MemberWe have a checking account and 2 savings accounts together. One savings account is a high interest “piggy bank” style account at another back, that’s money we aren’t touching. The other is just a normal plain jane savings account with the same bank as our checking account. Both our paychecks are deposited into the checking account, then most of mine is transferred to the piggy bank account.
MemberWe just have one joint account that we keep savings in and money for bills. This is because of the interest rate and the more money you have, the more interest you earn.
I have my own account where I do the same thing, keep money for personal savings and money for spending because it’s got a good interest rate.
My husband has a personal account too, but not sure if it’s just one or one for savings and one for spending.
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MemberTo be honest, even though it does not matter whatsoever which account we pull from because I feel like I’m always transferring, rearranging etc…- I like knowing what is actually my income and what I’ve saved/spent.
Especially after moving in and then marriage… All the money lines are blurry. If I have something due personally and didn’t budget then he pays it. If he wants something personal and hasn’t gotten paid, the “house” or I get it. It truly doesn’t matter and nobody keeps score.
Even if you do combine everything, just discuss certain expectations you may have. Right now, we are trying to pay off bills so anytging not necessary or splurged is at least mentioned/discussed with one another.
MemberI’ll say though, between the two of us it feels like we have a MILLION differetn accounts! Between 401ks, IRAs, HSAs, bank accounts, RRSPs…yeesh! Good problem to have I guess.
MemberWe have one joint checking account and one joint savings account. We each have our own CCs which we pay from the joint account. I also have a checking account at BoA because I get a 10% bonus on my cash back if its deposited into a BoA account (our joint accts are not).
For us this works because we do all our spending on the credit cards, so he can’t scrutinize my daily spending nor I his. If we have major purchases (>$250ish) we touch base beforehand as a courtesy.
Memberwe have our everyday account that our pays go into. This normally sits on around $200
we have our credit card
we have an offset account (offset against our home loan that saves us money off interest) this is where ALL of our money sits except for about $200 in the everyday account
we have our home loan split into 4 accounts each with different interest rates.
also, our credit card is on a zero percent rate for 12 months and we have it maxed out. we do however have all of the money to pay it off sitting in our offset account.
we used to have another account for bills but since we have the offset we put money aside in there to cover our bills. We also have a set amount we get out every week to cover our pets and our weekly allowance. We also have an allowance for groceries and any left over also gets set aside.
so obviously that’s more detail than just how many accounts but I am very much into working out the best way for us to save/pay off our home loan and it works really well for us. good luck!
MemberWe have one account and put all our money in there. I wouldn’t want the hassle of keeping track of multiple accounts. I get that it works for some people though. I do like that combining our money makes us talk to each other about big purchases, not getting permission, just making sure bills are paid, we have necessities covered, no auto payments coming out, etc. We then talk about do we really need the thing one of us wants to buy, are there cheaper ways of getting it, alternatives one person hasn’t thought about, etc. Combining everything works for us but I know it doesn’t for everyone.
MemberLet’s see…
3 banks.
Bank 1: DH has 1 checking account
Bank 2: DH has 1 savings account
Bank 3: I have 1 checking and 1 savings account; DH has 1 checking account; we have 1 joint savings account.
Edit to add: Both DH and I have access to all accounts at bank 3, so technically, they are all joint accounts
Bank 3 serves as my primary bank and we have our mortgage through this bank. Ideally, DH will eventually eliminate bank 1 (his original bank) and consolidate to bank 3.
Bank 2 is an online savings account with a higher interest rate. I just need him to add me to it.
inky_1.
MemberWait, wait, wait. Don’t close the oldest account you have. Keeping it open makes your credit history longer, which is good for your credit score. I keep mine open with $200 in it just for that purpose.
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MemberWe have a joint checking big and savings where bills are paid from and we pay into our savings every month. I have a ckecking and savings at another bank there I have some money that i use occasionally (Apple ipay doesn’t work with our joint account bank so my other account is linked) and my daughter has a checking that is also linked to that account so when I need to help her I just transfer. I love having him in charge of our bills- he is a meticulous quicken user whereas I always rounded up when balancing my accounts. This seems to work for us!
MemberThank you everyone! We have decided to go with two accounts but both our names on them both.
MemberWe also each have older cards in only our names and a second joint card. None of those are in use though. We keep the older cards open just for credit history purposes (and because there’s no annual fee or anything) and the joint card was offered free with a credit union account we opened before we moved to a different state, it’s our emergency back-up card when we travel (for if we couldn’t access our savings account or something from a foreign country) Oddly enough, we’ve never used it but they send us a letter about once a year raising our credit limit on that card because we’re “such good customers”
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