After we bought our first house, we went to make another huge first step – opening up a joint bank account with ING Direct.

This was a big step for us because prior to buying our house, we neither needed nor wanted a joint account. But when you own a house with somebody, it’s sort of necessary. We need the mortgage payment to come out of something, as well as life insurance, home insurance, household expenses and other expenses. Plus we needed somewhere for our monthly rental income to go.

We decided to go with ING to open up our bank account. We are both clients of ING Direct and we both really enjoy it. In case you weren’t aware, ING’s Capital One takeover in the USA did not trickle over to ING Direct Canada, which made me very happy. So, ING remains just as awesome as it always has.

I’m going to be really annoying and put in the widget here because I get money (AND SO DO YOU!) if anybody opens up an ING account using this and since we just bought a house, we need it (also, opening up an ING Direct account is completely free).

How to Open a Joint Account with ING Direct

Anyhow, there are two options to open up a joint bank account with ING Direct for Canadian clients. You can:

a) Open up a whole new account or,

b) Make your existing THRIVE Chequing account a joint account

We chose option A.

Opening a New Joint Account

This option was right for us because I wanted the boyfriend this to be completely separate from my own personal ING Direct chequing account.

My PayPal feeds into and from my THRIVE chequing account, so all of my business expenses and payments from blog commenting, freelancing, and income from this blog flows from this account.

For accounting purposes when the tax years are over, I’d love to be able to see JUST business transactions in that account so that I can easily and accurately account for cash flow.

Furthermore, I want this account to feel natural and comfortable for both of us. If he had to access my personal chequing account or if I had to his, then it might not feel like it’s 100% both of ours.

So we went with option A.

Opening an Account If you Are NOT an Existing ING Client

To do this, you can just click on this link (use my orange key and you will get $50 out of it!) and elect “Show Me My Options” under the Chequing heading.

Select “enroll now” and click “I Want to Become a Client”. The first question on that page asks you if this is a joint account. Select “yes”.

Fill out the information requested on the form. The final question is for the Orange Key. Type in 35611511S1 (or copy and paste). You will get $50 if you put in the Key (but $0 if you don’t).

Press “next”. Fill in your partner’s information as well.

Follow through with the instructions on the screen and ING will send you a card, as well as confirmation in the mail.

Opening an Account If You ARE an Existing ING Direct Client

To do this, you can just click on this link and elect “Show Me My Options” under the Chequing heading.

Select “enroll now” and click  “I am a Client”. This will bring you to the log in page.

Enter your ING Direct information. It will bring you to a page that will confirm your information and how much you want your first deposit to be. Enter that amount and select which account you would like the deposit to be pulled from. Scroll down and enter your partner’s information.

If your partner is already an ING client, they will receive an email and a notification saying that you invited them to share the account with you. They just need to accept it, and voila!

 Do you have a joint account with ING Direct, or any other bank?