Banks And Credit Unions

We have joint accounts on everything. checking, credit cards and our investment account.

 

Joint accounts....do not see the point of seperate accounts if married...except when one spouse is a terd head and you have no choice.
I handle all finances, insurances, retirement accounts...the works.
However, sometimes being the CEO of things do get overwhelming.

 

I opened a separate account for me when my husband kept writing checks or debiting money out of our joint account and forgetting to ink it in the check register. I'd get so frustrated with this that we finally decided I should open another separate account. Into this separate account goes my SS check, half of my husband's work paychecks and two thirds of his SS check (which is direct deposited to our joint savings account). From our separate I pay all our monthly expenditures and have some spending money of my own. My husband has his spending money in our joint account (which he has to balance every month) and the joint savings account gets fed one third of my husband's SS check every month. This works well for us and there is no more frustration over checks or debits not being inked in anymore.

Different strokes for different married folks...but as long as it works for each of us then it is the right thing for each of us.

 

My husband and I have a joint accout and he's added me to his credit cards. The seperate accounts thing didn't even cross our minds. I guess we're both old fashioned in that respect.

 

This is how we feel and my wife is the CEO and CFO of us.

 

I don't understand why anyone would be happy paying ANYTHING for their checking account. Not when free checking and services are so readily available without requiring certain minimum deposits and balances.

 

Yes, it's free but I have to pay for checks I order but it's been awhile since I don't write many checks....do almost everything online.

 

I know quite a number of people, mostly retirees, who pay for their checking accounts but they are not happy about it. The two main reasons for that are that those people can't or are not willing to do online banking and that they prefer paying cash for which they need a tightly nit network of ATMs as well as a bank branch in the vicinity. So banks have them pay for all that. Younger folks usually use checking accounts that are completely free.
For the last 25 years I have had a free checking account. Yet there's usually been a little catch I had to accept. In order to make it completely free of charge you either had to have a certain monthly income or there was no bank branch in your immediate vicinity or the ATM network was not as tight. I've always accepted those conditions.
Nowadays you can have a checking account that, if managed online, does not require a basic amount of money coming in on a monthly basis.
It seems to be a question of how comfortably you want to use your account.

 

I have free checking but there are fees for other checking services which I seldom use. When the commercial bank I was with starting charging if you didn't meet the minimum balance I looked elsewhere that was in the 80s.

 

We started a checking account way back in the '80s with a Credit Union in Phoenix. Totally free checking, even the blank checks! No requirements other than membership, which was a one-time small fee, I think. Kept that account over all these years, even as their requirements were "tightened up" for new members. Ours has remained "grandfathered". A bit less convenient now, since we don't reside there, however, they opened an affiliate here in our Smith's store a few years ago, and it's ATM dispenses cash free, just as it did in PHX. However, they do not recognize our account as part of their system, indicating it is in reality some kind of franchise operation. But, never had a lick of trouble, nor complaint against, old "Desert Schools Federal Credit Union".
Frank