While it’s a great idea for students to share a house as they will enjoy a great social scene, many will be asking ‘What are utility bills?’ – and may not appreciate these bills need paying.
Bills will need to be paid each month, failure to pay bills on time can result in the supply cutting off, no one needs that when uni work needs to be done and series need to be binged.
Imagine trying to access the Internet without electricity or keeping warm in a cold winter without gas central heating.
There is an easy solution to avoid these scenarios and we will come to it shortly.
Finding a student house
There are a number of other issues that need to be dealt with before the utility bills are sorted out and that’s the issue of finding a student house that is suitable for everyone who wants to live in it.
Student houses are available in a range of sizes and with differing rents; it makes sense that the more bedrooms a student property has, the lower the rent will be.
It also makes sense that with more people contributing to the bills means your utility bills should be lower as well.
Calculate your outgoings
Once you have decided who you will be living with and found a nice student house to live in, then you will need to calculate how much your outgoings will be every month.
For students on a limited budget, this can be a scary calculation to work on.
Firstly, students will need to pay their landlord’s rent promptly.
In addition, they will need to set aside money to pay for their utility bills and also decide whose name will be placed on the bill.
The modern trend is for every student living in the property to have their name put on the bill so that all of the occupants are equally responsible for paying it.
Organising your utility bills UK
For many students they will never have had to pay the utilities before and for students from overseas understanding what utility bills UK are is also important.
Moving into a student property means that someone will need to organise the utility provision. This means spending time researching the various deals and offers that are available to students and then contacting the utility provider for the utility to be connected.
For those who haven’t done this before, they will also have lots of other things to organise when returning to university, organising the utilities when moving into private accommodation can be a pretty daunting and unappealing task but someone has to do it, right?
That’s because you cannot move into a student house without having utilities connected.
Paying gas, water and electricity bills
It’s at this point we should highlight the importance of paying gas, water and electricity bills because not doing so has ramifications not only on the student tenants’ current lifestyle but also on their future potential need for credit.
That’s because utility providers will share your payment history – so a late payment will be recorded against your address.
This may not appear to be such an issue currently, but in future if you ever find yourself needing a bank loan or even an overdraft, these late payments will be considered as part of your overall credit risk.
That’s why paying gas and electricity bills is an important part of a student lifestyle.
Budget effectively
It is important for students to budget effectively because there are other bills they will need to meet along with having to pay for a social life while at university.
Let’s face facts, one reason for students heading to university is for the experience, living with mates, partying and just living life, but this can be more expensive than many students will be budgeting for.
In addition, there will also be a need to feed themselves and have a budget for paying for groceries as well as household cleaning items and necessities such as toilet rolls, teabags and milk.
This means some student houses will run a kitty for the shared items but students will still need to budget accordingly.
The easy solution to paying utility bills and student broadband deals
There is an easy solution to paying utility bills and finding student broadband deals – as well as organising the utilities and super-fast broadband.
And that is to speak with the helpful team at Glide who will be able to access some of the best deals currently available for students and organise the provision of utilities to a property.
Students living in a house together will be billed individually to pay their share of these bills so each housemate is not responsible for their other housemates’ non-payment.
This means that the potential for arguing and falling out over the late or non-payment of utility bills is removed since the students will only need to pay their share when the bill from Glide arrives every month.
Finally, there’s an obvious disadvantage for students who are living outside of the UK to organise their accommodation as well as their utilities which means the Glide offering is particularly attractive to them.
With one phone call, a student can arrange their student broadband and have the service installed, also organise utilities to be connected when they move in.
In addition, the ability to pay just one bill every month for everything will help all students – British and foreign – budget more effectively so that their time at university isn’t spoiled by fretting over money worries. Glide really will make a difference to your student experience.
If you want to know more about ‘what are utility bills?’ and how Glide can help make your life easier, then contact them today for more information.