Banking with Spouse | Joint Account with Spouse in Singapore

Bank Accounts | Singapore

JOINT ACCOUNT WITH SPOUSE

As goes the saying, “Marriages are made in heaven and celebrated on earth,” after which another kind of celebration begins, the married life. You are jointly responsible & accountable for decisions in life, taken to run the show smoothly.

“Money Management” becomes most critical responsibility which you as a couple you need to shoulder. As a working individual, you were having a personal savings account which you were independently handling, but after marriage things change.

To efficiently shoulder the responsibility of running the household, you can opt for opening a joint account with your bank. It will provide ease of operation where either of you can withdraw or deposit the money as per your need. It is essentially a joint account with two account holders (read: Spouses). All activities in your account are visible to the other, which is like being on a reality show. You can choose to deposit a fixed amount from your salary in the joint account from which you can pay all your utility bills or meet other household expenses.

Rest of the money you can keep in your saving account.  This means that the joint savings account is strictly used for purchases only, and you can have the freedom to spend whichever way you want from your own savings account. This gives you more independence and privacy as a couple as far as finances are concerned.

To avoid any conflict later, the sums could be mutually decided for monthly contribution in the joint account so that you know what holds for you during the month. But you should not forget to take emergencies into account.

Better Money Management 

If you have a future financial goal, you can park the funds in this joint account which you can utilise when you are ready with other things. Moreover, you can keep money in this account for paying your home EMI or Car EMI as a part of better planning.

For this, you can accumulate savings in accounts like the CIMB FastSaver, which can earn you 1% interest for the first $50,000. But for something more flexible with fewer hoops to jump through, opt for UOB One. DBS Multiplier account is another good option for your long-term savings. Banks in Singapore have host of options if you plan to open a joint account.

Many couples overlook the fact in case of Joint Account that both are 100% owners of the account and it’s not a 50-50% share arrangement. In reality, when you open a joint account with your spouse, you give him or her the rights to all the money in the account.

Even if you’ve been the one contributing 90% of the funds to your account, as a joint account holder your spouse is also regarded as the rightful owner of the funds. This means he or she can legally do anything he or she wants to 100% of the funds in the account.

Still, you need to answer the following questions before the opening of the joint account:

• Do you and your spouse need to open a joint savings account?
• Whether you are better off designating one of your own personal savings accounts as your de facto joint savings account.

One big advantage of having a joint account is that in case one of the account holders passes away, the savings in the joint-account automatically belongs to the surviving account holder. This is good because if a joint savings account is meant for shared household expenses, you would, as the surviving spouse, be able to continue using the savings in this account to pay for household expenses.

Though the interest rate is quite low here, hence it is not advisable for building a corpus.

This way the joint account is your test of mutual trust which you need to pass with flying colours.

Preferred Savings Bank Accounts:

UOB ONE: Offers pretty decent interest as long as you perform certain actions like Credit card spend of at least $500 (UOB One Card, UOB Lady’s Card or UOB YOLO Card). A UOB One Debit Mastercard* will be automatically issued upon successful application of your UOB One Account. The operating mandate will be Joint-OR (either party to sign). Both account holders can access the funds in the account.

CIMB FASTSAVER ACCOUNT: Offers high interest up to 1.50% P.A with no multiple conditions no credit card spend, salary crediting, monthly fees or investment purchases.

DBS Multiplier Account: Higher interest rates of up to 3.80% p.a. on bigger savings up to S$100,000. No minimum amount required; you can start earning higher interest when you transact with no minimum amount required across your DBS/POSB products. Regardless if you are a young professional, student, self-employed, salaried or a retiree, you can multiply easily and grow with the DBS Multiplier Account in a Joint or Single Account.

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