Weddingbee Blog

joint account, weekly allowances.
also, be careful about getting rid of all your credit cards. that can actually hurt your credit score; check with a credit counselor first.

We have two savings account joint. 1 is the real savings account and the other is the pseudo-savings (aka we save but we withdraw from it for paying bills, xmas presents and shopping spree through the year). I recomend doing it bc savings account have higher interests rates than reg. checking. We also have a joined checking which we both used to pay off each other cc and bills. The system works for us.
I do must of the bills so I know what’s going on and he give me complete trust (I know… lame!)
We keep cc separates just to make easy the payments.
The system, as I said works for us, but each couple has different needs. We are paying for my school together since my check contributes to the household. We know they may be time that I would not work or he would pursuit other things so we try to share everything.
HTH :))

we’re planning to set up a joint checking account to pay bills for the home or anything that we both used.

hm. its true that closing the accounts could be bad for ur credit score - but it depends on how long those cards have been open. if they’re your oldest cards, definitely do not close - but if they’re relatively newer cards, i dont know how worth it it would be to keep them open and continue to pay fees on. if no fees, then i would always keep open… but fees.. dunno. remember, closing credit cards is bad for your score if you’re wiping out your oldest credit history. if you have ones you opened years ago intact, and these were opened for - say, wedding related expenses only - then i dont think your score would take such a big it, and if so, only temporarily… =)

I guess we should get on the ball about this stuff, huh?

Can I ask: those of you with joint accounts who aren’t married yet, how far in advance did you get them berore the wedding?

t5s: it’s complicated. closing cards can be bad for your credit score, especially if you are carrying balances on the remaining cards because it can alter the ratio of balance to credit.
as for credit card fees, some cards will eliminate fees if you charge a certain amt. some lenders will let you switch to a no-fee card, just as they will let you switch from one card to another (a card that gives cash back to a card that gives nothing).
all of this is tied into a great conversation: think of the way you spend, think of the way you save, and the way that works best for both of you. currently, fi always pays in cash, whereas i always pay in credit. fi uses cash to track his weekly spending, whereas i check my balances online weekly. for joint purchases, we have a joint card that i pay out of my account and he pays me back, but builds both of our credit history.
when we get married, we will combine both systems: weekly cash allowance, credit on joint weekly expenses. the cash allows us to spend on little things that we want, but the credit gives us rewards for joint purchases.

Hm: great system you and your fiance use. We need to start using less credit and more cash.

we share everything, it’ll be 1 year before we marry.

p.s. It’s my FI who puts everything in Quicken, and does forecasting and spreadsheets. And he’s also more likely to try to squeek by on a thin margin, and has gotten into trouble with it in the past. I go by my number sense and keep a larger margin (because I’ve had a timing belt go, and NEEDED more cash than I had), and haven’t had any trouble since I’ve been out of college and gotten a real job.

About six months into our relationship, we got a joint bank account. Everyone said we were crazy. We moved to LA together, and we didn’t have any money, so it seemed to make sense that we pool our resources. I have to say that I hated it a first. I did (and still do) all the bills. He does the laundry, which is a trade I’m happy to make. I felt he had been coddled by his parents always bailing him out and it took him about six months to find a steady job in LA–so I was paying for everything. We fought many times about it for the first year and even had the thought of breaking up the account into two seperate accounts. However, it has now been two years and I’m happy we did it. We have learned to respect each others spending decisions (and spending needs) and we have a team mentality when is comes to our finances and our careers. I feel we are stronger for it and, as we head towards our wedding, I’m happy we have this already established.