ONLY a third of couples have a joint account, with others keeping separate finances to avoid arguments or their partner spending their money, res- earch has shown. Some 34% of people who are either married or living together run their finances solely through a joint account, while 38% have both individual and shared accounts. But 28% of people prefer to keep totally separate financial arrangements. And more than four out of five women who do not have a joint account are anxious to maintain their independence. A survey of 1,001 people was carried out for the Alliance and Leicester bank. Just under a quarter of men and one in eight women keep their own accounts to avoid arguments. Some 18% of men said they earned more and wanted to keep their money separate. Among couples who did opt to have a joint account, 78% said they went straight to the bank where one of them already had their current account. Ewan Edwards, head of current accounts at Alliance and Leicester, said: "We quite rightly spend a lot more time finding our Mr or Miss Right than choosing a bank account. "It was still disappointing to find, though, that when couples do finally settle down and look for a joint account, the vast majority of them simply go to their existing bank." | 
