Joint bank accounts

[alison]

I've recently had cause to open a joint bank account.  Now, my experience with other people's accounts in the past was always that both parties' names were on the cards/cheque book etc., and I had assumed that each party had a separate but identical card, so it was always very clear that it was a joint account.  In this case, though, we have been given individual cards, with just the one name on each, and with different card numbers, and also, I presume, PINs, although the account number is the same.  This is rather annoying, because I'd also opened a separate individual current account with the same provider, and had been banking (no pun intended) on having one card with two names and one with one on so that I could distinguish them easily, but now I'm going to have to put a sticky label on one so I can tell them apart.

 

Am I just out of touch, and is this what banks generally do these days, or is it just that my new provider has decided to do things differently?  The latter certainly wouldn't surprise me, based on past experience.

[LaCamargo]

Our bank has certainly done it this way with joint accounts for the last 30 years - separate card numbers,  separate names and no indication that it is a joint account other than on the cheque book and statements. 

[Pas de Quatre]

Yes, our banks cards and credit cards have different names, numbers and pin numbers for us both. For the first few years of marriage we kept our own accounts - mine was still in my maiden name. Then when we moved house (these were the days when your accounts were at a physical branch), we decided to rationalise making everything joint. So some accounts become Mr & Mrs, and mine became Mrs & Mr.

[Sim]

Same here.  Same account, individual names and numbers on the cards, different pin numbers.  

[alison]

Okay, thanks. It's not some stupid Nationwide whim, then.

[taxi4ballet]

I worked in a bank in the 1980's and even then, joint account cards just had the cardholder's name on, not the name of the joint account with both names. Cheque books are pretty outdated now, but I think that those (and paying-in slips) would have the joint account name on them.

[AnneMarriott]

1 hour ago, taxi4ballet said:

I worked in a bank in the 1980's and even then, joint account cards just had the cardholder's name on, not the name of the joint account with both names. Cheque books are pretty outdated now, but I think that those (and paying-in slips) would have the joint account name on them.

Chequebooks and paying in books do have both names.  I have a joint Nationwide account and, as reported above, each debit card has just one name and one 16 digit number and has done for years.  Incidentally I was amazed recently when our window cleaner who arrived unexpectedly and I told him I didn't have any cash, said, "A cheque is fine".  I noticed that the last time I had written a cheque was September 2019.