Joint Checking...

emilyann21

So DH and I have been talking about having a joint checking account so that all the money is in one place and I can balance the checkbook, pay the bills, etc. Does anyone do this? Good...bad? We already know we won't buy anything over XX amount before talking with the other but do you have your own spending money or whatever from it that you're free to do whatever with?

lovethebeach16

We've got as far as adding H to my account so we could cash the wedding checks. I think we'll eventually have a joint account but right now there isn't much of a need.

Kaz0918

We've had a joint checking account for a few years now to pay bills and such since we moved in together. I think it works really well. Now that we're married, we decided to have our checks direct deposited into the account and transfer $500 a month into our personal accounts for our personal needs, like buying birthday or christmas gifts for each other and what not. But everything else is joint, he'll do all of the bookeeping since I'm horrible with it.

eMiLee920

We got a joint checking while we were saving for the wedding.  We each depost X% of our check into it and use it for any household purchases (furniture, groceries, bills, etc.).  We did agree that any major purchase - over say, 1K or something - would have to be agreed upon.  But for the most part we'd discuss that beforehand anyway. 

 

We each kept our personal accounts.  He buys his video games and graphic novels (they're NOT comics!) from there and I can't complain.  I buy shoes, purses, DVDs, etc from mine and he can't complain.  Well, he does complain about the space they all take up, but he can't complain since I used my personal funds.

LauraT25

We have a joint savings account, and we plan on doing joint checking in a year or so, when Jeff graduates.  At that point he'll just cancel his current checking account, but since it's only a year away we figured we'd wait rather than messing with the direct deposit and whatnot. 

Musicheals71

We divided up the wedding checks three ways between him, me, and a joint checking account we started on the ING Direct website.  That way, we each have our own personal accounts to spend however we want, but if we want to withdraw anything out of the joint checking account, we ask one another first.

lovethebeach16

ING accounts are nice! I really need to start using that as my savings account again so at least I'm making a tiny bit of money in interest.

KandQ9510

We poened a joint account in order to cash all the wedding checks.  We both still have our personnel accounts but I think that will change shortly.

taylor1781

we've had a joing checking account, but have decided to closer our personal accounts and just use one account...we added a savings account last weekend....plus DH has his business account

kmb6881

We are in the process of switching to joint checking only. One account for both of us. We don't have a ton of money to spend on non-essentials, so it makes it easier to know what we have and where it's going. We both give ourselves a set amount that we can spend on extras each month.

debdebdol

We just opened a joint checking account with Chase on Saturday.  DH has his own Chase checking and I have my BofA checking.  We'll use the joint account for bills and we'll deposit x amount for groceries, dining out, etc. 

 We both agreed that we wanted to keep our own accounts.  He can do what he wants with his money and I can do the same with mine.  The joint account is a necessity for us so that we can both access it and either one of us can pay the bills. 

It was funny because when we opened the account the banker asked who the primary was...I pointed to myself and said me, and she said, I like that.  DH and I have already discussed me being the primary when it comes to financial matters.

exictedbride

We only have two accounts, a joint checking and a joint savings. I manage all of our money, but DH has access to all of the accounts so that he can see how things are going and I make sure we talk about it at least twice a week. We always talk to each other about purchases no matter the amount even if it is a "hey I got gas today" just so we are always on the same page.

emilyann21

Thanks for all the input ladies. I think I'm going to close out my BofA checking and be added to DH and be set as the primary and then we'll open a joint savings account and I'll close out mine at BofA too. I hate having 2 banks as it is and think it'll be easier for us with just one.

 I will be checking into this ING thing though...

steffiel

J & I both have the same credit union, so this weekend I added him as a joint owner to my account, and once all thing are settled, he will close his account. This will leave us with one joint checking & savings account + our ING Savings account, which we opened 2 years ago to save for the wedding.

LauraT25

Stef I LOVE your pic!  I didn't see you AWing wedding pics anywhere, did I miss it?

stephaniem1977

We each have our own accounts, and then we have a joint checking account.

All of our joint bills, purchases, and household expenses (groceries, etc) come out of our joint account. Our single bills (i.e. our student loans which autodebit from our individual accounts, my gym membership, etc)come out of our regular accounts, along with our individual spending money.

If we're going on a weekend away together or to a Phillies game or out to dinner/the bar together, we'll take $$ from our joint account. We don't individually spend from the joint account without consulting with each other - even if it's $5 at Taco Bell.

tbearsangel

We are at the same credit union as well, but we just added each other to our accounts to make it easier to withdrawl $$ just in case, but we kept our separate accounts. We each pay certain bills with our accounts and help out if one of us is 'short' for whatever reason. It has worked well for us for the 5 years we have lived together, we;ll change it if needed, but why fix what isn't broken!

JenniferLuvsCandy

We are opening a joint checking/savings and just transferring X amount from each paycheck to our separate accounts for play money.

starrynight1658

We opened joint checking and savings accounts before we bought our house. We both have our paychecks direct deposited into the joint checking, and we pay the bills, groceries, gas, etc. from that.  We save X amount each month for fuel, taxes, and savings, and anything we have left over gets split evenly into our own savings accounts for "discretionary" things (i.e. hunting crap for him and books and shoes for me:)

 I'm glad we did it this way; I make more than DH, and it was stressful keeping track of "his" bills and "my" bills and his money and my money. Merging everything definitely took the strain off. 

shauni27

we have a joint account where 70% of our money goes into and we pay our bills and groceries out of that.  it is also what we use if we go out to dinner together or on a trip together. 

 we also each have our own accounts for personal things that we want (new skis, jackets, purses...)

 it's hard right now since we use most of our money regardless of what account it is in for bills.  hopefully that will change soon though  

leolyns

We have a joint savings account (via ING). We still have to merge checking accounts. I'm at BofA now but we want to switch to a credit union. I think having one checking account will be fine as he has no bills but pays for the utilities and half of food; I pay rent, half of food and my own bills (student loans, auto loan, insurance). After bills are budgeted out, we can take some cash out to keep on hand.  As long as we keep our communication open especially when it comes to buying something, I think we'll be fine.

rien713

eMiLee920:

We got a joint checking while we were saving for the wedding.  We each depost X% of our check into it and use it for any household purchases (furniture, groceries, bills, etc.).  We did agree that any major purchase - over say, 1K or something - would have to be agreed upon.  But for the most part we'd discuss that beforehand anyway. 

We each kept our personal accounts.  He buys his video games and graphic novels (they're NOT comics!) from there and I can't complain.  I buy shoes, purses, DVDs, etc from mine and he can't complain.  Well, he does complain about the space they all take up, but he can't complain since I used my personal funds.

This is us, exactly. It started out as wedding account and at the first of the year (once I'm finally finished paying off the last of our vendors), it'll be a joint checking for household expenses, vacations, etc. Fun stuff and personal bills (ie: my credit cards, his X-Box membership, etc) come out of our personal checking accounts. It's worked really well for us!

Panda+

We opened a joint account for the wedding payments & the $$ we received (both gifts and from our parents to pay for stuff). But really, I manage all the money - I buy everything and pay all the bills, and he gives me a set $ amount each month that we agreed on when making the budget. The joint account would let him follow along if he wanted but I haven't really started using it yet. I think we'll both keep our own accounts (for spending money) and the joint account (for household stuff) in the long run though.

JRSonday

We started out at 80/20 (80% into joint and then we both put 20% in our accounts). Now that things are settled though, we may just throw everything into one account. It seems way easier, and one or the other of us was always using our personal account for joint stuff anyway because we didn't have checks for all the accounts or whatever. Plus we're switching banks (don't get me started on Wells Fargo/Wachovia right now ... go USAA!), so I think we may ix-nay the personal accounts there. Neither of us spend in excess (I may have a yarn problem), so we're okay with personal dollars. Christmas, birthdays, etc. ... we'll figure it out when we get there. Our general agreement is "you get $x and I get $x ... don't go over." What x = will depend on our financial status at the moment.