anytime, schedule payments in advance right when you get the bill - makes it very easy to get everything paid on time even if you travel a lot and hardly ever get to the post office. That said, we haven't even discussed what bank or how much or when. Knowing him, he's just waiting for me to set it up and tell him where to put the money. I guess I'd better do that.
We did what piperbenjamin did and opened up a joint account when we got engaged to use for wedding expenses. We both thre any extra money each moneth after paying bills into the joint account.
We kept our individual primary accounts open, for our payroll direct deposit and for paying our individual bills. But we added each other's names to our primary accounts, as we trusted each other enough to give the other access just in case the other needed to transfer money for whatever reason.
After the wedding, the joint account became our primary account and we closed our individuals and just operate out of one account now.
We love BofA. Online banking is fantastic, there are ATMs everywhere. If you can't find an ATM, you can always use your Visa checkcard at a POS for no fee (I run into a CVS or market, buy a pack of gum and get cash back that way).
we opened our account before the wedding, but held off odering checks. the bank could not preprint my new name until it was legal. this was for a local bank.
We opened a joint account shortly after we moved in together, about 8 months before the wedding. But we also kept our individual accounts. Luckily, we both banked at the same local bank. Small towns banks have their advantages when you used to babysit the bank president's kids.
We both work on commission so we sat down and really talked about how we are going to handle finances. Deal was a 60-20-20 split. 60% of each check goes into the joint account and this is used to pay the mortgage, utilities, groceries, maintenance, and other "joint" issues. 20% of each check goes into savings. 20% of each check is ours to spend how we want. Neither of us can get mad at how much we spend on our hobbies and if we want spending money for ourselves, it means we have to close some sales. It also helps since our months may vary, neither one of us feels like they are supporting the other. And we do the same split, regardless if the check is $500 or $5000 to keep it fair.
It's worked very well so far. Since we are financing the wedding ourselves, we haven't been transferring the money to the online savings account (they make more than any local / national bank does) in order to pay for deposits, etc. After the wedding is done, we'll go back to putting money into savings to pay for the bigger house!!
I pay the bills just to make sure they are paid on time!! He's not really good about that. More important than anything is to talk about it. How many times do you hear about finances being the primary cause of a relationship ending??
We've had one for 5 years (3 years after we started our relationship) from BOFA and love it because we both have individual BOFA accounts so it has allowed us to transfer money easily for whoever needs to pay for wedding related stuff.
SoontoBEEMrs,
We love Bank of America; I can't stand Wells Fargo. We also got a joint checking account after we got married.
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We are planning on opening one after the wedding. It will be our primary account, but we each want to maintain our individual accounts. We will probably go with PNC Bank just because there is one next door and that's who our other accounts are with.
Thanks ladies for all your advice! I think my FI and I are going to go to BofA this weekend and all your thoughts helped a lot! Thanks!
we opened a joint money market account (MMA) once we started living together. the purpose was to save some $$ for a wedding in the future. so we had been saving for about 8 months before we got engaged. we chose a MMA because of the higher interest they offered and its really condusive to saving since it takes longer to transfer money out. this account has and will continue to be primarily a savings account so we dont take out money for day to day stuff.
once we're married we'll likely keep the MMA as our primary savings acct. hopefully interest rates will go up.... also we'll probably open up a joint checking account to pay for common expenses. we'll putt in a couple hundred $$ a month each and we'll use that for things like utilities, groceries, etc. his paycheck will go towards the joint checking acct for these expsenses while the rest of it will pay down the mortgage. i'll put in $$ in the joint checking acct, pay utilities and put the rest in the MMA.
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I was just curious if anyone opened a joint checking account after you got married or before, an which bank you found to have the best options? Did you get any perks?