A whole generation is likely to discover the existence of the joint account, a banking product particularly rooted in traditional banks but far from being popular in new establishments such as neo-banks. Revolut, the English neo-bank with 28 million accounts opened, including nearly 2 million in France, has just announced the arrival of this very interesting alternative when you are in a relationship or with roommates to merge your finances and collaborate more easily in expenses.
The joint account allows you to have common access to a single account, so that several people can share its visibility, make withdrawals, make payments and share the financial responsibilities granted to it. The members of this account are called “co-holders”. On Revolut, they arrive at the same time as the update of the mobile application to version 9.0 (available on iOS and Android) and will be offered from the Revolut Standard level, the neo-bank’s free account.
Launch of Revolut joint accounts in France
To be able to make it simple, Revolut wants to make its joint account a fully available account regardless of the reason for the alliance of the co-holders. Whether they are a couple, whether they are friends, whether they are members of the same family or two roommates, it is possible to open an account without providing supporting documents. On the other hand, it will be necessary to agree on a common address. The two people all remain joint and several debtors, in other words they will always both be liable for the debit balance of the account with the bank.
Revolut took a long time before being able to offer joint accounts, the result of long-term work by the neo-bank to be able to first settle in Europe and obtain a European license to practice, then to establish more specifically in the countries where it is installed to offer them, for example, an IBAN relating to their country. Moreover, in its conditions, the bank orders the co-holders to have an IBAN from the same country to open an account (two French IBANs or two Lithuanian IBANs for example).
At this time, customers can only open one joint account per person. It’s rare to need more than that said, but neo-bank Revolut seems to be pretty well motivated to remove that cap. Its management certainly aims for parents to be able to obtain both a joint account for their couple and a joint account with their child, thanks to the Revolut plan accessible for minors. In the past, joint accounts were not so essential on a neo-bank like Revolut which already offers free and instant transfers between Revolut users and which offered a chat functionality.
It is always preferable, as a couple or as a roommate, to have visibility on a single account that the co-holders can fund each on their own, but also choose to save by jointly opening sub-accounts. The next step, now at Revolut France, is to get savings books and access to lines of credit.
