Three Benefits of Sharing a Checking Account with Your Spouse

When you get married, one of the immediate priorities is to combine your personal and home items with those of your spouse. This task can be extensive, especially if you've previously lived in separate homes and have doubles of several key items. Another important task is to decide whether you want to share a checking account with your new spouse. Whether you combine your two accounts or open a joint account to which you can each deposit and withdraw money, there are several advantages to pooling your funds in this manner. Here are three reasons that opening a joint account can benefit you and your spouse.

Less Time Figuring Out Who Paid What

When you and your spouse have separate accounts, it's conventional to try to equally divide the monthly bills. This task can get challenging when the amount of certain bills fluctuates over time—for example, a hydro bill often increases in the winter due to your use of the furnace. By setting up a joint account, you can each deposit the same amount of money per month and pay all your bills from this account. This approach means you'll spend less time trying to figure out who paid more in bills in any given month.

Fewer Account Fees

Although each bank and account type is different, it's common for people to pay some monthly account fee for using a checking account. By pooling your money into a joint account, you'll have just one regular account fee to handle. If you write checks, you'll also have the saved expense of only having to order one set of checks rather than two. Keep in mind, of course, that this advantage only applies if you exclusively use a joint account rather than keeping your own separate accounts along with a joint account.

More Spending Transparency

It's impossible to discuss the benefits of sharing a joint checking account without discussing spending transparency. With separate accounts, you and your partner can spend your money without the other person knowing your exact spending habits; while there are benefits to this, it also means that one partner can spend an excessive amount of money without the other person's knowledge, which can lead to financial stress in the future. Through a joint account, you'll each be able to tell when the other person has spent money. While this element requires a high degree of trust in your relationship, it also allows you to avoid unpleasant surprises down the road.

To open a joint checking account, speak with your current bank or open a new one at an establishment like Cheviot Savings Bank.

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