Joint Checking Between 3 people

[wickedtrue.livejournal.com]

I have a bit of an odd question! May be you guys might be able to help.

My two roommates and myself are attempting to switch banks and recreate our joint household checking account. We've run into, though, that the smaller, local banks won't open a joint checking account between three people.

Does anyone know a bank in the area that isn't BOA or Citizens that might do this? We tried Winter Hill, and they weren't able to help us (but were very polite and apologetic for it!). I've been trying to call other banks' customer service, but they've been recommending me call the physical local banks for this information, so that will happen on Monday.

Thank you for your help if anyone has any experience with this! The thought never even occurred to me that this might be an issue.

Comments

[dial-zero.livejournal.com]

Have you tried a credit union? Sorry I don't have any more specific info, but it sounds like something a credit union might do.

[bombardiette.livejournal.com]

Damn. You beat me to it.

[enhf94.livejournal.com]

...such as USAlliance? There's on on Mass Ave not far from Davis and Porter.

[jadasc.livejournal.com]

Wainwright will do it.

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

Seconded (from personal experience).

[ron_newman]

But if you open it there, ask to make sure that Eastern is willing to keep the account after they take over Wainwright.

[bombardiette.livejournal.com]

I don't know if this will help, but what I've done in the past is appointed a primary account holder and then gotten authorized debit cards and direct deposit for all other users. It's worked out well.

The downside is that the primary is the sole responsible party so if someone dicks you over, you're left holding the bag.

The only thing the others cannot do is write a check out of the account.

Also, if that won't work for you, I would see if one or two of you could open an account with Winter Hill and then add someone later, instead of everyone doing it at once. It's not a common request, and I've found that often times, smaller banks (and even my credit union) aren't necessarily staffed with folks that are fully aware of what they can actually do, so because they've never heard of it being done, assume that it can't be.

Good luck!

[marphod.livejournal.com]

An alternative is to form a small private business, and open an account in the name of the business with all three of you having signing authority.

On the other hand, you'll get business checking rates and fees rather than personal.

[gingernoname.livejournal.com]

This is what I was going to suggest. I live in a two family home with a "condo association" that consists of us and our upstairs neighbors. We have an account at Citizens with four people authorized to write checks. It wasn't a big deal to set up and I'm not even sure that we had to show them documentation of the association.

[siderea]

Quite some years ago, my two then-roommates and I did exactly the same thing at Cambridge Trust Company (in Harvard Square).

[clevernonsense.livejournal.com]

you can do this with the ING checking account and I think you can still get the $50 bonus for starting the account/using it for 50 days. The nice thing about it is you can pay the rent through it and they will write and mail the check for you :) It also gives you a tiny bit of interest.

[ron_newman]

Just curious -- did Winter Hill explain why they weren't able to do this?

[frankmcs.livejournal.com]

Try Cambridge Savings Bank. I'm pretty sure they do. There is one in Porter SQ.