It is possible to set up a mandate that the account requires two signatures to withdraw funds.
Of course, that means you’d also need your partner’s signature before you could withdraw funds
I remember hearing a story somewhere of an account full of money that neither party could access, because they couldn’t agree to countersign… Must look it up.
If you’re worried because your partner has a problem such as gambling or addiction etc., then just don’t leave very much in the account. You have just as much right to transfer funds out as your partner.
I think it comes down to confusion about the nature of a joint account.
The money in a joint account is shared equally by the account holders. The suggestion seemed to be to give one account holder the power to allow/not allow transactions by the other account holder, which breaches a basic principle of the rights in joint accounts.
If the problem is with gambling/addition etc., then you probably just shouldn’t have a joint account at all. It’s the wrong tool to solve the problem.
But why get into a ‘financial relationship’ if you didn’t trust the person? That’s the whole point of a joint account.
I get the theoretical use cases of this kind of account, but the potential for domestic abuse resulting from it is a massive problem. If you don’t trust your partner to handle your money, don’t give them access to it.
Thanks all for your comments and thoughts. As we all know, one of the main reason Monzo is the best right now is because they are open to ideas and they implement good ideas accordingly.
I opted in to Monzo joint account with my wife because of my personal spending bad habit. I cannot crontrol my spendings to buy anything I like, and the only ways I can grow out of this bad habit is to allow and accept my wife to be my personal finance police.
This has been working for me but it could be more efficient if this sort of capability can be added to Monzo joint account even as OPTIONAL to help people like me which I know we are lots out there as a spending training mechanism.
For those people who is against this on moral grounds, there is definitely a legal situation for it. It’s called a ‘Lasting power of attorney’ and the use case may be an account(s) where the second person (the donor) is not always capable of making sound financial decisions and hence an LPA is in place to allow the first person (the attorney) to ‘vet’ transactions/keep an eye on spending etc.
Perhaps it would be best to have a secondary account (with a pre paid card, or even another bank account with no overdraft etc), and your wife could transfer the money and keep on top of things that way.
That would mean you could never blow any savings on a whim, and could only spend what was on the card at that time.
I imagine your situation is probably not massively uncommon, and it’s great that you can identify it and seek assistance.
Good job no one jumped to conclusions in this thread
Agree, Power of Attorney is wholly appropriate where one party is unable to care for themselves, as I stated earlier.
However in the situation of an already existing joint account some thought would be necessary to establish if the joint nature of the account was still appropriate/compatible with the POA.
Thank you for fleshing out the scenario somewhat. I hope you understand that my previous arguments were in no way aimed at your personal situation, but more the facts as you originally presented them. I stand by my previous advice.
However, in light of the additional information, I’d still argue that a joint account is not the best product for your situation. This type of account is built upon the Terms and Conditions of Joint Tenancy – that all money or borrowing in the account belongs to either person equally. It would not be compatible with this basic premise of a joint account to have a toggle or option which would contradict this.
As someone else has suggested, perhaps a sole Monzo or pre–paid account is better suited to your partner issuing you an allowance, if that works for you. But please give some thought that this method is also open to abuse in general, if your salary or wages are paid directly to another person’s account you lose control/ownership of it, and rely of that person to pay it back to you.
Perhaps a combination of joint account/personal/pre–paid will work for your particular situation having thoroughly discussed it with your partner. I wish you the very best in getting on top of your financial well-being.
Domestic abuse is much more than just physical. I think people are only just waking up to the extent to which control over money is abused by some people.
Of course, the problem is much bigger than the banking system itself.
Cue massive discussion…
I’m conscious that this discussion is not particularly relevant to the original post, but I’d like to continue the discussion about Financial Control, Domestic Abuse and Monzo. I’ll start a new topic.
