Alfa-Bank offered its customers to open a "family" account in a mobile application. Joint bank account: how and why to open privacy and finance

In order to use the new option, you need to download the Alfa Mobile mobile application to your smartphone and open a family account in it for free, to which you can connect up to four family members. For example, both spouses, their child, and their beloved mother-in-law can be registered on one account. Within one account, it is possible to issue an additional card for each family member. Family account participants can be not only blood relatives and spouses, but also close people, including common-law spouses. This can be useful in a variety of situations, the bank explains: for example, if customers save money for a joint celebration of the New Year or for a big gift for the wedding of someone close.

All expenses from the family account will be immediately displayed in the mobile application - no matter which member made the purchase. Everyone will be able to find out where the money goes from the family account. The client can set the data openness settings for each member of the family account at his own discretion. In addition, if the client has his own, personal accounts with Alfa-Bank, they will remain invisible to family members.

The bank has been providing insurance to the families of premium customers for a long time, and now it has taken an important step towards all families - a family account in a mobile application, Alfa emphasizes. All transfers between family members are completely free, no commission is charged. In the near future, the functionality of the family account will be expanded: for example, it is planned to introduce free transfers to another bank when you need to pay from the family account for kindergarten, circles or courses.

For a family account, you can also set up auto payments that will help you pay regular expenses on time: utilities, electricity, loans, communication services, the Internet. This will clearly show the whole family, including children, how much of the total budget such expenses “eat up”. As part of a family account, customers can open not only debit, but also credit cards: analyze their family's expenses and decide what will be more convenient and profitable.

From June 1, 2018, amendments to the legislation began to operate in the banking sector, allowing you to open a joint account. What are its specifics, which banks offer such products, what are the advantages and disadvantages of the new format?

Access is open

Since the summer of 2018, Russians have been able to open a joint bank account designed for “joint management” of funds.

On a note! Until 2017, the concept of a joint account was absent in Russian legislation, and the amendments made came into force on July 1, 2018.

In the process of searching for the best format for joint money management, legislators remembered the joint account, which is very common abroad. As a result, Russians gained access to a banking product that has the following features:

• intended for individuals (for legal entities, this has existed for more than a year);
• the number of owners - from 2 to 4 (or more, if the terms of the contract allow);
• everyone has the right to dispose of only the money that he contributed;
• third parties can replenish the general account, indicating the person to whom the money is intended;
• the funds on the joint account of the spouses (officially assigned) are considered common under Russian law (otherwise you can specify when leaving the marriage contract).

Where to apply?

It is too early to talk about the appearance of full-fledged family-wide accounts in the line of banking products. Alfa-Bank offers something as close as possible to the version of legislators. The rest, including Sberbank, make it possible to order the issuance of additional cards, for example, for a child linked to the account of one of the parents.

Important! An additional card can be issued by the account holder using the passport (certificate) of the person who is granted access to the funds. In most cases, a personal visit to a trusted person is not required.

Sberbank

Those wishing to open a joint account with Sberbank can use the service of issuing additional cards that are linked to the main account.

You can issue an additional card for most types of Sberbank "plastic", except for debit ones:

• unnamed Maestro/VisaElectronMomentum;
• Maestro (student and pension);
• Youth Visa Classic/MasterCardStandart;
• student MasterCardStandart with individual design.

Important! The additional card does not have its own account. It is tied to the account of a person who controls the expenditure of funds, sets a limit, etc.

Consider the possibilities of Sberbank customers using the example of issuing a children's additional card:

• the parent has (or opens) an account with Sberbank and receives "plastic" for himself;
• after issuing an additional card, the child will be able to pay with a card instead of cash;
• the child will not be able to transfer money or change the conditions for using the card - only the owner of the main account has access to Internet banking;
• the parent has the right to restrict access to all funds in the account by setting a limit (at the time of preparation of the article, the limit was set only when visiting the bank in person, that is, it is impossible to fix the amount or change it in Internet banking);
• by connecting an SMS notification, you can control how much a child spends;
• the cost of annual maintenance, currency and validity period depend on the conditions of the main card.

The additional card is issued in the name of the child upon a separate application of the parent. When applying, you must provide an adult passport and a child's birth certificate. Production time - up to 2 weeks.

Alfa Bank

Alfa-Bank is perhaps the only one that offers not just the issuance of additional cards, like everyone else, but the opening of access to the main account to third parties. And it doesn't have to be relatives. Up to 4 people can use the shared account at the same time.

The algorithm for turning a personal account into a common one for Alfa-Bank customers (those who have an account and a card) is as follows:

• enter the mobile application;
• find "Open a new account";
• select "Family" and click "Open";
• indicate the phone number of the person to whom you provide access to your account;
• confirm by clicking "Give access" (this is the operation you actually give the selected person a power of attorney to manage personal funds and sign a joint account agreement).

The Alfa-Bank format also offers the issuance of additional cards, but you can manage finances jointly in a mobile bank. Children's additional card, in addition to controlling funds and setting a limit, has additional advantages:

• the opportunity to choose a design with the child;
• cashback when using the card in a cafe.

Advantages and disadvantages

The benefits of a joint account are clear:

• convenience - each family member gets access to the budget;
• online control allows you to spend wisely by setting limits for everyone;
• additional card maintenance costs are lower than the fees for separate accounts.

There is a nuance that arises if the account holder dies. Everyone to whom a person has provided access to the account, in the event of his death, is deprived of the opportunity to spend money. The main account and cards linked to it (both main and additional) are blocked.

Relatives will be able to receive money only after 6 months in the process of inheritance. The blocking of the account is carried out from the date when the death certificate is provided to the bank. Until then, you can withdraw money. But lawyers warn: litigation with other heirs and the forced recovery of the withdrawn amount are not ruled out if the judge agrees with the fact of illegal receipt of money.

Important! If the account is blocked on suspicion of fraud or for debts, then everyone who had access to it will be left without money.

Foreign experience

In foreign banks joint account (joint account) is not uncommon. It has its own characteristics in different countries, but there is also something in common:

• a notarized power of attorney is not required for registration;
• number of participants - from 2 to 6;
• everyone has equal rights (less often: there is one owner with a full set of capabilities, and the rest receive limited access);
• opening a special account or combining several into one;
• inviolable limit, which is not subject to withdrawal until the expiration of the contract.

So, Bulgarian spouses have the opportunity to open a current or savings account in the national currency, US dollars, euros, pounds or Swiss francs. You can transfer salaries, pensions and other incomes of both spouses and third parties, for example, children, to the current one.

Indian couples can open one account with four additional cards, giving the remaining two to children or parents. Free withdrawals are limited and the balance must be approximately 37 thousand rubles (40 thousand rupees). If less, an increased service fee will be charged.

On a note! In the UK, almost 50% of clients open pooled accounts. Usually these are either spouses who dream of saving up for housing, or students renting an apartment together.

Habit is a great power

According to the CEO of the financial aggregator Sravni.ru Sergey Leonidov, at the moment we are not talking about the popularity of a joint bank account. And not only because banks are in no hurry to offer something new, but also because Russians are very conservative in the field of finance, do not rush to new items, preferring to choose what is familiar and proven.

The traditional way of the Russian family assumes that there is an earner (the one who earns and manages money) and those who spend what they earn. The ability to open an additional card is already enough to comfortably manage funds from one account.

Not many people are ready to open a joint bank account, figure out how to open it and use it. In addition, at the current moment in practice there is no clear boundary between the two types of banking products - one account and additional cards linked to it and a family-wide account. Although experts are sure that this format is the future.

If you open any site where various psychologists specializing in advice to young families give their advice, you will notice that they all name financial reasons among the most popular reasons for divorce.

More precisely, the expenses of the spouses, which seem too high to one of the family members, and the shopping process is completely opaque. Psychologists say that more than 30% of marriages break up due to financial problems, claims, distrust in this matter.

No need to live in the financial past

Surely every man knows the phrase: "No matter how much money you give her, it's still not enough." But women always retort: ​​“Come on, honey, from next month you will be doing our family accounting.”

And you also need to save money for a vacation, for a rainy day and for unscheduled purchases when a son or daughter will tear a new overalls on a hill. And don't forget the parents who live thousands of miles away and need financial help. However, nowadays there is a way to reconcile everyone.

Of course, you can keep all the bookkeeping the old fashioned way - with a pen and a notebook, where to mark the dates of salaries, the terms for paying off the loan and paying for utilities. But it is much easier to open a family account.

I foresee skeptical smiles, they say, and how will this help our family budget? Everything is very simple. Firstly, as you already understood, the account can be accumulative - for example, you plan a summer vacation and collect the necessary amount for it.

Secondly, the family account can be used for daily spending. Each of the family members after the salary replenishes the account with a certain amount. It contains mandatory payments.

Well, let's say, housing and communal services, payment for a school, kindergarten or sports section, transfer to parents, loan payments and much more. You can set up auto payment. Here is a replacement for the same accounting diary that your parents kept in the absence of modern technology.

financial literacy

You can set spending limits on the card of each family member - everyone will be able to use the common money in accordance with their limit. This is important if the offspring suddenly wants to buy an expensive computer game, the cost of which will be higher than the limit set for him.

However, if a wife, say, who shop more often at the grocery store, did not have enough of the allotted cash limit, you can change it and quickly allocate an additional amount.

There is another plus - all your moves, that is, payments, will be recorded by the robot, which will send a report on each action on the account. Whether it's shopping for groceries or getting an order from a dry cleaner.

And all this is the very education of family members in the culture of dealing with finances, when you spend exactly as much as you have.

Here's another purpose of the family account - the formation and control over the budget of a small, and maybe a large unit of our society.

If you want to spend more - no problem, you have the opportunity to maintain personal bank accounts at least in the bank where the joint account is opened, at least in any other.

A trip to a bar with friends, a birthday present for your wife or a surprise for your beloved child are paid without being tied to a family account.

A matter of minutes

Again, I foresee skepticism, they say, opening a joint account is a waste of time, going to the bank, standing in lines. All this is in the past. Just download the mobile application, find the column - and in one click you are the owner of the family account. In the same place, you connect your loved ones to the account, issue cards or make them customers of the bank.

The manager of the financial institution will contact you and clarify a few details. If you are connecting a non-client of the bank to the account, then the bank representative will specify where to deliver the card and all the necessary documents.

It is possible to “link” up to four people to a family account. Each of them will be issued an embossed card. Only one of the spouses will be the account holder. If someone does not want to fundamentally become a client of Alfa-Bank, the card is issued to a third party.

Interested parties in the family account will not see your replenishment or expenses from other Alfa-Bank accounts, so you can safely continue to keep a personal piggy bank. And text messages about your purchases using other accounts will also come exclusively to you.

It is also important to know that the replenishment of the family account from the accounts of other banks occurs without commission. Maintaining a family account is absolutely free of charge and is covered by deposit insurance for individuals.

And what else is important to know. According to statistics, 15% of divorces occur due to the fact that spouses lose their belonging to the family. This happens for various reasons - frequent business trips, unwillingness to listen to each other, lack of common interests and unifying motives.

So - this is exactly the very bridge that the spouses build towards each other. They understand that the family is not just a word from the lexicon of people, but a duty and responsibility that spouses must bear.

An outstanding teacher Vasily Sukhomlinsky once said: “The main idea and goal of family life is the upbringing of children. The main school of education is the relationship between husband and wife, father and mother.

When your daughter or son sees your monthly help to grandparents in the family account, you can be sure that this will be a very good incentive for them to help you in the future. After all, actions always speak louder than a thousand words.

JSC "ALFA-BANK"

Money alone does not make us happy. But the opportunities that they give, and most importantly, the ability to properly manage them, allow you to feel independent and enjoy life. A family bank account is one such useful tool. Managing it is a valuable skill that gives confidence and helps build relationships with loved ones. How it works?

Partners

1. Learn to negotiate with each other

Divide all expenses equally, live only off the earnings of the husband (wife) or create a certain common fund, in which the husband and wife participate in proportion to their incomes ... Each family chooses the type of financial relationship that is convenient for itself. The main thing is that both partners should be satisfied with these relations and not one should feel disadvantaged. After all, if for every trip to a cafe and the purchase of tights you have to ask separately, this will infuriate anyone. Therefore, by the way, the famous French psychotherapist Jacques Salome considers the ideal style of monetary relations, in which, in addition to the general budget, each of the partners also has personal savings. For example, you can open a Family account in a mobile bank, and this will allow you to build such a scheme in the best possible way. Both cards, husband and wife, can be linked to it at once, so that everyone will transfer money there from personal accounts. It is easier to pay all family expenses from this account: utility bills, repairs, fitness, theater tickets - anything. By opening a family account, partners acknowledge that they unconditionally trust each other. At the same time, this is a great occasion to calmly and diplomatically discuss each other's financial habits and make a plan that reflects the dreams and wishes of each.

Children

2. Help your child manage money

Pocket money is not a salary and not a way to encourage or punish. This is a tool with which a child learns to manage his finances: plan his expenses, save money, save up for an expensive purchase, make choices and be responsible for the consequences. Personal finance expert Mary Hunt recommends starting to give pocket money - a very small, symbolic amount - from the age of seven and gradually, year by year, increase it. And the age of ten is the best time to bring your child to the bank and open a personal account together with him or get a debit card linked to a joint account. A shared account is a great financial education tool. Don't worry that your child will devastate him with a couple of unpredictable purchases, because you can always set a certain spending limit for him. He will use only the amount that you decide to allocate to him monthly. You can set different access levels so that small children do not receive SMS about their parents' purchases. And you, in turn, will see all their operations on the map.

A shared account is also a reason to discuss the family budget with a teenager who (if you wish) can see on the phone how often and how much money is spent. Explain to your son (daughter) what you have to pay for and that you expect him to spend money wisely. The child will be calmer if he is clear about what your family can afford and what not.

Parents

3. Show care delicately

Sooner or later the time comes when our parents become dependent on us. This can happen suddenly if one of them gets sick. Or happen gradually, when year after year parents lose energy and the ability to fully care for themselves. In both cases, we are forced to assume the role of a helper, both physically and financially. And this reversal of roles is sometimes difficult. Many elderly parents, while maintaining self-esteem, refuse to accept the help of children, and it is embarrassing for them to offer them money every time or leave banknotes secretly. By opening a family account, you will avoid such a delicate situation. By the way, not only parents, but also brothers or sisters can be connected to the account. And none of you will have to go to an ATM every month and manually transfer money. All adult children can contribute to the care of their parents in proportion to their income. Mobile money, of course, does not cancel calls and personal meetings, but it allows you to transfer the financial issue to the level of business relations. You will show respect for the personal boundaries of a loved one and at the same time take care of him. And your father or mother, being co-owners of a common account, will be able to feel their belonging to a large family and feel proud of their adult children.

Project

4. Trust and control

Saving up a large sum of money for some important collective event, such as a high school graduation party or a reunion of classmates 20 years later, can be difficult.

Not everyone can find the right amount on the go, and some services require pre-order, partial payment ... A family account eliminates many problems: it saves time for all participants and makes any money movements transparent - all contributions, payments. You can go on business trips, live in different cities and at the same time always be in touch - transfer funds, view the history of operations and thus unobtrusively control the process. In a word, a common account not only allows you to manage fairly large-scale events, but also really unites friends - it brings them together at a distance and frees up time for real communication.

Self-development

5. Learn to manage money

Many do not even realize how many fears and negative beliefs are associated with money and how much they interfere with building a career, developing relationships and living freely. Here are just a few of them: “I can’t afford it”, “To save, you need to save hard”, “It’s hard for me to part with money”, “Money ruins relationships”.

A psychotherapist will help you figure out what the underlying problems are hidden behind these beliefs, realize your fears and work through traumas. But everyone can rebuild their financial habits and learn how to properly manage money. A shared bank account is one such tool. Analyze your expenses together with your partner at the end of the month and discuss which of them were superfluous and how to avoid them in the future, and which projects, on the contrary, require large investments. Learn how to set up templates and auto payments so that money for an apartment, Internet or kindergarten is automatically debited. Start transferring money from your personal account to pocket money for a child or for gifts to loved ones - this is one way to learn how to be generous and enjoy life more.

All these various opportunities, which save time and make us closer to each other, are available to the clients of ALFA-BANK JSC today. This service is called “Family Account”, which can be opened in a mobile bank. Up to four users can be connected to the account at the same time. Don't worry if you still don't understand how to set up different access levels or set spending limits on the card - you can find out about it on the page Alfa mobile or Alfa bank.

A "Family" account is opened as part of the "Maximum+", "Comfort", "Optimum", "Corporate" service package of Alfa-Bank free of charge. To access the account, the client needs to install the Alfa-Bank mobile application. Additional cards for a third party are opened free of charge as part of service packages. The number of cards depends on the selected service package. JSC Alfa-Bank. General license of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation No. 1326 dated January 16, 2015

Why do we need joint accounts for the family and is it worth opening them.

Each couple manages the family budget in their own way. Someone puts all the money into a common cauldron, from which money is taken for both joint and personal purposes. In Russia, this is the most common scheme used by 33.4% of Russians (data from the National Research University Higher School of Economics). Someone clearly separates their money and their partner. But most often, couples combine these two principles and “dump” on general family expenses, and leave part of their earnings for hairpins, gas pumps, new video cards and ties with new dresses.

After the birth of children, family mathematics becomes more complicated: you need pocket money, there are expenses for transport, for tutors, for children's hobbies ... But there are still parents who need help, and other relatives with whom they can also have common financial affairs and goals. Sometimes the structure of the family budget becomes so complex that it is necessary to convene relatives for a general council to plan expenses.

Will the bank be able to simplify our family life at least in this area?

Time, money and family values

Family is the highest value for each of us. At least, this is what sociological surveys say: the index of the importance of family relationships is approaching 100%, and nothing has changed over the past 12 years (see reference "What is the most important thing in life for you?"). The priority of family values ​​does not depend on the level of income: as for the average Russian, for 85% of wealthy Russians, the family is the main thing in life. True, a third of the respondents believe that the family takes too much time and money (data from a survey of wealthy clients of Alfa-Bank).

At the same time, almost 100% of successful men and women, whose wealth exceeds 100 million rubles, make a spending plan for their families (data from a study by the Center for Wealth Management and Philanthropy of the Skolkovo Business School). They take as a basis the traditional “nightstand principle”: a common financial pool is created in the family, where all salaries are added, and then spouses, children and other relatives discuss who, how much and for what can take from there.

In the West, wealthy clients have long been offered to solve at least some of the problems over time: they have long been opening joint accounts in order to save or spend the family budget together. In the UK, for example, 46% of men and 40% of women said they have a joint account with a partner (data from a survey by National Savings and Investments), in Australia one in five opened a joint / family account, and one in four “shared” plastic with a partner (Poll Finder.com.au).

In Russia, it is not customary to start joint accounts. The maximum that the head of the family does is to issue an additional card for household members so that they have access to his funds.

This approach has at least two problems: cards expire and only the owner of the main card can reissue it, and for large purchases, the outlet may refuse to accept a credit card and ask to make a purchase through the account, so the owner of the additional card will have to turn to the owner of the account and the main card. Yes, and with the replenishment of the account, the holder of an additional card may have problems, not to mention the fact that all purchase reports “fall” by text messages on the phone of the account holder to which the card is linked. And if there are more than five additional cards?

To solve these problems, some banking market players are launching family accounts. For example, in Alfa-Bank it will be reflected in the mobile bank, but the co-owners of this account will not be able to see each other's personal accounts. At the same time, you can open an account directly in Alfa-Mobile and connect up to four users to it.

If someone close is not a client of Alfa-Bank, then the account holder can order a card for him through a mobile application. The bank manager will contact the co-owner, arrange a meeting and come with the entire package of documents at any convenient time.

The number of account holders can include not only family members, but also friends with whom, for example, it is supposed to save money for something or, conversely, to help a friend who has fallen into an unpleasant situation.

Cards of children (from seven years old) and teenagers (from 14 years old) can also be linked to the account.

Raiffeisenbank has a similar product; Sberbank also announced the launch of family accounts.

I see a family goal

is not only an analogue of the family “box”, which will replace the traditional envelope with cash and make the family budget simpler and more mobile. (For example, the head of the family will know for sure whether the household has paid for the tutor, paid utility bills, and bought food for the cat.)

Accounting for the expenses of the family account will, in fact, be automatic and will be able to answer the eternal family question “What did you spend all the money on ?!”, as well as the questions “Can we afford to vacation on a tropical island right now? » and “Will we cope with the mortgage in the next six months?”.

In addition, a joint account is not least a way to discipline spending and analyze income and expenses. After all, it is 100% of millionaires who detail their budget for at least a month. 68% of ordinary Russians do not keep track of expenses, and 10% do not know at all how much they earn and spend (see reference “Does your family keep records of income and expenses?”).

By the way, cardholders are much more disciplined: according to a study by Visa, 49% of Russian cardholders of this payment system take into account their income and expenses, and 54% of active plastic users use them precisely because they allow you to keep track of expenses virtually automatically.

Another plus of the family account is that it helps to teach financial literacy to children.

About the non-self-replicating internet for the little ones

33% of Russians earned their first money before the age of 14, and 43% in high school (data from Online Market Intelligence millet commissioned by Vedomosti). Therefore, plastic and your own account for children have long been an essential service, and not an excess that is available only to millionaires.

Banks are actively developing products for children and teenagers, because even in Russia plastic is often used not only by adult family members, but also by children. And according to analysts, every fourth holder of a children's savings account or card continues to have a relationship with the bank into adulthood (uSwitch research).

Which allows you to link to it not only adults, but also children's and teenage cards, just makes financial relations with the child easier and more transparent. Firstly, it allows you to replenish your account remotely at any time (for example, if your parents suddenly forgot to replenish your transport card or give money for lunch), and secondly, it teaches financial literacy. In Russia, children from seven years old can have additional cards, and a 14-year-old teenager can open their own plastic. For example, Sberbank, VTB, Alfa-Bank, Raiffeisenbank and several other banks have cards for children and teenagers.

In the case of a family account, the parents of a teenager also have a nice bonus: for example, in Alfa-Bank, a child’s card can be linked either to the “Family” account (if, for example, the child went to buy groceries for the family), then to his personal account (if he , for example, went with friends to a cafe). At the same time, children see the general expenses and understand that the Internet does not appear by itself - it needs to be paid for, that the apartment also needs to be paid. The child has to think about whether he can ask to buy him a new gadget if the joint account does not yet have enough money for it.

In addition, by connecting a child to a family account, it is much easier to control his expenses, and if the allocated limit is not enough, quickly analyze whether it is worth raising it, and if so, do it quickly.

Privacy and finance

- a good way to balance income and expenses, for example, if the spouses have a mortgage that requires a feasible contribution from both partners. It is useful to try to control the unwise spending of someone in the household and just make life more convenient. Especially when you consider that spending will only be visible from the general account and a report on them will be visible to everyone, and personal spending and income will still be everyone’s personal business.

What is the most important thing in life for you?*

*Index, maximum - 100 points. Survey data from 2005 and 2017.