When should you and your partner start a joint bank account?

An Australian financial advice website has posed a question about when couples first started combining their money with a joint account – and the responses may surprise you.

She’s On The Money’s Instagram page offers ordinary Australians ways to compound their cash through shares and investments, and how to get the most out of their salaries.

On Monday the page posed the question: ‘At what point in your relationship did you start a joint account?’ 

‘We’ve heard all the hook up stories, the first date stories and the falling in love stories – but we want to know about the falling into financial together tales please.

‘So when did you and your significant other start a joint account?’

Hundreds of men and women contributed to the conversation, with some saying they relied on their joint savings to purchase big-ticket items, while others have been married for 20 years and still haven’t combined their pool of money. 

‘We did it to save our house deposit and kept it open for house expenses. Otherwise we have separate accounts and swear by it,’ one woman replied.

‘When we moved in! But we only use it for joint household expenses – rent, bills, groceries, and pup! Everything else is separate,’ said another.

‘About 1.5 years. We have separate “allowance” accounts. But everything else is together. So much quicker to build our property investments up and never a debate about who pays for what,’ a third added.

A fourth said: ‘When we moved in together we opened one joint account for our rent, and one shared account for groceries and dates and one joint savings account. We still have our own accounts though and our pay checks go into our own personal accounts and we just transfer certain amounts into the joint accounts’.

On Monday the page posed the question: ‘At what point in your relationship did you start a joint account?’

One woman said she waited until she got married before combining resources. 

‘When we got married but we still have our own accounts. So much easier than the constant bank transfers for groceries, meals out, fuel etc,’ she said.

‘We got engaged 14 weeks after meeting and opened a joint account straight away so we could start saving for the wedding which was scheduled 11 months later,’ said another.

’12 years in and we’ve just got a joint account, mainly for accountability for both of us,’ added a third.

‘When we purchased our first home together. We’d been renting together for a few years and just split everything, but once we bought our home and had a child we joined everything and then gave ourselves an even ‘allowance’ each month to spend on whatever we want,’ finished another.