Joint signatory implications

[WendyS]

What are the possible future legal/financial implications of becoming a joint signatory to a new bank account with an indivdual whose current bank account is frozen because of his debts? Could the joint signatory remove himself/herself from the account at any point without the agreement of the other party? The Citizens Advice Bureau are now helping the individual concerned deal with his various creditors.

[stevie21]

If you become a joint signatory on one account which isn't in debt then you should have very limited facilities just on that account and no major knock on effects on your other (unrelated) accounts.
Then again, this might establish a "financial relationship" between the 2 of you and this show up as a link between you both on credit searches.

The joint signatory definitely cannot remove themselves from any account without the consent of both parties although it can be possible for just one party to close a joint account.

I'm sure others can comment more on the "financial link - credit search" angle.

[funnywebsite]

I would be very careful about setting up a joint account with somebody who is already in debt. They could take out all the money without your say so. If they are in debt they are obviously not very good at handling money so don't give them rope to strangle themselves with and you with it.