Student housing - Where to Start and who's the cheapest?

xgem03x

Heyy All,

Basicially, i'm moving into a student house in Leeds in july with 8 of my friends, and we're abit clueless about where to start and who's the cheapest ect...

Because theres 9 of us, we thought there was maybe an unlimited gas/electricity plan we could get on so we dont get a HUGE bill, or if anything like this was available? Our cookers are gas from wot i remember, which is a good thing yeah?

I know British gas have just reduced their costs, but part of me is wondering if that is to draw customers back in, then they'll jump their prices straight back up?

It's all of our first times doing this, and to be honest we dont want to get stung and end up in a year-long battle with energy companies to get our money back, so any help would be sooooo greatly appreciated!!!

Thank you!

lee12_2

Hi
well if it helps you have got to sign up with the company that already supply's the house you can change after 28 days but not before.As for bills my sons in a student house (8 bedroom) and the landlady has the bills in her name and they just pay her there share but their last gas bill for the winter was £900 between them, electric was £400ish. So beware if someone in the house like lots of heating might be worth pointing out just how big bills can get.
But the first thing you must do is ask the landlord who the house is with at the moment and then take meter readings on the first day you get the keys and phone them up to set up a account.Keep the readings safe so you can make sure they are correct when the bill dose come in.
As for best company we have been with most of them over the years and the best so far has been Southern Electric, the worst 2 have been British gas and NPower,
As for avoiding big bills you could do monthly direct debits, and some company's do special deals for people on low incomes ,
So as soon as you know who you need to contact phone them up and ask what is the best deal they can offer for students, and go with that and if in the mean time you come across a better deal change after the 28 days.
Hope that helps a little.

xgem03x

thats amazin, thanks for your help!

we didn't know about the 28 day rule or anything - do u know if u have a connection fee when u change or anything?

lee12_2

Hi
We have changed company's at least half a dozen times over the past 27 years and we have never paid a fee to connect or transfer,The 28 day rule is mainly due to the fact it takes any of them that long to sort things out ! but it also give you time to change your mind if you want.
Hope the you get it all sorted out and enjoy yourselfs, just a silly question are you expected to sort out water or internet as well? if yes I would suggest you find out if the house already has a BT line active, because if it dose not it costs up £150 to get on put on , but if you are in a cable area Virgin only charge around £50. Big difference. My eldest once was in a shared house and we got the landlord permission to connect to virgin and for under £30pm they had internet/tv &phone.So worth shopping around,but once again it takes a couple of weeks to get connected,and alway ask the landlords permission. Contracts tend to be for 18mths so if you are only there for the year try to find a 12mth one or they will charge after you move out.
As for water it always supplied by one company in each area so no choices there sorry.
But ether way good luck.

xgem03x

Yeah we're gonna be lookin at everything! The internet stuff i now about, but thank you anyways! It's jus this gas an electricity business - we have a few suppliers of water in leeds, and when i tried to get a quote on the internet, it was asking how many times a day we'd flush the toilet??!! !!!!!! - theres a house of 9 ppl and i suppose it woud jus depend on how many curries we'd eaten...who knows?!

Thank you very much for your advice, it's greatly appreciated!