My longtime girlfriend and I want to set up a joint-checking account as well as a (or more than one if worthwhile) joint-credit card account for us to use for shared expenses like food, gas, groceries, travel, home goods, shared gift-giving, etc. Both of us bank with Chase so it's likely we'll establish the joint-checking (and savings) account there but curious to hear from the WSO crowd which credit cards work best for joint expenses. Most of our spend goes towards eating out and groceries with travel being a distant third.
Ideally looking for responses from people in relationships where living expenses get shared evenly or close to.
We are in largely the same boat - albeit with more travel expenses that it seems you both have - 50/50 split across the board. For the last few years, I've basically paid for the majority of split expenses and then she pays rent - and we net it out, transfer any balances as needed... which is starting to just turn into a wash situation and if there's major outlays we just settle up immediately. We are getting married soon, so it's all gonna be a wash at some point.
Anyway - we are going to get a joint checking account at the same place (a credit union she uses) to make transferring easier, cutting out venmo/paypal stuff. I'll probably then open one there, and call it a day.
Credit cards - at this point, I'm just going to add her to my sapphire reserve which will eliminate hers (we each have one - which makes zero sense now) for shared expenses. If we travel less, probably move to the AMEX gold or similar - but either way, one card we are joint on. Then we each will have our own for whatever - I have a platinum, would like her to get an airline card. I don't think there's a great answer here personally - just pick what you care about the most, and consolidate all the spend you can on it.
I appreciate the response. Similar on our end in that engagement is coming soon but we've been living together for years so looking to make tracking expenses easier on us by each of us contributing $x into a joint account while still maintaining separate accounts. We started off doing what you're doing by truing up at the end of each month but it's gotten away from us a little bit and we're something like 8 months behind on truing up. It's been a headache trying to reconcile across our separate individual CCs so we made a new year resolution to get a card solely for shared expenses to split the bill on vs. falling behind like we have.
AmEx Gold is the one we were looking at given we travel ~2x a year max (not counting work travel) so glad to hear we're not looking at the wrong card. Thanks again.
If nothing else, I feel better now that it's not just me who has been going crazy on settling up!
The other cards to look at are Amex blue cash or the capital one savor - the latter looks pretty fantastic, $100 a year with 4% back on dining, entertainment, streaming... 3% back on groceries (aside from the Walmart or Targets) with a nice sign up bonus.
Agree with this sentiment - good analysis. Chase & Amex are pretty much the gold standard for credit cards any way you fall, and a joint account is no exception.
Currently have the joint Gold with my wife, thats my day-to-day card. We each have a separate Platinum, but hers is personal and mine is the Amex Business one. Really only need one joint card, so I would recommend a Gold or a CSP/CSR depending on how much you take advantage of perks.
Great write up by original comment!
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