A couple of silly questions, bear with me please.

ariarnia

I've been offered a job, 6months fixed, no chance of extension.

I'm viewing a couple of flats tomorrow (as it will cost more than £300 a month to travel to this job and will cost me 2 hours of my life each way as well)

Given these factors, I'm lost. I've never done this before and I'm hoping you can advise. I need to check that all this is plausable before committing to anything.

Silly question 1 - can I get electricity/gas for 6 months, or will they sign me up for a 12 month period?

Silly question 2 - only me, I'm not taking the computer, will be there mon to fri only before 9 and after 5, both modern builds/double glazed, washing machine, no tumble dryer, and I have a 15 tog king size duvet - roughly how much should I set aside in expectation of my elec bill for the first couple of months?

Silly question 3 - other than water rates and council tax, what else should I be expecting to be a regular payment?

Thanks in advance.

kjsmith7

Your questions aren't silly at all, and I hope I can be of some assistance.

1 - When you sign up with a supplier on Standard tariff, if you want to move to another supplier, you have to give 28 days notice, which is why it generally takes 4-6 weeks to switch. If, however, you move into or out of a property, you can end your contract with them, even if it is a long term, fixed price or online contract. Check that any cancellation fees (with online, fixed price tariffs, etc.) will be waived in the event you move house. Usually, they are: still worth checking, though.

2 - I live in a 2 bed flat with my partner with all mod cons except for a tumble dryer. We have gas heating, and our elec bill is always £25 a month (I provide a monthly meter reading and request a bill and pay what I owe, but direct debit is usually a good option). Our gas bill is around £50 per month in Winter and £20 per month in Summer. It really does depend on the individual property, sadly, so you might spend a lot less or a lot more than we do!! Average consumption figures are based on a yearly basis, and depending on the period of time (e.g. Winter or Summer) you're in the property, you might use more or less than just '6 months worth'. Average is 3300kWh of electric and 20500kWh of gas - we use less than both of those figures.

3 - Contents insurance, television license, internet/broadband, cable TV if that's your thing, phone line.... I'm sure others will come up with more stuff!

tori.k

also as its only 6 months and your home so little, maybe look at a decent B&B you would find it works out a lot cheaper as most will come to a deal for the return trade, My brother used to do this when his work took him away for months months at a time,

ariarnia

Only problem with that is that I don't drive so one flat I'm looking at is the studio flat described above but with no travel costs or a shared flat in cardiff with £150 a month travel costs - I'm basically trying to decide if utilities are going to be much more than £150 a month and if more, if the difference is worth the independence of not going back into shared accom and the hassles that that brings, plus the no travel time so when I finish I'm home.

Any B&B would have to be within spitting distance of work or in the middle of cardiff.

I don't intend to move the internet from my family home it would cost £60 to move, my partner can still use it where it is and it cost's £0 per month as my mum pays for it so she can get hold of me from indonesia (my b-day gift last year, a year of internets)

I don't intend to install a landline, I have a mobile and barely use that to be honest, I lost it for 6 months after we moved here and barely even noticed.

No cable or sky, never watch it, no tv license, I watch dvd's and don't have a digital capable tv (it doesn't even have headphone ports).

Contents insurance, not sure about this, I'll have to look around and see what I can find. My last insurance was with endsleigh as a student. It was £100 a year, but I assume as a none student it will now be more? Nothing of real value, but I do value it after, as a student in a student flat, our ceiling fell down...

kjsmith7

Our contents insurance in a 2 bed flat is still only about £100 a year.

ariarnia

One of the flats, the one I'm most interested in to be honest (closest to work, no travel expenses, nice looking and clean) has a pre-pay elec meter. Looking about, this is the most expensive way to buy 'lecky.

Can I get this changed, or find a good supplier (cheap), or am I stuck with it? People are estimating £10-£40 a week online and I'm wondering if that's right as it seems very high?

All electric devices in house are fridge freezer, elec cooker, no washing machine (communal and off meter) tv and console, lights, economy 7 storage heaters, hot water through the little instant heat things over the sink in kitchen and shower, oh, and kettle of course.

Premier_2

ariarnia wrote: »

One of the flats, the one I'm most interested in to be honest (closest to work, no travel expenses, nice looking and clean) has a pre-pay elec meter. Looking about, this is the most expensive way to buy 'lecky.

Can I get this changed, or find a good supplier (cheap), or am I stuck with it? People are estimating £10-£40 a week online and I'm wondering if that's right as it seems very high?

All electric devices in house are fridge freezer, elec cooker, no washing machine (communal and off meter) tv and console, lights, economy 7 storage heaters, hot water through the little instant heat things over the sink in kitchen and shower, oh, and kettle of course.

It's wrong to think it's the most expensive way to pay - generally PPMs cost about the same as a suppliers standard rate tariff pay on receipt of bill nowadays. (sometimes it's even cheaper)
Whilst it is true that credit meter customers can get some better deals, these may not apply to you as you will only be at the property for 6 months (e.g. Atlantic offers a free 13th month after 12 monthly payments by DD)

You should also get the agreement of the LL (some may argue with this, but why upset the LL before you've even started?) You may have difficulty getting a supplier to remove the PPM and if they do it may be subject to a charge (about £50-£90) and passing a credit check. You may also be required to pay a refundable security deposit (possibly about £300)

Actually just saw that the laundary facility is separate and off meter. Are you certain the meter to the property is the supplier's main meter or just a landlords sub-meter. If it's a sub-meter, you can't change it; you'll have to pay the landlord and whilst he is not allowed to make any profit on reselling, there is no reason for him to take the cheapest option (and it'll possibily be a business tariff anyway)

ariarnia

ok, that sounds fair enough if it's not worth/if I can't change the meter then I can't - I think given I'm not sure I understood it all.

Do you know if I can request a second 'key' for it? I have an awful habit of losing things and it would be great if I could have a key with £10 for emergencies on the side in the kitchen for if I lose the first one and need to top up.

Fire_Fox

ariarnia wrote: »

Only problem with that is that I don't drive so one flat I'm looking at is the studio flat described above but with no travel costs or a shared flat in cardiff with £150 a month travel costs - I'm basically trying to decide if utilities are going to be much more than £150 a month and if more, if the difference is worth the independence of not going back into shared accom and the hassles that that brings, plus the no travel time so when I finish I'm home.

Any B&B would have to be within spitting distance of work or in the middle of cardiff.

I *think* Badger Lady is Cardiff, and if she doesn't have a room she may know someone lovely who does ... and the entire thread is hilarious.
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=917993

[Deleted User]

Hi,

the BB seems a good option, you would only need to be there Monday to Thursday, travel home after work Friday.

If you decide on flat, it's a good time to move in as you shouldn't need the heaters on, so I would stick with pre pay meter as it's only for 6 months.

ariarnia

Fire_Fox wrote: »

I *think* Badger Lady is Cardiff, and if she doesn't have a room she may know someone lovely who does ... and the entire thread is hilarious.
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=917993

She's in Newport I believe, and I'm not in Cardiff. To get from Cardiff to the office will cost £150-200 a month (depending on what part of Cardiff) and will leave me with an aditional mile walk to the office.

This is why I'm trying to determine if the bills on a studio flat would equal to the travel expenses or if just slightly more, might be worth the space/independence.