Pros and cons of shared bank account

My FH and I have separate accounts and 2 shares accounts (checking and money market).
We’ve talked about consolidating and neither of us is opposed to it, but it keeps our own personal bills separate. My accounts are truly transparent as our his. I would say unless he has something to hide, I wouldn’t stress about separate accounts.

Everyone is different . At first hubby and I didn’t like it at all but it does help in the long run and helps along with both parties managing money.

We have both! Shared checking for bills and shared savings for home improvement projects / trips / emergency fund. However, we both also have our own personal checking and savings accounts as well. It's what works best for us. I will always have my own separate accounts in addition to our joint so that there is a separation of funds somewhere and that I can save and/or spend money on personal things (ie: new phone, credit card bills, gifts, etc.).

Pros to shared: You have at least one account where you can both access funds in an emergency situation (we have had to do this before) and allows us to not delegate who pays what bills but instead we just contribute a specific dollar amount to the checking account each month and bills get paid that way.

Cons: If the other person is not as financially responsible, will they be constantly dipping into the joint accounts for personal expenses (ie: coffee, gas, etc.) that you thought would come out of there personal account?

So ours was different. I wasn’t sure how to approach doing a joint account without (my own assumption) making him feel I’m in control. One day on lunch he calls asking my bank account number and details etc, well then at home he told me and showed me why. He choose to put 80% his check into my bank account and keep 20% in his account. We are both on one another’s but it’s not a “joint” account per bank. We have the same bank at that matter as well. So it’s handy because the app I can see my account and his and all used.

Since we moved in together, FH and I have split expenses based on percentages - our total joint income is 100%, and for joint costs we each pay the percentage of that joint income that we individually bring in. We're planning to continue doing something similar once we get married, and will likely open a joint account where we each deposit a percentage of our paychecks relative to total household income. We'll also each keep our own existing bank accounts for the remainder of our individual incomes, so neither of us has to worry about what the other is doing with their "fun" money, and we can still buy gifts for each other that are a surprise.

Like you, my fiancé makes more than I do, so scaling how much each of us pays for things based on our total joint income is something both of us feel comfortable with. That way, we're not limited to things I can afford half of on my lower income, nor do I feel anxious about overspending to keep up with what he can afford. It's worked well for us so far!

We'll probably do both. Have a joint account for bills and savings for things we want to get together, plus we can each maintain our current accounts with any extra money after joint expenses. We're both reasonably responsible with money and we're both adults who don't need to be accounting for every penny to each other. We'll contribute to the joint account for joint expenses, savings and credit card and be able to spend our extra money however each of us chooses.

That being said, him bringing up making more money that way sounds odd to me. If he's concerned, then you could consider a pre-nup that protects BOTH of you. If he's insistent on a one-sided pre-nup that only protects him, then I'd be concerned about why. There's a lot of possible reasons for that behavior, but most of them aren't good for your relationship.

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This is kind of what we are thinking too but MAN seeing some of these answers is kind of scary and judgemental.

We’re going to have a joint account for things like house, groceries, vacations, etc. And then keeping our personal ones for things like cars, clothes, ind things.

View Quoted Comment I say do what works best for you, if you try it and it doesn’t work, there’s always other options. My FH and I have been doing this for 4 years and it works great for us!


(I learned to take other people’s “opinions” on here with a grain of salt b/c as you said, they can be quite judgmental lol)

My husband and I had separate accounts when we first met (obviously, lol). We each had our own checking account and our own savings accounts. We kept everything that way until we got engaged. Once we got engaged we merged our savings accounts and added each other to the checking accounts where we were the primary and started referring to what we made as "our money" and not my money or his money. We starting referring to it as our money because we're in this partnership together. We work together to pay the bills. Neither of us have car payments (both cars are paid off), I have student loans - he does not, he has more credit card debt than I do, but it doesn't matter. I technically make more money than he does but at the end of the day, it's our money. We merged our accounts and gave each other access to the accounts where we are the primary because we are working together to support the family we want to create.

We use one checking for every day items and our household bills, but use our second checking account for when we travel. I travel for work sometimes, as does my husband - he actually travels more, so we use that for when we have to prepay for hotels before our company's reimburse us. We also use that account for when we vacation. The second account is used as our "extras" account. Our savings account is the one we pretty much forget about. We have it at a separate bank and don't even acknowledge it b/c we both have part of our paychecks direct deposited into our savings account.

My husband and I prefer to handle our finances this way. It makes it easier on us. We don't have to worry about who paid for what, or who's turn it is to buy groceries or dinner when we go out, or who should pay a bill. We take all of that out of our joint accounts. A close friend of ours actually keeps his finances separate from his wife. He says it works for them. I personally would find it more stressful if my husband and I did it that way b/c money would be harder to keep track of, but that's what works for them, it's their marriage and I have no right to say anything about how they handle their finances.

It’s best to do when you’re married. It’s only been good for me. I had a hard time saving and its helped a lot. It’s also good for budgeting monthly payments and bills and having a savings together. It’s even better when you have money goals together. For example; save 5,000 by august, etc. Regardless of who gets paid more, when you’re married, unless you’ve signed a prenup, what’s yours is his and vice versa.