My girlfriend and I have decided that we want to split expenses 50/50 (or whatever ratio). Currently, we alternate payment, but that means that we have to remember who paid last time, how much, etc. and that makes this issue more salient than we'd like.
So, we want to be able to somehow pay together, and that must happen either upfront or automatically.
Options I see (details are for Israel):
- Maintain a cash pool - each of us puts in say 1000NIS, and then we pay out of that pool.
Con: Must use cash, which is inconvenient. - (Current solution) Buy a pre-paid credit card, splitting the payment however we like, and pay using that card. The only pre-paid card in Israel is Visa chargable (ויזה נטען), so:
Con1: Max amount is 1000NIS, so we must re-charge every time.
Con2: 20.30NIS fee for every time we charge. - Get a credit card and split the payment for it together. Now unlike the US, in Israel every credit card bill is automatically deducted every month from a bank account, which one must provide when one gets the card.
Con: AFAIK there's no way to have a card that's deducted from 2 different bank account. - Open a joint bank account, transfer money in there, and have a credit/debit card attached to that account.
Con: Too much trouble, and we're not quite there yet...
I'd like to hear additional thoughts (please remain on topic, and don't derail the discussion to relationship advice).