<p>I am in my twenties and out of college, but have gotten great advice here before, so I am curious what you parents think. </p>
<p>More than two years ago, my ex-boyfriend added me to his bank account. This was done on my request when I learned that a. his job offered cheaper/better health insurance than my job at the time and b. this was a viable way of proving that we are unmarried partners, qualifying me for coverage under his policy. We agreed that this move is a formality and I have never used the account. </p>
<p>We broke up shortly thereafter and I requested that he take me off the account. He learned that in order to do so he would have to close the account entirely and that turned out to be true when I called as well. He reasoned that it is not worth the hassle to close the account as many of his other accounts are tied to it and I did not press the issue further. </p>
<p>He has since moved to Europe, where he intends to live permanently. I brought up closing the account again just recently, but he says it is even more complicated to do so now that he is no longer in the U.S. He has a history of being financially responsible and is unlikely to dig himself into a financial hole. Yet, I still want the account closed. Am I being reasonable? What arguments can I give him so he will agree and comply with my wishes? Can I somehow get myself off of this account even if he doesn’t want this to happen? </p>
<p>During the more recent conversation, he has stated that some of his investments are through this U.S. account and he is unlikely to be able to open a new one given that he no longer has a U.S. address. Therefore, he would like to keep this account. </p>
<p>I told him I am not giving him a deadline and that I would be happy to comply with whatever I need to do on my end to help him take care of it. He agreed to close it (not without a fight, of course) and even forwarded me some of his correspondence with the bank. This was a few months ago and the account is still open… I am preparing myself for my next e-mail conversation.</p>
<p>Not that this is your problem since he is your ex, but…
If he has any recurring payments billed to that account, he’ll need to get them billed to a different account. For instance, if he has things in storage in the US with the monthly bill paid by that account, you may see his stuff on Storage Wars if he isn’t thorough. </p>
<p>I go thru this every time one of my credit cards gets replaced, which is about to happen again because of the Target hack.</p>
<p>I would hate to close the US bank account of someone who might be unable to open a new one, can you go in person and request to be removed? It might be something that can be done by a person who has more authority or experience than the telephone people you have spoken with.</p>
<p>What’s the point of closing the account? The downside of keeping you on it is all his. If he dies, his money is yours. What is it that you think he can do with your name on the account?</p>
<p>It really IS a pain to close your “hub” account where you have all of your investment accounts tied to. I can imagine this being even more difficult if you are out of the country.</p>
<p>He’s had two years to close this acct.
Since he has been unable or unwilling to get a similar acct in his name only, I wonder what is stopping him?
If he wrote a bad check on this joint acct, they could come after OP to pay the debt.
Just doesn’t sound very wise to leave it open.</p>
<p>The OP could clean out the money in the account anytime she wished too, or if a judgment was filed against her, a bank levy could result in the money being grabbed. The guy is foolish keeping OP on joint account, especially if he keeps any real money in the account.</p>
<p>I will see how much progress he has made in transferring over all his stuff and take it from there. I am open to going to the bank to see if they can take me off depending on where he is in the process. I guess I thought it is a hard “no,” but we will see. Thank you for the suggestion, somemom. </p>
<p>As for why I even need to do this, I guess I don’t want to explain this “formality” to anyone I am with going forward. There is a also psychological factor in having no
more ties to him. I do agree staying on it is low risk, but I don’t see why I have to suck it up so it could be hassle-free for him. He is adept at navigating red tape and he had plenty of time to solve this. </p>
<p>In the past, when H was in a joint account with his bro & several others (who died), he had to get notarized signature of himself and bro, as well as death certs of those who died and close the account, reopen a new account with just him & bro. There was no way they said for us to just take off the folks who died and leave H & bro. I’d try talking with the supervisor at the bank about what at the options are if you want to be removed from this joint account. They have the most authority. It really makes no sense for you to stay on the account, especially if he’s out of the country. </p>
<p>I’d tell him in writing that you want to be off the account and come up with a date that makes sense for YOU and say that is the date by which you plan to take steps to get yourself off the joint account, and that he should take steps accordingly.</p>
<p>If the rules are that tight, forcing a new account to be opened to remove you perhaps the branch manager has a way to streamline the transfer of auto payments and auto deposits?</p>
<p>But I can say that DH & I were on accounts with our kids and when they graduated from college we simply asked the bank to take us off and they did. It was the account we used for all college $ dealings so nothing about a minor account. IIR, it had to be somewhat formal, they had to verify our identity and speak to each of us.</p>
<p>It’s true that some accounts we had with our kids we were able to just have our names removed and some we just had to close because the institutions would NOT allow us to just remove our names. You need to speak with a manager at the institution where the joint account is being held to get a final answer, preferably in writing. Good luck!</p>
<p>Joint accounts are not all created equal - it depends on the exact titling of the account. Accounts with children are often set up as guardian accounts, those with spouses as joint tenant, etc. Also, every joint account will have one primary social security number that gets used for tax purposes. If it is yours then that could complicate matters.</p>
<p>Yeah, joint checking account ownership can get tricky and laws vary in different states. In Florida even if your signature card does not mention tenancy by the entireties (most do not), Florida law now presumes a joint account held by husband and wife is a tenancy by the entireties. This is true regardless of what (if any) form of ownership was checked when the account was opened. If the account ownership is joint tenancy by the entireties and one of the spouses has a judgment lien, the account can’t be touched by judgment creditors if other spouse wasn’t on loan note related to the judgment action. Few bankers really understand fully all the fine print on their signature cards and the checking account agreements. If joint account owners aren’t husband and wife, judgment creditor can grab the money in the joint account even if one of owners wasn’t on judgment loan note.</p>