Shared account or separate?

Since the wedding, we have separate accounts till now and won't have a joint account which he will put money into for bills. That would be for us and myself to transfer for online payments. Some payments go through another bank of his account.

Right now we have separate accounts but when we get married we will have a joint account. I will probably keep my one credit card so then I can still buy things/ surprise him so he doesn't see it come up on our statement before I give it to him.

We each have our own bank accounts and as soon as we moved in we created a joint one for joint expenses (groceries, bills, mortgage, home stuff). I think we're still going to keep the same set up after we're married until we have kids at which point then I think we'll be having just the one account - it makes more sense for both of us.

We're still very open about our finances anyway, so there aren't any secrets or surprise debts for either of us.

My FH has his own business so he will have that in his name. We will have a joint account but also have separate accounts as well. This may change a bit to as we're not married yet and moving in by late spring once the house is renovated.

View quoted message That happened to my FHs aunt she has no credit because everything was in his name.

My FH and I are going to share a chq account for bills and saving account for vacation and emergency funds, but we will still have our own personal accounts

Up to this day, we haven't opened a joint account sonce we both know thats he's somewhat bad in a way with money. I had mentioned it once we got married and never happened with him. I guess we keep our accounts seperate.

We curretly have our seperate accounts (one together for mortgage), its really never come up to join everything, let's see after the wedding

My DH and I had separate accounts (and one joint) until we were married. Bills were not cut straight down the middle and paid in equal parts, in my personal opinion that is just setting up for failure in the future (somebody gets sick, mat leave... ect).

We never had a "I pay for this, you pay for that" mentality.

After we were married we sat down with the bank and joined our accounts. Our pay is deposited into one account. We have a joint savings together, and we also have separate savings accounts. I work a typical 40 hour work week, and my DH is self employed and runs his own business.

He takes care of paying the bills, however I have access to everything.

We each have a personal credit card, and a credit card of each others.

This is what works best for us. We spoke about this in detail, and the lines of communication regarding money are always open and always discussed.

We have both. We each have our separate accounts where pay goes in, credit cards, car payments etc come out of and then we contribute the same amount monthly to our joint account where house bills, wedding stuff comes out of. This way we have both independence and reliability

View quoted message Ya we really try and put both our names as equals on everything as much as we can just to cover our bases. I know my FHs mom had some difficulties when her husband passed away about 5 years ago because a lot of things only had his name on them so for her to acess to update paperwork, insurance etc so she to provide mariage licences, death certificates and explain what happened and it would have been much simpler and emotionally easier if her name had just been on the paperwork to start.

You should have both! Coming from an accountant, trust me on this one!! Another item that's very important to think about, and often overlooked, is your credit history. If you have credit cards in your own names keep them. Do not get spousal cards EVER. If you have a spousal card, in your name, and you use that card , you are building credit for the primary card holder, not yourself!
You never want to be left in the position with no credit on your own, or reducing your financial leverage as a couple.

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We are opening a joint savings account for our wedding fund as well. We have unlimited deposits, but limited withdrawals (it's just the kind of account it is) but it will work for paying for the wedding because the amount of people we have to pay is less than the number of withdrawals.

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That's a good point about credit score. I had a classmate in university who had shared an account with her husband, and everything was under his name. When they divorced, she had to start over. He had good credit, but she didn't have any so it was hard at first to build that up.

I like the idea of co-applicants on credit cards too. We both use debit more than credit though.

I know his PIN but he has to ask for mine (not that he often uses my card but on occasion he forgets his wallet!)

We have a shared account that we each put money into at the beginning of every month for all of our expenses (rent, hydro, groceries, date nights, etc). And a shared savjngs account that we are paying for the wedding out of. And then we each have our own accounts separate from that. We are very open with each other when discussing money. Putting money in at the beginning of each month also helps us budget properly when you have to make that amount last for a whole month.

We also each have our 'own' credit card, but are both co-applicants on the others card. That way we can pick stuff up for each other and stuff and just put it on the other persons card (ex: filling his truck up with gas). I know his PIN and ive told him mine a million times but pretty sure he forgot it. Not that it matters because we each have a copy of the others credit card. By keeping separate cards and accounts we each build our own credit scores and each have some autonomy in how we spend our money. It has been working well for us... Probably going on 3 years of it now. So i think nothing will change once we are married.

My future husband and I will be opening a shared bank account for bills, house stuff, and a second one for paying for the wedding, we are doing this because every time we send each other money we are charged $1.50 for the e-transfer cost. You don't have to give up your seperate accounts if you are not ready to yet, start small.

My fiance and I have had a joint account for bills and such for about a year and a half, no complaint whatsoever! We also both have our seperate accounts but majority of our money is on the joint.

As both Erin and Michelle said, my FH and I have a shared account for rent and bills. We have separate accounts for where our paycheques get deposited to, and just transfer our halves biweekly. My FH does know all my passwords and PINS, and likewise, but we both feel that we earn our own money and I like being able to buy him gifts for Christmas or his birthday without him wondering where the money went. We each have our own credit cards as well, but again, know each other's information. We've only been living together for a year, but it works for us.

We have separate accounts. We will be starting a shared account for house stuff (mortgage, bills, groceries).

I am a firm believer in having separate accounts since I know the trouble my mum had when she got separated/divorced from my dad and they shared an account (not that I think this will happen to me but you never know).

We openly discuss money so things aren't a secret but I agree Michelle that it is still a somewhat private matter.

FH and I have a shared bank account just for rent and bills. We still keep our own separate accounts. However we are still open with the topic of money I know about the amount he has in his account and he knows about the same for myself.

We know each other's pin numbers on our bank cards, we DO NOT know each other's passwords for the online banking.

Even though we are getting married and have lived together for 5 years, I believe to still keep something like money separate no need to share everything. As money is a somewhat private matter and it is one of the major reasons that fights and divorce occurs.