FSCS Cover on Joint Accounts

A joint account with two holders is protected up to £240,000 if the bank fails, because the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) limit is £120,000 per eligible person, per banking group. Each holder has their own £120,000 of cover, and the two amounts sit side by side on the same account¹.

The figure people often quote, £120,000, is the per person limit rather than the limit for the account. The FSCS states that joint accounts are eligible for protection up to the same limit of £120,000 per eligible person, and that a joint account with two holders would be protected up to £240,000².

The important catch is that the limit follows people, not accounts. Your £120,000 covers everything you hold with that bank or banking group, including your share of any joint account. If you have other savings there, they eat into the same £120,000⁴.

FSCS joint account limit: £120,000 per person, £240,000 for two

The arithmetic is simple once you separate the two numbers. The FSCS protects each eligible account holder up to £120,000 in total across all the accounts they hold with that bank, and a joint account gives each holder their own entitlement⁶. MoneyHelper puts it plainly: two account holders could deposit £240,000 safely¹. The Bank of England's explainer says the same thing in its own words, that a joint account with two holders would be protected up to £240,000⁷.

The £240,000 is not a higher tier of protection that a joint account unlocks. It is two people's £120,000 limits standing next to each other. If one holder has already used part of their limit elsewhere with the same bank, the joint account does not restore it.

This matters most for couples who keep a large balance in one place. A joint account holding £240,000 is fully covered only if neither holder has any other money with that bank or its group. The moment one of them opens a sole savings account there, part of the joint balance falls outside protection.

The limit follows people, not accounts

The FSCS states that the limit applies to individuals and companies, not accounts⁸. That single sentence explains almost every confusing thing about joint account protection. You do not get a fresh £120,000 for each account you open. You get one £120,000 allowance per banking group, and every account you hold there draws on it⁴.

For a joint account, the limit applies to each named account holder⁹. So a couple with a joint account and no other savings at that bank has £240,000 of cover between them. A couple where one partner also holds £50,000 in a sole account at the same bank has £190,000 of cover on the joint balance plus the £50,000, because that partner's £120,000 is partly used up.

The scheme also treats some groups as a single person. A sole trader with a business account and a personal account at the same bank is not entitled to two separate claims, only up to £120,000 in total². Business partners holding a joint account are entitled to a single claim of £120,000, not one claim per partner².

Joint savings with other accounts at the same banking group

Banks in the same banking group that share a banking licence are treated as one bank, and the £120,000 limit applies across all your accounts with them². The FSCS is explicit that if you hold an individual account and a joint account within the same banking group, the £120,000 compensation limit applies across all these accounts, not to each separate account⁴.

In practice, that means the group's brands share one allowance. Money in several brands under one licence counts together towards a single £120,000 limit for you, and your joint account share counts towards the same total. The FSCS publishes a checker where you can look up which firms share a licence before you move money⁴.

The FSCS also states that the £120,000 limit relates to the combined amount in all the eligible depositor's accounts with the bank, building society or credit union, including their share of any joint account, and not to each separate account¹⁰. So the question to ask is not "how much is in this account" but "how much do I hold with this licence in total".

Does the FSCS assume a joint account is owned 50/50?

Yes, by default. The FSCS will assume that the money in a joint account is split equally between account holders, unless evidence shows otherwise⁵. The scheme's own protection checker works on the same basis: it assumes a joint account with two account holders, each with an equal share⁴.

That assumption is what produces the £240,000 figure for a two person account. It also means that if the real ownership is uneven, the equal split is not necessarily the end of the matter. The FSCS wording leaves room for evidence that shows a different share, so records of who paid money in can matter if a claim is ever made.

For most couples the assumption matches reality closely enough that nothing needs doing. Where it does not, the practical step is to keep the paperwork that shows where the money came from, because the default position is an equal split and the burden of showing otherwise sits with the person claiming a different share.

Are joint accounts with three or more people covered?

Yes. The FSCS protects each account holder up to £120,000 in total, whatever the number of account holders on the account⁶. A joint account with three holders therefore has up to £360,000 of protection across the three of them, and a four person account up to £480,000, in each case subject to each person's own £120,000 limit across everything they hold with that bank.

The same rule about other accounts applies to each holder individually. One of three holders with £100,000 of sole savings at the same bank has only £20,000 of their joint share protected, while the other two still have their full £120,000 each.

This is unusual territory in practice. Most joint accounts are held by two people, and most bank documents describe the two person case. The underlying rule does not change with the number of names on the account, because it is written per person rather than per account⁶.

Why does my bank's information sheet still say £170,000?

Some documents in circulation still show £85,000 per person and £170,000 for a joint account with two holders. Those figures were correct under an earlier limit. Several credit unions and banks still publish pages and information sheets using them, including 1st Alliance Community Bank, Beverley Building Society, Wirral Credit Union, London Mutual Credit Union, Newmains Credit Union and Newarthill Credit Union¹¹.

The current limit is £120,000 per person, so the joint figure for two holders is £240,000³. One high street bank's own terms page still carries the older £170,000 wording for joint accounts¹⁸. Where a document you have been given disagrees with the current limit, the current limit is the one that applies, and the FSCS publishes the up to date position on its own site³.

If you are checking a specific bank, the FSCS protection checker is the quickest way to confirm the limit and which firms share a licence⁴. The FSCS also publishes a leaflet setting out the limit and how it applies¹⁹.

What happens if the bank fails

If a bank or building society fails, the FSCS aims to pay out automatically, and MoneyHelper notes that you would get your money back up to £120,000 per person¹. Joint account holders are treated as separate depositors, so each of you has your own claim up to the limit rather than one shared claim⁶.

The FSCS covers eligible deposits held with banks, building societies and credit unions authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority¹⁷. The scheme's own guidance confirms that joint accounts are eligible for protection up to the same limit of £120,000 per eligible person²⁰. The Bank of England describes the scheme as the body that steps in when a financial firm fails and cannot pay claims against it⁷.

Where the limit is exceeded, the money above it is not protected and would be claimed in the failure alongside other creditors. That is why the practical question for a joint saver is not only how much is in the account, but how much each holder has with that licence in total. For the wider picture of what happens when a bank fails, see what happens if a bank or building society fails.

Keeping a joint balance inside the limit

The limit is per person, per banking group, so the way to stay inside it is to spread money across separate licences rather than separate accounts. Two banks under different licences give a couple £240,000 of joint cover at each, subject to each person's own £120,000 limit at each bank².

Where a joint balance is larger than the cover, the options are to move part of it to a bank with a different licence, to hold it in a product with different protection rules, or to accept that the excess is unprotected. National Savings and Investments products work differently: money in NS&I is backed by the Treasury rather than the FSCS, and NS&I states that £240,000 is protected for joint accounts under its own arrangements²¹.

For a fuller picture of how the limits work across products, see FSCS compensation limits and how to keep savings above the FSCS limit covered. If a bank has already failed, the process for getting money back is set out in claiming from the FSCS.