Why go for a joint account?
A joint account is a current account in your name and the name of one or more other individuals. Joint accounts are especially useful if you are
- Cohabiting (whether casually or under a legal arrangement)
- Married
- In a relationship and frequently make joint purchases with your partner
- Planning to move in together or get married
It doesn't matter whether or not you already have your own current account: you can still open a second, joint account at KBC, making it easy for you and your partner, or others you share a home with, to split your household costs (like rent and the weekly shopping) and giving you a clear view of your income and expenses, for your convenience.
Shared responsibility
You and your partner are both in charge of administering the current account. This means that:
- you can both carry out the same, and the same number of, transactions
- if the account balance drops below zero, you're both liable for paying the overdraft back to the bank, regardless of who caused the fund shortage (though the situation is different if you're married)
- to open or close a joint account, the agreement of both account holders is needed (this does not apply to married couples)
Keep an eye on your income and expenses
In KBC Touch, you get a useful summary of all your joint income and expenditure. You can use it to check your current account balance online, track your payments, check your credit card spending, and so on. So, you can easily do things like see when your energy bill was settled or which of your flatmates hasn't yet paid their rent.
Which is the best type of joint account?
You and your partner should take time to run over the various types of current account we offer and compare them. A KBC Basic Account is entirely free, but you pay for extra services like withdrawing cash abroad or at branches of banks other than KBC. A KBC Plus Account gives you and your partner a low-cost joint account with two bank and/or credit cards.
Alternatives
A joint account is one way to do your shared banking, but there are other ways too
- Keep your own current accounts in your own names, and split the expenses between you
- Keep your own current account in your own name and give your partner a power of attorney, allowing them to do transactions on your current account. However, unlike with a joint account, your partner is not then an account holder and you alone are responsible for all the transactions that are carried out
