Bank accounts - joint or separate?

[Minya's wife 25]

3 joint accounts here....I guess I'm old fashioned in the interpretation of what's yours is mine and vice-versa. But britbird is right that separate accounts facilitate the arranging of surprise presents and such. My husband wanted to surprise me when he bought us our puppy, and I almost blew it because I checked our bank balances online on the day he was driving the 3+ hours to pick up the pooch. I saw a withdrawal in bumfookville and freaked out about identity theft. I called him to tell him that someone got a hold of our account information and was taking money out of the account. It was all he could do to calm me down so I wouldn't call the bank and report the theft. (Lucky that it was the weekend anyways.) When he got home w/ the pup in his arms, all was well, but I nearly blew the surprise.

[britbird 4]

3 joint accounts here....I guess I'm old fashioned in the interpretation of what's yours is mine and vice-versa. But britbird is right that separate accounts facilitate the arranging of surprise presents and such. My husband wanted to surprise me when he bought us our puppy, and I almost blew it because I checked our bank balances online on the day he was driving the 3+ hours to pick up the pooch. I saw a withdrawal in bumfookville and freaked out about identity theft. I called him to tell him that someone got a hold of our account information and was taking money out of the account. It was all he could do to calm me down so I wouldn't call the bank and report the theft. (Lucky that it was the weekend anyways.) When he got home w/ the pup in his arms, all was well, but I nearly blew the surprise.

LOL - we had a joint account before I got squared away with a job etc. and that happened all the time

Plus, I guess in a way they are joint accounts - my husband is the beneficiary and vice versa, and if the marriage goes south then community property kicks in anyway...death and divorce are v. old fashioned

[Justine+David 218]

Like Rob&Jill, I (and my fiance) firmly believe in joint accounts only. It's a marriage...not shacking up. We come up with our budget together and spend our money together according to that plan. It seems sort of willy-nilly to just have random accounts with money in them that you hide from your spouse about what you spend your money on (and brings up trust issues...).

For us, we have planned to each have $100 each month in cash for blow money to spend at our own discretion. But every other penny has a name on it in our budget, towards regular bills and living expenses to paying down our student loans and saving for retirement.

[DanielParul 50]

Depending on what works for a couple, both are ok. Right now we have all joint accounts but thats because Daniel is not good with finances so I handle them. He depends on me to take care of money matters and balancing the accounts. If we wanted separate accounts too, none of us would have a problem. I have never had a joint account before being married to daniel. Previous marriage, did not share any joint account with ex. Did not know how much he made, spent. I made a lot more anyways and paid most bills. It was a trust issue for me with him (as with most arranged marriages, mismatched, but thats another thread!). With Daniel its about what works for us.

[Vivi6 12]

We both had our own accounts, we kept those and opened a joint checking and savings. We set up an automatic transfer from our personal checkings to the joint one so that we have rent, bills, and groceries (we have rounded up how much we usually spend on that every month) covered. We also have joint savings, but it's up to us how much we want to put there. One of the reasons why we did the joint is that we have automatic payments for bills set up so it takes money from our joint account and we both can access and double check (plus we don't risk past due payments- thank you technology!). Also, we pay rent via checks so we send a check from our joint account checkbooks, and both our names are on there and on the lease.

It's been going ok so far although my husband has been kind of lazy transefing money- so we decided to schedule automatic transfers for that reason!

On the other hand, I keep my Italian account opened for trips overseas, plus my stepdad was a bank director so I have ppretty good benefits on it.

I think it's good to keep your own accounts, but it depends on your spending habits...personally I just don't feel like justifying $200 on make up or buying something my husband thinks it's too expensive, I know he raises an eyebrow at that...so as long as I pay our bills and necessary things, I am happy to spend the rest of my money as I please:)