Question

This may seem silly, but my brain is not understanding. So me & my boyfriend want to make a joint account just for our bills & still have our own separate accounts. We’ve figured out how much bills are and divided them so we know how much needs to be direct deposited into the joint every check. But how do we start that? Since right now we don’t have automatic withdrawal. Should we have a certain amount put into the joint account before opening it? Should we put extra in it & pay out of it & then when we know there’s enough we will begin automatic withdrawal?  

Answer 1

We started ours by putting in what we needed for the first round of bills and a small cushion (literally only like $50) and had autopays on. After that we just did the transfers every paycheck with how much we need in there and started building our cushion up whenever we have extra money

Comments

@robertaroberto that’s a good idea!  

Answer 2

My now husband and I did this before we were married. I dont remember who put the $25 into open the account but we started an account for bills, both linked it to our personal checkings and each paycheck we each transferred a set amount into the bills account. He handled paying them all from the joint account. It was basically a pool of money that he managed for us.  

Answer 3

My partner and I do this. We leave the minimum in there just so we can keep the account open. Each month, we deposit enough to cover the bills just like you do, bit I call and pay each. We do not have them automatically taken out.  

Comments

@swoon see we just want to have our set amount in there and have everything auto paid so we don’t have to worry about anything.  

Answer 4

Just take out of your own accounts what you each owe and deposit it in your joint account until your direct deposits start. Then just pay out of there instead of your separate accounts. When my ex lived with me that’s what we did. Then I opened a joint savings for us and transferred what we didn’t spend for the month in there to save for when something came up or we wanted to do something fun together or with the kids and didn’t have money. Worked out great. I’m not a fan of automatic withdrawals unless you watch your bills very carefully and now the amount isn’t going to change every month. Too many times I’ve been billed incorrectly and too much was taken out of my account. If you like having the automatic payments though I suggest using your credit card and then just pay your credit card then at least it won’t cause you to overdraft.  

Comments

@jaddo but we want to set up auto pay so we don’t have to worry about payments. I’ll just verify everything. Just not sure with how to get it going.  

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@toggery10 I think that’s a good plan. Maybe have a cushion like others suggested just in case.  

Answer 5

Use VENMO for paying each other. For example, the bills for water is $50. And you're going to pay it using your card. He can transfer it to you using venmo ($25) and no fee.  

Answer 6

I would stop all automatic bill pay. Get the joint account set up and transfer a cushion. Once you know the bill didn’t come out of the personal account transfer the money into the joint account and pay from there. Then set up that automatic bill pay from that account. It’s annoying but sometime it takes into the next billing cycle to stop an automatic bill pay and you don’t want to be short. You will have to monitor it for a few months.  

Answer 7

You and your SO should sit down and list all the monthly bills that will be shared upon the two of you figure out that amount then divide by 2 (if you both feel that is the equal way to do it) put that set amount into the shared checking account. Once that is determined then you must determine how much you have to put in the shared account based on when you get paid to ensure there is plenty of money there for your bills. Feel free to PM me I could try to help you

Comments

@amatol we both know how much that is. 1030. But this paycheck say normal bills are only 900 and next paycheck they’re normally 1400. So how much do we put in joint account to START it. Everyone talks about transferring every check. We just want an automatic amount ($1030) to put in our joint account every check. But bills don’t come out evenly every check so the designated amount to start and when to make them auto pay is what I’m not sure on and I feel I haven’t gotten the answer I’m looking for yet. Lol. Aside from putting in and having a cushion until there’s enough to do auto.  

Answer 8

Everything into bills account and budgeted personal money sent into personal accounts. keep the extra after bills in there for cushion.