When students finally move in together after the excitement of looking for and then finding a shared property there soon comes the question of sharing bills equally and fairly.
There will definitely be talk about someone’s bedroom being smaller than everyone else’s, they might even suggest they should pay less rent (erm, No!). Others will be saying they don’t have as much money as their housemates so does it matter if they pay as much as they can afford (again, No!).
These are just the excuses for cheeky people who want to enjoy a comfortable student house but avoid sharing the bills equally.
Hopefully, your housemates wouldn’t dream of behaving this badly because if they do it’s going to be a miserable year! There will be regular disagreements over the bills, people not paying for their share of the gas or electric when life and bill sharing can and should be so much easier. Who has the time and energy for that type of drama?!
The easiest way of sharing student bills is to use an effective bill splitting service such as that from Glide so everyone in the house will get their own bill every month that they then must pay for.
This bill is in addition to the rent but it will include a connection to and the supply of gas and electricity as well as water and with Glide you can have a great student broadband deal too – which we will explain more about later on – and also the TV licence.
One of the issues when it comes to sharing a property if you’ve never done it before is that some of these bills can appear to be very steep but if you want a warm house in cold winter months, then you’ll need a gas supply, and if you want to use your laptop or widescreen TV for Netflix, then you’ll need electricity.
There’s also no avoiding the fact if you want a cuppa tea and toast after a night out, a hot shower and a flushing loo – then you’ll need a water connection. All of these utilities must be paid for.
Landlord bills covering the rent
Arranging the utilities’ connection and paying the bills can be daunting for many students, your ace parents have probably always done this for you. Remember it is possible to have an all-inclusive rent with the landlord bills covering the rent, the utilities and the broadband.
If your landlord doesn’t offer this service but likes the sound of it, then tell them to get in touch with Glide who can arrange for the property to have a connection to the utilities, a broadband offering and have the bills split equally between tenants to be paid every month.
Having to pay bills every month will help most students budget effectively and while going to university is an exciting time, there’s still the reality of living your best life on very little. Thankfully, there’s Netflix for the skint months and amazing but cheap student events for when you have the cash.
We would all love to be out partying every night but there’s also dissertation research to do and the occasional essay to write. Ugh, it’s draining but has to be some focus on studies because in the end degrees are expensive and the huge investment of time and debt has to be worthwhile.
In all honesty, today’s students ARE hard-working and focused on getting the qualifications they need to succeed in their future career. Having a bill splitting service that removes the distraction of arguing with housemates over bills can only be in everyone’s interest. Even the landlord!
Glide also offers great student broadband deals
We mentioned earlier that Glide also offers great student broadband deals and every student home will be looking to get an internet connection that’s not only fast but allows everyone in the shared property to enjoy a fast broadband speed.
If you’ve never organised broadband before, then this can be confusing since the terminology will refer to the speed in megabits per second (Mbps) but the higher number, the better the connection will be. You’ll also need a fast connection if there are lots of devices being connected.
The student broadband deals may also have some surprises in the small print and while many students may not think it’s worthwhile spending time looking at the details, the nitty-gritty of the contract is exactly what you should be looking at! Don’t let them fool you.
If you don’t read up then you may find yourself being signed up to a 12-month contract even though you will only live in your shared student house for nine months; this means you need to pay for the three months you won’t be using broadband or having to pay a hefty disconnection fee from the supplier when you leave.
If you need to know more about how students in your shared property can enjoy a service for sharing bills between everyone equally and sending each person their own individual bill, then you need to speak with the Glide team today.