Bank accounts - joint or separate?

[Gilles 4]

I am wondering what others who have had their wife come over on a K1 visa do with respect to checking/bank accounts. Do you have one joint account? Do you each have separate accounts?

[TracyTN 237]

Moving thread from 'finding work' forum to 'moving here' forum.

[DanielParul 50]

We have 2 joint savings accounts, 1 joint checkings account. I was added on to these accounts when I moved here and he was the primary account holder. For some reason, I have become the primary on all these accounts overtime since I handle the finances mostly.

[prettyunique 1]

As the petitioner I had two sets of checking and savings accounts already. Before we got married I added him to one set of accounts. When he gets a job, he wants to open a individual checking and savings. So we will do the three pot system.... I think it is better that way. But we still have an agreement not to spend more than 50.00 USD without discussing with one another.

[thongd4me 69]

I am wondering what others who have had their wife come over on a K1 visa do with respect to checking/bank accounts. Do you have one joint account? Do you each have separate accounts?

In my first marriage we had joint and separate accounts, both savings & checking.

In the second one I felt the joint checking account is overkill,

so we just have separate accounts and credit cards that are joint.

We don't have the need for joint checking when we each have individual checking.

I pay more bills by direct deposit now than I did years ago.

I did put her name in addition to mine on the utility bills.

I pay 100% of that in any case, as I should.

We also have 2 cell phones on the same family account.

I just go by what I think is necessary, not necessarily to impress in the interview.

I don't have much fear of the interview because we'll have all our ducks in a row.

[DeniseBill 4]

The only reason why we have seperate bank accounts is because I am very bad with money and therefor my husband is in charge of our money. He puts some of his weekly check in my account so I can spend that.

[pasaway na angel 2]

we each have our own bank account where our respective employers directly deposit our payroll. then, we have a joint bank account which we designated for savings and emergency funds. we have agreed to put in a certain amount of money in our joint account every pay period. we did this so we won't be tempted to touch the money from the joint account unless it is completely necessary. we then pay for our bills and groceries using our seperate bank accounts since we have also agreed on who will pay for what.

[Rob and Jill 82]

I am a 100% firm believer in a marriage having joint accounts only. I absolutely do not want money hidden, or the inability to know what is going on is various accounts. We've discussed it and we will have an account here and in Scotland for when we go back on trips, or in case he has to go over for an emergency.

[VisaJourneyLady 33]

I am a 100% firm believer in a marriage having joint accounts only. I absolutely do not want money hidden, or the inability to know what is going on is various accounts. We've discussed it and we will have an account here and in Scotland for when we go back on trips, or in case he has to go over for an emergency.

Who said anything about hidden? It's very important to have one's own things, and a bank account one of the most important things to have.

[Inky 1,110]

I have my own "certificate" With our bank and my savings is all in the certificate which grows over time, at the end of 12 months my money becomes available and i roll it back into another certificate. Other than that we have a join account and joint credit card. We do it that way so we dont argue over money or have any money problems. So far its working really well for us, we may never have seperate accounts.

[Kang Lang 7]

we have a joint account and that account takes care of all household expenses, utilities etc. but i insisted on his/hers accounts as well. we both like to shop and i never wanted either of us to feel concern or guilt when we want to buy something. so the unwritten rule is "his buys what his wants with his money and hers doesn't ask about it" conversely the same is true for me.

[trinket 30]

We have 2 joint checking account and 1 joint savings account and individual credit cards. My husband did try to add me to his credit card but at that time (I was in state only for a month) bank wanted to show them proof that I have been living in the same city for 12 months and we didn't have those. So I opened up my own secured credit card later on to build my credit history.

In our household I manage the money, from paying utility bills to paying off credit card, so it is better for us to have joint accounts.

[Nik+Heather 121]

Since we had separate financial lives all set up before marriage, we haven't gone crazy adding each other to everything yet (seriously, isn't immigration enough hassle??).

He's kept his UK accounts for various reasons, partly because we anticipate spending GBPs in the future, and there didn't seem to be a point to convert it to dollars just so we could pile our money all in one place. Also, it's not like he's got MILLIONS that he's not sharing with me.

I also had a handful of accounts - long term savings, daily use checking/savings, credit card (just have one).

We got him on the every-day use checking/savings account, and added as an authorized user on the credit card pretty immediately, just so that he would have access to funds in dollars instead of needing to dip into his GBP accounts and pay conversions etc. every time. I haven't gotten around to adding him to the other accounts - mostly out of laziness. Currently money just goes in, so there hasn't been a need for him to have access.

[Created 6]

Who said anything about hidden? It's very important to have one's own things, and a bank account one of the most important things to have.

You are too funny!

I think it's important to have a joint account, and then individual if you so desire. If you just have joint, that's ok too if you both agree. Agreement in how the finances are managed is key! If one has to hide, then that is a red flag that maybe the other feels presured, or maybe someone is not listening to the desires of the other spouse.

This definately isn't a one size fit's all decision!

Edited April 13, 2010 by RMHurd

[britbird 4]

Separate bank accounts for us - worked for my parents and works for me (though I can understand why a family in which one of the spouses was a stay at home mom/dad would just have a joint account). We're both responsible people who save more than we spend, and who trust each other. There's no need to have a joint account just to ensure that.

As others have said, most of the spending is done via a joint credit card anyhow - we just figure out the shared and separate expenses at the end of the month.

It makes sense to have a couple of bank accounts - especially with the amount of debit card etc fraud that goes on these days - having a frozen account can be a real pain in the butt.

Plus, having separate bank accounts makes it far easier to arrange surprise presents and parties!