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When you enter into a long-term relationship, you can expect to share a lot of accounts with your partner—utilities, streaming services, perhaps even banking. All these things require passwords. But instead of writing them down on a piece of paper, storing them on your phone, or memorizing some too-easy passwords, you should talk to your partner about using a password manager.
A password manager creates long, strong, and unique passwords for all your accounts and fills them automatically. Some apps make it easy to share a few of your passwords with your partner while keeping your other credentials private. Many password managers include notes or attachment storage, so if you have a family plan, your partner or family group can access only the passwords you want them to see, along with instructions for using them.
Below, I’ll show how using a password manager can reduce arguments about finances, help you pay your household bills on time, and save you money on subscriptions.
1. Build Financial Trust With Your Partner
I recently spoke to an expert about how to recover financially after getting scammed online. During our chat, she mentioned that a password manager is a powerful tool in any relationship.
“If you are transparent about all the accounts in your name, and you and your spouse know how to get to them, lies or secrets aren't really an issue anymore,” says Gina Tran, director of product at Bitwarden, a popular, open-source password manager. A password manager builds "really strong financial and relationship transparency," she adds.
Given Tran’s position, it’s unsurprising that she and her husband use Bitwarden for their financial accounts. However, she says the couple’s financial transparency didn’t begin right away. Rather, they began opening up about their fiscal lives when they became domestic partners, prior to marriage. She says that's a good time to start having those kinds of conversations.
According to Fidelity’s 2024 report on couples and money, one in four people expressed frustration with their spouse’s spending habits, but said they didn’t talk about it in order to keep the peace. The same percentage of people said they resent being left out of their partner’s financial decisions.
"There are a lot of people who, when they get into a relationship, don't have a conversation about what's going on financially,” Tran says. “If you feel the need to hide something, then I think that's something to talk through."
One way to start the conversation about your financial situation is by giving your partner access to all shared financial accounts. Tran, who manages the couple's financial accounts, says she and her husband have a shared folder containing their passwords.
2. Track Household Bills and Secure Notes
Most password managers have a section in the app devoted to note-keeping. It’s a place where you can digitally jot down ideas or instructions. Gina Tran says she uses the notes section in Bitwarden’s app to send private messages to her husband with instructions for accessing their accounts in the event of a "worst-case scenario." Some apps, like NordPass, allow you to attach files in this section, so you can keep copies of important documents in the vault.
When combining a household, dividing up payment responsibilities and keeping track of utility bills can be a source of stress. I suggest using the notes section of the app as a payment schedule log with your partner or other family members. You may also find the notes section helpful for storing login instructions for all of your shared bills.
3. Share Subscriptions Securely
Sharing streaming service subscriptions to save money is one relationship rite of passage. But it can have its downsides. Here’s a familiar scenario: You give your Hulu password to your new beau, who shares it with their cousin, who shares it with their friend from work, who sends it to their Facebook group. Suddenly, there are more people accessing your account than you expected. Even worse, many streaming services have device or platform limits, so too many people watching at once could lock you out of your account.
If you use a password manager to share the Hulu account login with your partner, you can lock down access to the password. For example, if you allow the person with the password to auto-fill the password, they won’t be able to see the credential, modify it, or send it to anyone else. Many password managers let you set an expiration date for the password, too. If your relationship ends, just let the credential expire.
4. Choose a Password Manager Built for Couples
To start sharing passwords with your partner, you first have to agree to use the same password manager. Most password managers require people to download the app and create an account to access a shared password. Luckily, most of the password managers I’ve tested offer a family or other multi-user plan, allowing you to keep your personal vault private while allowing access to shared passwords. If you need to switch to a new password manager, check out our guide.
When recommending password management apps to people who want to share passwords, I tend to rotate between the following three services: Dashlane, Keeper, and NordPass. These apps aren’t the cheapest ones I’ve reviewed (check out this list of free password managers), but they have the best family plans I’ve seen, and they all make it easy to share passwords with people you know and trust.
Here are my takes on which of the three might be right for you and your partner:
Best Overall Option: NordPass
(Credit: Nord/PCMag)NordPass is our Editors’ Choice for paid password management for a reason: The app holds its value across different stages of your life. For example, a couple may prefer to pay $35.88 each year for both their NordPass Premium plans, which comes out to $71.76 annually. If they have kids or want to add other family members to their accounts, the couple can sign up for a NordPass Family account ($71.88 annually), which covers up to six people. The NordPass family plan includes some notable features, like data-breach report scans, file-storage options, masked emails, and password-health alerts.
When you share a password with someone else, you’re hoping they won’t share it with everyone they know, change it, lose it, or do something malicious with it, right? Luckily, NordPass offers some protective options.
To share passwords with your partner or someone else who doesn’t use NordPass, you can generate a secure link using the Password Sharer tool in the app. If your spouse also uses NordPass, you can grant sharing access within the app.
Adjust permission levels by giving the recipient the right to edit the password, auto-fill the credential, share it, or view the password. This should make it easier for everyone with access to the password to understand how they are allowed to use the password. You can also turn on time-specific sharing, allowing you to create an expiration date for your shared passwords, anywhere from an hour to a month in duration. After that time runs out, your partner will need to request access again.
Best Sharing Options: Keeper
(Credit: Keeper/PCMag)Keeper, which has a long history of offering intuitive, easy-to-use apps for families and small businesses, offers reasonably priced, reliable password management. The family subscription is $74.99 annually, on par with other password management apps. For that price, you get five vaults, 10GB of file storage, data-breach monitoring, and password-health tools.
I like Keeper because it offers some very easy ways to share passwords securely with other people. To share passwords via email, click the Share button and enter your partner’s email address in the pop-up window. Decide whether your spouse can edit, share, edit and share, or only view the password. If you don’t need the password anymore or you don’t want to be in charge of it, you can transfer ownership to someone else.
Keeper also lets you share passwords via the One-Time Share option. With One-Time Share, you can send passwords to your family or spouse using Airdrop, QR codes, or SMS. The recipient doesn’t need to use Keeper to access the password. Even if a stranger gets hold of the link, they can't steal your password since it's only accessible from the device it was sent to.
Keeper's easiest password-sharing method involves creating a shared folder. It’s a good option if you want to share passwords for several accounts with your partner or other family members. If you’re the shared folder owner, you can decide how everyone in the family can access the passwords. You can also decide whether each person can add or remove other people's access to the folder and individual passwords.
Easiest Ways to Share: Dashlane
(Credit: Dashlane/PCMag)Dashlane is the most expensive app on the list. A family account runs $89.88 annually. That said, people with big families will like Dashlane because up to 10 people can share the Dashlane family account. For that price, you can access sleek apps and browser extensions, plus all family plan members get dark web monitoring and password hygiene tools.
During my most recent testing, I found it really easy to share passwords using the Dashlane mobile app. Just tap the login information in your vault and choose Share in the pop-up menu. From there, you can decide how much access to give your partner. Granting them Limited Rights means they can’t edit, revoke, or share access to the password with anyone else. Full Rights is exactly what it sounds like—if you give someone this kind of access, they can change a password, delete it, or share it with someone else. They can even revoke your access to the password, so if you have any trust issues whatsoever, I suggest granting Limited Rights.
5. Share Your Passwords The Right Way
Each relationship dynamic is different, but maintaining open communication about finances and other assets goes a long way toward strengthening a partnership. This doesn’t mean you have to share every password with your partner or your children; in fact, I advise against that type of sharing. After all, anyone can become a weak link in the cybersecurity chain.
Consider only sharing passwords related to your shared assets, such as banking or investment accounts, video streaming services, or VPN apps. I do not recommend giving your partner your password manager’s master password, even in a crisis. You never know what the future brings. You could break up. Your partner could get hacked. If someone else has the proverbial keys to your castle, they can lose them or misuse them. Don’t take the risk.
Instead, designate your spouse as the person who inherits access to your account. That way, if you die, your partner can close out your social media profiles and other online accounts. This prevents scammers and other criminals from taking over your dormant social media profiles and using them to spread malware or commit fraud.
A relationship works best when partners commit to communicating and changing habits to keep each other safe. Keep those communication lines open even after death by setting up a digital inheritance plan. To get started, check out PCMag's guide to creating and maintaining your digital legacy. If you're looking for more suggestions for enhancing your family's online security, take a few tips from our cybersecurity checklist.