Tips for setting up bills in a student house
Make sure you know which household bills you need to set up
The first step should always be to know which utilities your new student house needs. You’ll have to pay three main bills including water, electricity, and gas.
However, not all houses use gas. So, make sure you check whether your home uses gas or not. You don’t want to go through the hassle of setting up a gas bill if your house doesn’t need it!
The other bill that’s essential for every student house is broadband. If you forget about this, you could spend the first few weeks in your new house hot-spotting your phone and using all your data!
You should also decide if you’re going to need a TV Licence . If one of your housemates plans on buying a TV, and you’re all keen to watch live football matches, you’ll need to pay for a TV Licence. If you’re not sure if you’ll need one, you can check on the TV Licence website.
Students don’t need to pay council tax, so if you’re living in a house with full-time students, that’s one bill you don’t need to bother with!
Decide on how to pay early on
After the house is sorted and everyone’s signed the contracts, you should decide how you’ll pay bills as a house.
The easiest option is to use a bill-splitting service, like Split The Bills. We’ll set up and manage all the bills for the house. All you and your housemates have to do is make one payment each month. Plus, you won’t have to chase anyone to ensure all the bills are paid on time!
If you decide against using a bill-splitting service, you’ll have to manage multiple utility accounts between your household yourself. This will involve contacting your water and energy suppliers, setting up accounts, and paying monthly or quarterly direct debits. Don’t forget, the designated bill payer in your house will need to collect these payments from each housemate every month, and then ensure all the bills are paid on time.
We’ve got a guide on ‘where to start with student bills’, which covers how to set up each bill in more detail.
Share the responsibility
If you decide that you’re going to pay your bills yourself, you should share the responsibility. The best way to do this is to sit down with your future housemates and work out who’ll pay which bill. For example, one person pays the energy bill, one pays the water bill, and one pays the broadband bill. This ensures that one person doesn’t have to deal with all the stress and hassle of setting up all the bills.