two checking accounts? : Personal Finance

I used 2 checking accounts (bills and other) before starting YNAB. It's probably the only reason I still own my house and didn't lose a car or anything during some time when I was not paying attention to my finances (except my credit limits). I continued to keep the two separate accounts for the first two years I used YNAB, because I didn't trust myself not to spend my 'bills' money on other stuff. I also, during my first year of ynab, didn't use credit cards at all, so I used that 'other' account with a debit card (no debit card for the bills account) for all other spending, besides bills.

YNAB is more complex with more accounts. I had one master category for my bills, and I kept the balance in that account around that of the master. However, this does require extra work, as YNAB doesn't care where the money lives for any particular category. Since I had things very well compartmentalized, it wasn't too bad. When it really gets difficult is if you have one expense that you sometimes pay from one account and sometimes from the other. Or if one is a savings account that you want to match a category to, but you can't spend from the account because it's savings. Etc.

Pros without YNAB, you can look at your bank balance and know what you can spend on the expenses you designate as coming from that account (in aggregate).
Cons without YNAB, can't think of any.

Cons with YNAB, it adds a layer of complexity. And if you're just learning how YNAB works, it can be a bit much for some to make it work like this
Pros with YNAB, can't think of any (except an extra layer of protection...which isn't necessary if you spend according to category limits as ynab is designed to do).

One thing I DID switch when I moved to YNAB, even though I kept the extra account. I used to have the exact amount for my bills go to my bills account and the rest went to my 'spending' account. So...I spent it. When I started YNAB and I wanted the extra money to be sent off to the credit card as an extra/snowball amount at the end of the month if I had anything left, I started putting a little less that when I thought I'd spend into the spending account and left the bills account on the heavy side. Sometimes I had to transfer more over, but I was often able to send more at the end of the month to the evil credit cards.

I did sweat the transferring a bit. Now I know that I was probably making myself overly crazy by doing that and that as long as I was spending according to category balances, it would have worked out just the same if I hadn't kept the spending account as lean as I did. But it worked.

You mentioned a reason that you'd open an account at the one bank because it's more convenient, but you don't say why you wouldn't be considering just moving over to the more convenient bank entirely. If you don't need two accounts, don't keep the old one. (Or if you don't get charged fees, just keep it but don't use it...or keep enough there to avoid vees, etc.)

Malisa
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Source: http://www.youneedabudget.com/forum/personal-finance-f9/two-checking-accounts-t20053.html

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