Yes, and worth every penny (consider the individual accounts and cc are free though, so I would think of it as a fee for the entire package of three accounts and cards).
In my personal situation it is absolutely worth (note: not married, but I would do it regardless of legal status).
I’ve tried the other solution (each pays and we refund) but it is more time consuming, e.g. instead of calculating groceries amount every month and splitting in half and refunding the remainder, etc. it is simply a budget item in the joint account and any leftover is rolled to next month. Once a month we take stock of under-spent / over-spent budget and rebalance.
Note the difference between cash flow and budget, in my opinion the budgeting part has the same effort in either method, but the cash-flow and reconciliation part is faster with a properly planned joint account.
For me personally it is also a matter of financial education and learn being responsible, once the expenses are budgeted in a third account entirely dedicated to that, it is very clear for my S.O. what is the disposable income leftover and the savings rate.
Edit: and in the end, use what works best for you and your family!
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Not married, but with kid. Both our incomes are deposited on our joint account, from which we pay all our expenses (private and joint). Easy and works for both of us (I earn quite a bit more). Whatever is left over at the end of the year goes into a shared investment account.
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My wife and I both opened ZAK accounts before we were married. You can create a common pool there. It’s the only reason why we have ZAK.
We just put all non-recurring payments there. She takes care of big ticket items, I take care of most groceries. It balances out.
I haven’t figured out how to justly divvy up taxes, so I just transfer her a fixed amount based roughly on our proportional income and she takes care of the rest.
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We have one joint account, thats it (plus 2 Revolut for foreign expenses).
For investment, it is still in my name, but we have the value at the date x when we got married. Everything else is shared anyway (also legally).
We are more or less on the same page financially, so it is not an issue.
When my wife came from India, she had no income (was not allowed to work until the official date of marriage + intensive Germain classes). Now she earns some but I am still the main income.
We use the banking package for families from UBS which includes personal accounts too. Yes it costs 15 franc but makes the life quite easier for both of us. All the common expenses like dining out, groceries and housing are paid by the joint account. Until now we contributed 50/50 but I will take over more since my wife reduce work to stay with the baby.
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I would also suggest the UBS Family package. I know it‘s CHF 180 per year, but it‘s the best thing for couples currently on the market. You get your individual accounts, your joint accounts, as many debit cards (with free withdrawals from any ATM in CH) as you need, both a Visa/MC creditcard and great apps. I know many people that work in a bank and a lot of them are using this package despite having free accounts with their own non-UBS bank. So it‘s kind of telling.
It‘s 6 months for free btw and if they have a partnership with the company you work for (called UBS premium easy), it will be free for the first 2 years.
But maybe that‘s just me. I like to pay more if it suits my needs better. I pay 69.- for my (true) 10Gbits internet from Init7 for example. If you are the 100Mbits 9.-/month guy, then this UBS package won‘t be anything for you.
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Our setup (not married but in couple for 11 years) :
- 1 joint account where our salaries are paid and used to pay for all our expenses.
- 1 saving account each for our own money that we had before the joint account (it will probably disappear for a joint saving account)
- 1 neon each where we setup 1000 CHF each year and use it freely until it’s gone (we track it on YNAB). If needed we recharge it.
That’s all.
We are using ZKB (each one private account + a shared one; makes CHF 1 per month for each account, therefore CHF 36 per year). Savings accounts are free.
We do not use any debit cards but free credit cards only (shared Cashback Amex/Master). Each of us is using additional private credit cards.
If a withdrawal is necessary (or even paying in) we have each a “Kundenkarte”, which is free as well (never used that before, tbh). Since we are living in Zurich, there are tons of ZKB ATMs or branches. But who is using cash anyway.
E-banking is top notch and I know the one from UBS as a former client. Therefore, for us, ZKB is the best solution and has 80% lesser costs than UBS. Obviously, the CHF 180 are peanuts for all of us, but why should I spend this amount each year of my life if I have the identical service somewhere else?
Of course, if one needs debit cards and a credit card from UBS with its benefits and programs, then the UBS package can make sense.
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I wonder why noone had mentioned BCV so far. Looks like the best offer for couples to me.
- Minimum 15k stored or mortgage with them, otherwise CHF 15 per month. In that case, I would choose UBS over BCV.
- E-banking is from stone age (main reason to terminate my account after two months).
- No clean translations in e-banking and on their website (a lot of things are availably in French only, just browse a bit).
- High withdrawal fees at non-banque cantonal ATMs.
Pro:
- Nice benefits with their debit card, if you live in Vaud and use the discounts.
I would choose UBS over BCV in any case. UBSs e-banking is probably one of the cleanest I have ever seen.
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Anybody have any experience with Raiffeisen?
They offer their own joint account with these conditions:
- must both receive their salary on the account (min. 1250 CHF per months)
- must pay 200 CHF per person as a “depot”, kind of like buying their share, and you get interest on it.
You get:
- free joint account
- free Kundenkarte (free withdraws from Raiffeisen)
- Membership bonus MemberPlus | Raiffeisen
Seems to be quite good especially for families from what I’ve herad.
You don’t get:
- I believe you only get one debit card free, the other is 40 CHF per year.
What I don’t know is:
- what their E-Banking is like
Any experiences?
I have a personal Member account with Raiffeisen. E-Banking, E-bill, Twint, have nothing to complain about.
It is buying shares of respective Raiffeisen Bank. The exact conditions depend on specific bank.
Why bother? In your bullet points the “family” account and credit card would be in your name, and your wife pays a tribute that you fix annualy? That would bother me more than 5 Franks a month.
As a couple, we used to have a joint account which we both funded to cover joint expenses.
Once married, the joint account became the default for all income, and most expenses and savings.
We keep free, mobile-only accounts for personal allowances (“pocket money”) that we transfer monthly and don’t track in detail.
Either way, I think it’s important to clarify what expenses are covered together and that money on the joint account isn’t his or hers, but yours. Independent of who earns what.
What if you have different spending habbits maybe even opposite to income? Is that fair?
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That sounds like something you might want to figure out before marrying your partner.
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In thas case, these agreements are even more important. You could always reduce the amount available for spending on the joint account.
Depends, obviously. I assumed that’s
I understand some families don’t have combined finances. That’s fine. My point to OP was that an set up where both are happy and don’t feel dependent is more important compared to saving a few Franks in fees.
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Not necessarily if you keep the finances separate as far as the law allows for.
My partner and I are unmarried so have legally separate assets but have been cohabiting for many years now. Our approach is:
- We have a joint account which we use for all shared expenses (rent, bills, groceries, going out together, holidays, etc).
- We each pay a fixed amount from our separate accounts to the shared account each month in proportion to our post-tax income.
- We keep a buffer in the account of ~3x the total monthly transfer into the account.
- If we misjudged our expenses, the money in the account reduces or increases over time. If it’s due to a one-off we rebalance by making a one-off payment or withdrawal to our individual accounts. If this keeps happening we adjust our monthly total.
- Around once per year we sit down together and review our financial situation, including how our regular expenses look.
When we are deciding on anything (e.g. how to split the monthly payments, what the monthly total should be) we usually create a spreadsheet to perform calculations. In that spreadsheet we write down what we decided, the reasons for it, and any underlying principles that this reflects.
I think of this a bit like an “Investment Policy Statement” for our personal finances: it forces us to discuss things until we are both happy, and to write it down so that we can refer to it later. (Now that we have done things this way for a while, I find it kind of shocking when I hear of other couples that just muddle through their joint finances without ever really talking things through fully!)
We each have relatively low expenses outside of the joint expenses, which makes budgeting reasonably easy.
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You’re right, the bullet point list was the cheapest way I’ve come up with. But it’s not my preferred way. I don’t want to keep doing what we’re doing now. I want the money to be ours. Both would keep their private account of course. But I’d much prefer the situation you described. I just don’t want to pay fees.
I did research some more and we’re probably going to go with Raiffeisen Joint Account as it keeps the costs at almost zero monthly.
What is your bank?