Bank accounts. Yours mine and ours?

[dynomitegurl]

We have already decided that once we get married...in Nov. we will have a joint account.actually pretty much when he moves here in October we will get one together

[Zephii]

We have too many accounts lol.

I have three accounts back home, and my own account here. He has two accounts here. And then we have a joint account just for saving for our house. Other things we save for separately.

I like having my own so that if I want to do something for him seeing the bank record doesn't wreak the surprise and so that I feel less guilt when buying things for myself. (Which I do only rarely anyway.)
When it comes time for him to support me financially, I'll ask for an allowance, so I still have "my" money. It's an independence thing for me.

I still think of his money and my money as "ours" though, and we still discuss our finances in detail so we know where we stand. It's still our money, so we both have to be responsible about the share that's under our individual controls. We're both savers though, so that helps.

[Silviar]

We will have a joint account once we're together and married, but we currently plan to also have a separate account so we each have some money for surprises and whatnot. However, we will each know how much money is going where because we will do our budget together every month. Money is the number one cause of divorce, and it was important to me that we both know where our money is going (even if it's just into the other's account for present money or whatever).

[Mio]

We have a joint account, for us is not a problem at all.

[Élan]

He and I shared a bank account before and I wasn't a huge fan. Ultimately, it just felt like my money was in his account. In the future, I think we'll work it out the way my parents do: One joint account which I take care of because I am so overly frugal (I hate to spend money!), and one account for him so he can enjoying spending without feeling guilty.

[nicole]

we discussed this the other day when one of my SO's friends told him what he and his fiance do- they have 4 accounts: one for day to day, one for the mortage, one for vacations and one for savings for the future/ rainy day. On one side I think that is a good idea, but on the other I think I would want my own account. I told him my parents each have their own account and one joint one, which I thought was the norm, but he told me, most people just have a joint account when they are married.

I think I prefer to have my own account though, I'd be too worried to take money out of the joint. I think that is partially because I have a joined account now with my dad, and he goes ballistic everytime I take money out of there, even though I always tell him beforehand that I have rent/tuition payment due. I know my SO would never do that, but I'd still be nervous =/

[Tanja]

I don't want joint accounts unless it's for bills and mortgage, other than that I want them to be separate so I can just spend my money on whatever I want and not feel guilty about it. The same goes for him.

[Casey]

When my partner and I were living together before he moved, we set up a joint account when we decided we wanted to live together to save up some money together. Once we actually moved out we used the joint account to pay rent, electricity and any joint bills. We kept our own seperate accounts as well which our pay went in and we used that for our individual bills and our own spending. We only really put money in our joint account to save together and pay bills, so we both put the exactly the same money in so save any fights when one earnt more than the other. I will still maintain our seperate accounts (and joint account) at least until we are married. I think before that, it could create fights. Thats not to say if one of us was broke one week, the other one wouldn't help them out, we just didn't share all our money, that way we were still motivated to work as much as possible etc...

[ErinKristine]

Once we're married we'll just have one bank account, right now I have a checking and savings, he has a checking and savings and we have a joint savings account we both put money in to put towards visits to see each other (his parents put money in it too!).

[Casey]

I just thought I would bring up this old forum, as we are about to close the distance and are trying to sort out accounts. I think we are going to have:

1. A joint savings account
2. A joint bills account (for all of our bills, both joint and personal)
3. A joint spendings account (for groceries etc)
4. My account ($100-150 week allowance for personal expenses such as fuel)
5. His account ($100-150 week allowance for personal expenses such as fuel)

He isn't 100% convinced on accounts #4 and #5, but I think we might need them.
I also think we might need #6 account purely for our pays to go into, so it can get divided between accounts.

[Zephii]

That seems like a lot of accounts... especially if they all have bank fees.

[lucybelle]

I think we're going to have two:

#1= mine
#2= his

I'm not ready to share my money like that... does that sound bad?

[Zephii]

I think we're going to have two:

#1= mine
#2= his

I'm not ready to share my money like that... does that sound bad?

Not at all Though eventually after living together a while you'll probably find your finances are pretty much merged anyway.

[dynomitegurl]

We have joint checking and savings and he is in the process of moving a large portion of his money from his account in Ireland to ours. I thought he would have a tough time merging our money since he acted like he might but now he is getting better at the whole "our" money..."our" everything :P

[Casey]

That seems like a lot of accounts... especially if they all have bank fees.

We both have like 4 accounts each at the moment and our bank does 'bundle' to reduce/eliminate fees.
So we'll actually reducing our total number lol.. but we may cut that number down eventually. I'll have another chat with him tomorrow before we go to the bank on Friday