Should unmarried couples have one bank account?

When a couple joins financial forces, it’s typically so they can accomplish a joint savings goal or contribute to shared expenses, such as those that come from living together.

This is a typical step for married couples, but more unmarried couples are taking the plunge to combine households: The number of unmarried partners that live together nearly tripled between 1996 and 2017 from 6 million to 17 million, according to the most recent figures available from the

U.S. Census. From living together to sharing other financial goals, unmarried couples may have questions about how they can manage their money together.

One way to streamline shared expenses is to open a joint bank account, which can simplify the way you pay for things together. If you’re considering opening a joint bank account with your partner, you’ll want to think about the pros and cons of that option.

Benefits of a joint account

Joint accounts can be useful for managing regular expenses as well as longer-term financial goals. Perhaps you and your partner want to make it easier to pay your rent and utility bills from one pot, or maybe you want to save for a vacation, wedding or house together. A joint account can be a useful place to start, as long as you lay ground rules together for how much you each plan to contribute, how you’re going to use the funds in the account and what you’ll do if your relationship ends.

Taylor Kovar, a certified financial planner and CEO of

TheMoneyCouple.com, says unmarried couples should be very careful about opening a joint account. There aren’t as many legal protections as there are for married couples, who have inherent legal co-ownership of assets that the couple acquired after they got married. He says that there’s safety in keeping your own accounts and then opening a separate joint account that you and your partner both contribute to.

“There needs to be very transparent tracking for the account,” Kovar says. “Both people should be able to access the account at all times. You should both agree on what the account can and can’t be used for, so that way if an argument occurs, then you’ll both be clear on what went wrong.”

Drawbacks of a joint account

The primary drawback of a joint account is dealing with the dreaded question: What are we going to do with this account if we break up?

Parting ways is hard enough, but when there are shared assets