Student Flat bank account

squawkbox

Hi all,

I'm a long time reader and now a first time poster. What a brilliant site!

I am about to move into a flat with two other people and was wondering what the best method is in regards to paying bills?

Many people have recommended setting up a societies and club account at the bank and using that to pay bills.

I was wondering if anyone can give any recommendation as to what would be the best option to me?

Eoin_McLove

I think setting up a joint account is just unnecessary and causes more hassle. It's much easier to get one person to pay a bill when it arrives, and then give your shares of the amount to him/her. Maybe you could decide that housemate A will pay the electricity, housemate B the gas, housemate C the broadband/phone, etc. It's much easier this way, I think.

It is a good idea to have a kitty for general kitchen/bathroom stuff, like toilet roll, kitchen towel, washing-up liquid, etc. My housemates and I each used to put a fiver in at the start of term, and when it had been spent, put another fiver in each. Lasts ages, of course. I had the annoying habit of taking the money out of the jar when I had no cash on me, so I could nip round to the offie. :beer:

Snow_Angel

In the last house I lived in we all had a bill in our name each - the only problem was we didn't know each other before we all moved into the same house. One guy was continuously paying us money late or not at all - one month he even spent all the money we had given him for one bill and our telephone, internet and tv freeview was cut off!!!:mad:

If you know each other then this is not going to be so much of a problem. Thankfully for us our landlady was very nice and used his deposit to pay us all back the money he owed, which she didn't need to do.

One hint - when you ask your housemates for the money for the bill you have in your name, tell them you need it BEFORE you pay the bill. if you let them know you've paid it already they may seem to think it's "less urgent" despite the fact that your bank account is teetering on the edge of its overdraft.

Good luck in your new place

ILoveHenryJames

You can get the names of all those responsible for paying the bills to be put on each utility account, we did it for some peace of mind.

When a bill came in we simply divided the total by 6 (the number of us in the house) and sent a cheque from each of us in one envelope for the required amount.

That worked for us.

nalibz

Personally i like the idea of a joint account, as long as you know everyone..

Everyone puts a certain amount of money in and all bills get direct debited out of that one account.. Obviously everyone needs the funds to do so but if its possible then just get everyone to put a certain amount in then leave the account to pay the bills.

Eoin_McLove

Off-topic: why the Israeli flag, nalibz?

hattie_pea

When I was a student we did the joint account thing and it worked like clockwork. Everyone put £60 in at the start of term when we all had our loans. We lived in a house of 6 and two of the other girls put the account in their name.

Personally I think its a good idea to make sure that bills are in different peoples names but paying them out of one central pot makes it muc easier to maange and less hassle with piddly bits of change!

Do an ikea run and stock on on energy saving bulbs to save a bit extra on electriclty. ALso make sure people don't leave tv's and stereos on standby - this equates to about 10% of a households annual usage believe it or not, literally a waste of money!

x

nalibz

Eoin_McLove wrote:

Off-topic: why the Israeli flag, nalibz?

Because i support them

Eoin_McLove

nalibz wrote:

Because i support them

Zionism, or the football team?

nalibz

Eoin_McLove wrote:

Zionism, or the football team?

Neither to an extent but then again both to an extent...