Reply To: Chat thread – Sunday 29th December

[Andrew.]

DJ wrote:

My partner and I are about to combine our finances soon, and we need to choose a “permanent” credit card to manage our shared spending. Unlike most people on HfP, my partner prefers simplicity.

Others will have a different opinion…

Don’t combine your finances!

Have your account (into which your salary goes), Have their account (into which their salary goes), have our account, in which XX% of your salary goes to cover household expenses and agreed shared expenses.

Maintain your own credit cards. (There’s no such thing as a joint credit card anyway, merely an authorised user).

It’s not even the obvious stuff like infidelity, gambling, alcoholism that can cause serious problems. I spent hours and hours (days!) unravelling my neighbour’s finances when her super-fit husband had a massive brain-bleed when he was out running at age 49. They had joint accounts and joint savings accounts, and social services had their nibs in straight away for the contributions towards his care home for his 9 remaining barely conscious brain damaged years.