But that’s my point.
If you are very unambiguous and comply with the requirements (of which there must be some) and both parties agree, surely that would be fine?
Not necessarily. All it might take is a counter claim by another interested party in probate, claiming that the money wasn’t in a traditional joint account and therefore not eligible to go to the other account holder, and a court would have to decide. The court could overrule the Ts&Cs of the bank if it decided they were not fair, or create some other legal precedent not envisaged by the bank or any other person.
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sighs
If only people could be nice to each other 
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It’s not simply about people not being nice. It could end up working the other way, whereby the surviving (separate) account holder might become liable for the inheritance tax of their deceased partner.
Basically, in inventing a whole new product, Monzo’s users might end up being a test case in UK law.
I dunno. I reckon Monzo’s clever lawyers know more than me anyway.
I think it will probably end up being debated at length by lawyers! I have no knowledge of this kind of stuff really
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Hi there is it possible to have a Monzo joint account with a spouse? So that we can share spending data etc?
Thanks
James
Hi @JSporle 
I moved your post here, as this is where majority of Joint accounts discussion took place, feel free to read back a bit, and if you have any new insight, we’d love to hear about it. 
If you want to read even more, the magnifying glass icon in upper right corner (also called ‘frying pan’ 
) and please search for ‘join accounts’ to find even more on the subject. We name them with numbers, Joint Account 8, Joint accounts 1, etc.
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Exactly the same here. We both currently have monzo cards as part of the pre-paid beta, and looking forward to the current accounts, but would need a joint account facility in order to completely switch!
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Think this idea of virtual pot of money and splitting items with a partner is great (much better than a regular joint account type thing) - I’m looking for exactly that…features that I think might be great:
- I love the splitting 50:50 or chosing your own amounts respective to salaries
- Both individuals should retain their own finances, tracking, own money etc, but whenever they buy something there should be one button to “pay from joint account pot” (probably easier after the purchase is made) that would use the money from that pot (standard monzo learning to do this next time perhaps)
- You can then have tracking/spending for that pot, similarly as we do with our own accounts and probably different/bespoke categories
- I think either an auto top-up or manual top-up would work, similar to the top up debit now. Users could chose to put some money in every month automatically, top up when they want, maybe a push notification to the other person to confirm it
Benefits
- This means that we can all keep one card, and not have to carry around more than one card each
- We can include our joint account spending in our own spending so we can keep track of it all - right now the idea of getting a joint account elsewhere is annoying as I would have to lose some tracking (all the tracking I’m hopefully going to get soon with current accounts and everything goes through monzo finally!)
- We can see the spending and tracking on our own accounts, it can have the full amount in brackets or something with your share shown
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I have read some (but definitely not all! 
) of the discussion on joint accounts so apologies if I duplicate anything already said. Rather than discuss possible solutions I would rather state my (or our) requirements following a fairly lengthly discussion with my other half on this topic.
-
It should be possible for a couple to have a single
account that is associated with two debit cards and each of those cards associated with one or more unique iOS (or Android) devices. -
All funds (and debts) within that account are jointly owned by both parties under UK law. Hence if one of the account holders dies or is for any reason unable to access the account then the other person retains uninterrupted full access to the money.
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The use of pots to divide up the money into different virtual accounts where some of the pots are private should be optional. i.e. there should be an option to operate the account with a single pot that is 100% visible to both parties in their app feed.
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There needs to be a way of terminating the agreement in the event of a dispute between the two parties. The account should be frozen until the parties agree how to divide up the funds as per advice from the CAB
Yes and no. Most banks offer a joint account where both parties are deemed under English Law to be jointly and severally owners of the account so both liable for total debts (such as overdraft) and if one dies the other effectively owns the whole account as they take ownership of the other party’s share, however there are some accounts where joint owners are proportionately owners so only entitled to their proportion on death of the other party who’s proportion transfers to the control of the executor or executrice of their accounts and assets.
Understood, our requirements are the former. Realise that might not be the case for everyone which I guess is why some banks offer the proportionate option.
The issues Monzo face with joint accounts include the requirement to provide each party with statements (unless they agree to waive this obligation by agreement to a mandate incorporating this waiver) and to notify each party of any unauthorised overdrawing.
The biggest issue is the resolution of disagreements over the account. The Law for customers resident in Scotland is different to the Law for customers in England. So that is something they need to think about prior to offering joint accounts.
Here is a summary of the position regarding joint accounts including how disputed funds are handled differently in Scotland to England:
JOINT ACCOUNTS
When you open a joint account, the bank or building society should tell you about the extra rights and responsibilities involved before you open the account. They should tell you:
if one person can take out all of the money without the others knowing or giving their permission
if each person is individually responsible for paying back the whole amount of any overdraft on the account
what to do if your relationship with a joint account-holder ends.
Who can manage a joint account
When two or more people decide to open a joint bank account, they have to sign a form called a mandate. The mandate sets out what the joint account holders can do, for example, who can sign cheques and take money out.
You can cancel the mandate at any time without the agreement of the others. You would need to do this, for example, if you want to change the terms of the joint account or close it.
However, it is possible to draw up a mandate which only allows you to change the terms of the joint account or to close it with the agreement of all the account holders.
The bank or building society must send statements to all the joint account holders individually. This is unless all the account holders sign an agreement that they only want to receive one statement.
Joint account holders are not automatically allowed to use each other’s credit. Credit must not be linked to the account of one of the account holders without the agreement of all the other account holders. This is because the other account holders would then be responsible for the debt.
If an overdraft has not been arranged on a joint account, all the account holders should be told if an unauthorised overdraft occurs.
Who is responsible for debts
If you have a joint account and your own personal account with the same bank or building society, the bank can transfer money from your personal account to cover a debt on your joint account. The bank might do this automatically, although in practice, banks will often ask your permission before transferring money in this way.
However, the bank can’t transfer money out of your joint account to cover a debt on your own personal account, unless all the joint account holders have agreed to this or the terms and conditions of your joint account say this can happen. If the terms and conditions say this can happen, your bank must have pointed this out to the account holders.
If there’s an overdraft on a joint account, each joint account holder is responsible for the whole of the money owing.
If there is disagreement about a joint account
If you have a disagreement with another joint account holder, you should cancel the joint account mandate straight away.
If the mandate isn’t cancelled straight away, any one account holder will still be able to get access to the account and the bank won’t be able to refuse to pay them.
When you cancel a joint account mandate, the account will be frozen. All the account holders will then have to agree on how to divide the money up between them. If it’s not possible to agree, the courts will have to decide how to divide the money up.
In England and Wales, if all the people pay money into the joint account, it is assumed that they all own the amount jointly, it doesn’t matter how much each person pays in. For a husband and wife or civil partners, it is assumed the money in the account belongs to both of you, even if only one of you pays into the account. However, for joint account holders who are not married or civil partners, if one of you isn’t paying into the account, it isn’t assumed that that person owns the money. It can be difficult to prove that you own the money in a joint account if you aren’t paying into it, unless you can show that it was the clear intention of the joint account to have a common fund which each person could use.
In Scotland, it is assumed that the money held in a joint account belongs to the person who paid it in unless it can be shown that it was intended to be held jointly. This rule applies whether the joint account holders are married, in a civil partnership or living together. In practice, all the joint account holders may be able to access all of the money, and any disagreement about who the money belongs to would have to be decided by the courts.
PS not sure if the position on account ownership or disputes is different in Northern Ireland or if similar to that of Scotland or England
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Yes certainly a bit complicated but at least it is a well trodden path. I am worried that the pots idea will not meet our needs (and possibly be in uncharted legal territory) so couples like ourselves that want to be completely open with each other’s finances, may find themselves having to maintain a joint account elsewhere, which would have to hold the majority of our monthly funds. That then leads to the question of whether maintaining another current account (i.e. ) is worth it, which as an investor and fan I really don’t want to have to be asking myself!
Hopefully after the excitement over the foreign ATM poll calms down (1000+ posts in 18 hours!!), Tom and others might have time to come back to this subject and give us some more details on their plans in this area! 
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Joint finances are totally modern. I find it odd people run houses together without having joint accounts. Suspicious in my mind. Anyway, a joint Monzo would be grand.
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Hardly. My parents ran a joint account since the early 60s. Agreed that for joint household expenses it’s a must-have. I’m eager to see how Monzo will improve on this tried and tested arrangement.
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Sorry BobT, think you misunderstood me. Was saying they’re not outdated nor old fashioned as you have indeed so ably demonstrated.
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I have not read the whole thread, but how about utilising pots? Have a ‘shared’ pot that you can share with another Monzo member, both can pay into the pot from their own account? Direct debits come out of that shared pot controlled by one account or both accounts.
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It sounds like that’s the plan 
Great so basically that completely makes the point of joint accounts redundant … it’s a dated paradigm, many modern couples just have their own accounts and take responsibility of certain bills/food shops. Couples want their financial independance, shared pots will do this …
I really am really excited about pots more than anything else Monzo has to offer moving forward, my partner is on Monzo also and will simplify many things.