How do you handle bank accounts with your SO?

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How do you handle bank accounts with your SO?

  • Joint accounts because I am a naive fool and want to let my SO take all my money

    Votes: 12 28.6%
  • Separate accounts because I have necrotic trust issues

    Votes: 14 33.3%
  • Some mix because we are too indecisive to pick a single method

    Votes: 12 28.6%
  • Most popular option: I wish I had a SO

    Votes: 4 9.5%

  • Total voters
    42

PricklyPete

Lifer
Sep 17, 2002
14,582
162
106
Joint. My wife raises the kids...so at this point, separate wouldn’t even make sense. But even while she was working, we had joint accounts. We have never had arguments or issues with this arrangement.
 

vi edit

Elite Member
Super Moderator
Oct 28, 1999
62,484
8,345
126
We are joint for all household expenses. Each month we auto-deposit a determined amount to individual pre-paid credit cards. Those are our personal spending. My wife has a bad habit of spending money on stupid shit. This gives her a finite amount that she can check her balance at any time. Once it's empty she's done until the end of the month.

I tend to bank most of mine and use for bigger purchases. It's been working well.
 

Scarpozzi

Lifer
Jun 13, 2000
26,391
1,780
126
We are joint for all household expenses. Each month we auto-deposit a determined amount to individual pre-paid credit cards. Those are our personal spending. My wife has a bad habit of spending money on stupid shit. This gives her a finite amount that she can check her balance at any time. Once it's empty she's done until the end of the month.

I tend to bank most of mine and use for bigger purchases. It's been working well.
That's a tempting method, but pre-paid CC's scare me for security's sake. I like having a bank I can walk into if someone throws fraudulent charges on the account....I've had to do quite a few of those ACH forms in recent years and it's pretty easy to retrieve funds that way. I'm not sure how dealing with national pre-paid CC's would be if you didn't know the companies. Just choose wisely.

As I stated earlier, we have a bunch of debt we're trying to blaze through...eventually, I'll shift to saving/banking more money. I may do something similar to what you do when my mandatory expenses drop.
 

vi edit

Elite Member
Super Moderator
Oct 28, 1999
62,484
8,345
126
That's a tempting method, but pre-paid CC's scare me for security's sake. I like having a bank I can walk into if someone throws fraudulent charges on the account....I've had to do quite a few of those ACH forms in recent years and it's pretty easy to retrieve funds that way. I'm not sure how dealing with national pre-paid CC's would be if you didn't know the companies. Just choose wisely.

As I stated earlier, we have a bunch of debt we're trying to blaze through...eventually, I'll shift to saving/banking more money. I may do something similar to what you do when my mandatory expenses drop.

We do Chase liquid cards through Chase bank. With a debit card and a couple hundred bucks on it's balance I'd rather use that at shady place than my own credit card or "real" debit card.
 

lxskllr

No Lifer
Nov 30, 2004
60,044
10,532
126
Cool! I knew you also need a large 'cup.'
Hey, I'm not gonna catch the gay from this am I? I kinda have a routine down buying clothes from the thrift shop, and don't have the time to invest for a new wardrobe.
 

Ventanni

Golden Member
Jul 25, 2011
1,432
142
106
Joint bank account, with a Mint account as well. Full transparency. We stick to a budget, save tons of money, go on trips when we want. The only debt we have is our house.

No issues. No complaints. No bickering.
 

sigmanova

Member
Sep 30, 2010
113
1
81
wife and i opened a joint account soon after we got married. we would keep our individual checking accounts and credit cards but agreed to put in $1000 each per month into the joint to handle mortgage and bills.

if some months are more expensive than others we talk it over and collectively put more into joint as needed.

so far so good after 7 months!
 

nOOky

Diamond Member
Aug 17, 2004
3,262
2,346
136
Separate accounts. My wife has a small business and pays herself depending on the month and my salary is regular so I don't want to mix my money with hers, sometimes she pays herself erratically. We each have our own Roth's, I have a 401K, and we each pay our share of the bills. She makes about 2 1/2 time more than me, so we each have a savings account and we also have a joint savings account we use to save up for vacations etc. My employer provides insurance so technically I put more money into the bills, but we do alright as we have no kids and no bills except the house payment which will be over soon.

When she retires she will sell the business and we will use that to buy a new home wherever we decide to retire to, most likely AZ.