Bank Accounts

[mustardseed2007]

How many do you have? I'm rethinking our methods. Right now we have: 

1) a joint checking
2) My own checking
3) DH's own checking
4) Joint savings
5) Joint Money Market 

Saving is for short term savings - like vacation, taxes and emergencies. Money market is the long term emergency fund savings. 

The idea for the checking is that our joint would be for all bills and then the individuals would be for a smaller amount of money that we each spend without needing to consult the other. DH's has very little in it most of the time and he's starting to get charged a fee because of that. 

Mine has more in it b/c mine has morphed into the thing we pay large bills out of, like School tuition and the mortgage. Basically any big bill that may take a few days to clear and so I want to make sure the money doesn't accidentally go anywhere after I pay it. 

I'm starting to think that we need to just ditch the individual accounts and use a joint bank account for everything. I think it would make it easier for me to know what I can pull out at the end of the month for savings. Right now with it divided in between two accounts, it can be a little hard to tell what can go into savings and what needs to stay there, which leaves to me saving less. Maybe. 

What do you guys do? 

[xctsclrx]

We are odd so take it for what it is worth (DH was burned by ex-wife and piss poor money management)

1) individual checking
2) individual Savings
3) Joint Savings

DH and I are each responsible for certain bills. We both try not to dip below 500 in checking and when we get over 1000 after bills we transfer half to individual savings and half to joint. We have the bills split by income level. He makes 60% of the joint income and has 60% of the bills. We both have about the same amount of money left over every month.

[mommyatty]

We just have joint everything and have since we got engaged at 22. It generally works for us.

[k3am]

We have six accounts

Primary Checking
Accounts earmarked for: each kid (2), taxes, vacation, and savings (once it hits a meaningful amount, we move it over to the brokerage account).

You shouldn't be paying any fees (even ATM fees) on any account regardless of how much cash you have in it. The market is so competitive, you shouldn't stand for it.

[twinmomma]

We have joint everything.

Checking account #1 - just for bills
Checking account #2 - weekly allowance for the spending money debit card gets transferred here

And we have 2 savings accounts but rarely have anything of great importance in it. lol

[mustardseed2007]

Jan 23, 2018 10:55:38 GMT -5 k3am said:

We have six accounts

Primary Checking
Accounts earmarked for: each kid (2), taxes, vacation, and savings (once it hits a meaningful amount, we move it over to the brokerage account).

You shouldn't be paying any fees (even ATM fees) on any account regardless of how much cash you have in it. The market is so competitive, you shouldn't stand for it.

you're so right. He is such a slug about this kind of thing. I don't see the account but apparently he's been charged for a while and just told me. If it were me I would have freaked out. I don't get it, that money is just for him so he's the one who's essentially paying for it. 

I kind of like the idea about having a separate account for taxes and vacation. Right now both of those are kind of in our general short term savings account in one lump. 

Do you do internet checking or do you use a brick and mortar bank? 

ETA: When we used to bank with ING, they had a neat earmarking feature. I'm not sure it was literal separate accounts but it allowed you to divide funds into different pots. 

[phdmomma]

mommyatty, Similarly we got married when I was 23, so we have all joint accounts.

[k3am]

mustardseed2007, we do 100% internet banking. We had previously held onto a Chase account, but after DH started ringing up $3 fees to get $20 out of a non-Chase ATM to buy a freaking burrito... several times a week... I said eff that. I have had 0 needs to go into a physical branch in the last 10 years. I mean, I go into a bank branch almost daily, but it's not for personal stuff at all, I just happen to work in one.

We use Schwab for our brokerage account and "high yield" (hah!) checking account. (The checking account is 100% free if you open a brokerage account. We didn't even fund the brokerage account for 3 years.) We use Capital One 360 for everything else. We previously used Dollar Savings, which has higher yields but was a PITA to use.

[2chatter]

We have
Vacation
Child Support (efund for girls because their Dad doesn’t always pay, and CS is used for their monthly expenses like gymnastics, etc)
Savings (efund)
Joint

I keep wondering if we should just also bank with my financial services firm. k3am, your experience is persuasive. We would get free identity theft protection if I make the switch.

[mustardseed2007]

k3am, oh, ING used to be capital one 360. I'm going to go look at what they offer now. I liked banking with them when they were ING but then they changed and I ended up closing the account and opening an ally MM account instead b/c of the higher rate at the time. It's not really very user friendly though.

[justcheckingin73]

We each have our own checking account - mine is through USAA (based in TX) so everything I do is online. DH isn’t comfortable with that so he has one with Chase which has local branches. We also have our own savings accounts. He pays for the mortgage, car and home insurance and his truck payment. I get everything else as well as the majority of variable expenses like birthdays, school costs, some entertainment/meals, etc.

[giddyup]

We have
1. My checking
2. My savings
3. DH checking
4. DH savings
5. Money Market
6. Business Checking (for farm/ranch expenses and income)
7. Savings Account for DD1
8. Savings Account for DD2

This is mostly because DH banked at one bank before we were married and I banked at another. We both liked our current banks so we didn't want to switch. Dh is at a credit union which has some nice benefits, but its location is not convenient for me at all. I bank at Chase which has many branches convenient to me. My work doesn't have direct deposit and before electronic deposit via cell phones it was important I had a bank that was easy to get to since I had to go every couple weeks.

We are both on all the accounts and have access to all of them. But my husband deposits his checks in his accounts and I deposit in mine and then we split the bills up. It works for us, but we communicate frequently about balances in each account so we have a good idea of how much money we have in total.

[saraml13]

We have a bunch of different retirement accounts.

Checking accounts we have:
Joint account for general household expenses
Joint account for property taxes
Individual accounts for personal spending

We are currently talking about setting up a joint account for household “capital expenses”, both major things that break in our 100 year old house and saving for renovations/projects

[covergirl82]

We have:

1. Joint checking
2. Joint savings
3. Joint money market
4. Savings account for DS
5. Savings account for DD

All of these accounts are at the same credit union with a number of local branches. I haven't gotten on board with online-only-based accounts yet.

Right now we use the money market more like a second checking account, where we shift money from it to the actual checking account as needed. One of our goals this year is to get an actual emergency fund (I'm ashamed to say we don't really have one). I'm planning to take a chunk of DH's bonus that he'll get in March as the starter for the e-fund, and we'll keep the e-fund in the money market due to the better interest rate. I may consider adding a second money market (due to better interest rate than regular savings) for a "savings" account where we'll accrue money to be used for large (future) purchases, so I don't have to keep track of the amount earmarked for the e-fund.

[sweetptater]

We have one joint checking account and that's it.

[sandandsea]

We have two joint checking/savings accounts. We each deposit our check into one and try to use one to pay the mortgage and save and use the other to live on (daycare, lifestyle, etc).

We also have two separate savings accounts at different banks (plus an investment account at one of those) and two retirement accounts at different banks.

I’d love to consolidate but it’s not feasible so we leave it. We regularly only use the two checking accounts that are at the same place and ignore the rest.

Everything that can be joint is.

[yummmy]

We have individual checking/savings accounts and a joint checking/savings account. A small portion of my bi-weekly check goes into our individual accounts everything else goes into joint. All the bills get paid out of joint. The reason for the individual is things like Christmas or birthdays or just feeling like you have your own money that you don't have to ask to spend. My account generally has about 6 times what DH's has as he sucks with money!

[supertrooper1]

We don't have anything joint, although our names are on each other's accounts. We bank through a local credit union and can set up as many sub accounts as we want through our checking. It just has to have a minimum of $5 in it. DH pays the majority of the bills, although I do cover some and transfer money to him out of each paycheck.

Me: Checking, savings, e-fund savings
DH: Checking, savings
DS: Savings

[sudokufan]

We used to have our own fun money checking accounts, but I ran into the problem that I wasn't making enough transactions against it and they kept wanting to charge me a $5 monthly fee; that doesn't sound like much, but I generally had less than $200 in it. I didn't want to change banks since I liked the ease of transferring money to it, so I just closed it and try to stick to the agreed monthly budget. Or if I want to make sure my fun fund doesn't get spent on bills, I take it out in cash after pay day and squirrel it away.

[welly01]

We are currently set up the way you are. We both have individual checking/savings and then we have a joint checking/savings. Our individual accounts are for personal use (eating out, gas money, shopping, etc) and all bills/groceries/household stuff come out of the joint. We each get the same amount deposited into our individual accounts and everything else goes to joint.

We recently switched to Capital One 360, so I've created separate savings accounts for several sinking funds that I'm using.

[jlaok]

No including retirement accounts we have:

1. Joint checking - used only for birthdays and Christmas
2. Joint checking - used for all bills and spending
3. Joint savings - sort term savings (vacations, new car, general savings)
4. Money market - emergency fund (hasn't been touched since we've had it)

We get a certain amount of cash every other week that we use for lunches out, drinks with friends, movies, etc. (basically small fun purchases). We'll discuss any "large" purchase which in our world is only going to be $100-$200 and not a big deal. Anything under $100 we just kind of absorb into our #2 checking account.

[traveltheworld]

We have the following:

1. One joint checking account for everything except for paying our nanny;
2. My own checking account which I use to pay for our nanny. I have no idea why I set it up that way, as I just move money from the joint checking to my own checking, then pay the nanny. I don't use it for anything else.

We keep a very low cash balance in our checking accounts. I move almost every last dollar I have into our investment accounts or apply it to our mortgages. I always joke that we don't have an asset problem, but always seems to have a cash-flow problem. FFC - I don't even have an emergency fund. I figure if there was ever an emergency, I could just liquidate some investments.

[mae0111]

We have too many.

My checking
DH checking
Joint savings (Capital One 360)
DH savings
My brokerage
DH brokerage

Then all the retirement accounts and 529s. My savings is part of the joint savings. We use it for fun money and gifts. We have separate checking because we are both control freaks about money and we hated each other’s banks. We have separate brokerage accounts because they were both started but former employers for long-term comp (stock and cash).

In light of recent events, I’m pretty glad it’s all separate.

[mommyatty]

mae0111- when our marriage was in serious peril, I was pretty sorry ours are all joint. So I get where you’re coming from.

[msn06]

1) joint checking for bills
2) joint savings
3) joint checking for slush (eating out, weekend fun, random small home projects, etc)
3)vacation savings
4) short term savings
5) my personal checking
6) my personal savings
7) DHs personal savings
8) DHs personal savings
9) car savings

Technically we only have 6 account numbers because of there are 2 virtual wallets by PNC so so at the point

[msn06]

We also have a Savings for DD.

My paycheck gets deposited into my personal and then I have a transfer set up to go to our Joint. After my first marriage it's my one strong hold, an error in my payroll department saved me so much effort during my divorce. This way I can shut off the auto transfer and change my password and my money stays with me.

[ilovelucyvv]

1. Joint checking
2. Joint savings

[shakinros]

We have many, mostly with Capital One 360.
1) Joint checking - all bills and household expenses
2) emergency fund
3) vacation savings
4) home improvement fund
5) DD’s savings, which has practically nothing in it but I guess it’s better than actually nothing

At Chase:
6) his checking
7) his savings

At TD:
8) my checking
9) my savings

And various retirement accounts and a 529 for DD.

[kbw]

1. Joint checking
2. Joint savings
3. My savings (but really it’s just for our land taxes)
4. Joint hsa

[erinshelley21]

1. Joint checking - routine bills like mortgage, car ins, utilities, car/camper payment and DH's fuel
2. Joint savings - it's currently almost empty, but it served a purpose at one time
3. Another joint savings - 6 month emergency fund that we are building
4. A 3rd joint savings - this was a settlement i received that we opened and linked to DH's truck payment. We recently paid it off though so now it's currently going to pay for our vacay in May and then will be where I dump all of my buyout payments for us to build a house with.
5. My checking - this is the account we use to pay for things with a check like preschool, church tithing, and other things.
6. Kids both have savings accounts.
7. Kids also have 529s that I need to put some of the savings account money in.