When do we pay first lots of bills (typically)?

YoungBaker

Hi there
Looking for some advice please - we have bought a house and have our moving in date of April 5th and are now at the stage we are trying to budget for the first month or two of bills etc. but are getting confused with how payments typically come out the first time...

I am opening a joint account with OH and we will transfer x amount over to the account for all bills and expenses to be paid from. The issue is OH gets paid on 7th of the month, I get paid the 15th of the month and I am aware typically everything comes out the 1st of the month! This isn't such a problem per say as we will transfer the money over to be earmarked for payment on the first, but am unsure how it begins?

I am awaiting to hear when our 1st mortgage payment will be taking but this will be after Aprils wage which is fine so will be transferred in time.

How does payment for the following sort of bills usually begin?

- Council Tax
- Tv License
- Gas / Electricity
- Sky/Virgin tv
- Home Insurance

I know this is probably very dependant on different companies and may be a stupid question but we are trying to see if we basically need to combine our wages from March and have money from this put aside for each of the above to be charged moving straight in, or will they not be charged til after?
Thanks for any help

R_P_W

You will probably find they will all be different.

For your utilities you will want to probably look at finding your own provider, but that can take several weeks to all go through so you will be paying the previous provider for a little while.

For some of them you may be abel to pick what date you want the direct debit to be taken.

My wife and I moved into a new place back in August. We both have our own accounts that we get paid into, but we have a joint satnader 123 accounct for all expenses for the property - we always have an extra months of expenses in there as a buffer.

FireWyrm

al_1232 wrote: »

Hi there

- Council Tax - Will be a nominted day, usually the 1st so, budget for this one, you cant afford to miss it
- Tv License - for £12, not such a major issue. Can you pay this one up front for the year? It will be a nominated day otherwise - again, potentially the 1st.
- Gas / Electricity - Quarterly, or monthly DD on nominated day. Depends on provider, mine offered a choice of 1st, 15th 28th. Speak to them about it
- Sky/Virgin tv - bills raised 30 days after inception. So probably not until May.
- Home Insurance - again, 30 days later after you have paid your holding deposit.

They're all different unfortunately. Budget from the beginning in advance if you can and you will never again be suprised by a bill. So, put all you would have paid for April into an account and leave it alone. Seperate your spending money into a different current account depending on how you want to manage it and never touch the bills account again. That is about the most stable set up there is.

YoungBaker

Thank you both very much for your replies it has helped put things in perspective a bit.

In regards to the council tax one this is the one causing most confusion - I understand as said it is typically the first of the month, so how would this work for a move in of April 5th? Would May 1st be the first payment and if so would it be for much more?

We are going to sit down and chat about the finances tonight a bit more and as suggested I think the best solution is to just move the money in for March and combine our money a month early. This will let us have the cash sitting anyway for any bill that does need to come out, and if it doesn't we have a bit extra put away for later on.

Does anyone know the thread where people discuss their different approaches to couple budgeting and how it works? (there has been a few but I cant seem to find!)

Also re: Santander 123 joint account, as our mortgage is with Santander this was the account we were going to go for, but unfortunately they do not accept Students and so OH would not be able to go. Considering just going it alone so we still get the cash back benefits though then once OH graduates this summer get her added and change to a joint (is it as simple as this?)

Thanks

japmis

Council tax is normally calculated over 10 months; you can go to your local authority website and providing you know your tax band, you can see what your annual bill will be.

It's usual for February and March to be the non-payment months, and then it starts going again in the new tax year April. If everything is a goer on the house, you could probably let the council know now that you are moving on April 5th and they will send you your first bill for then. Also worthwhile getting on the electoral roll at the same time.

Good luck and congrats on buying a house!

AlexMac

Our experience of your Q-'How does payment for the following sort of bills usually begin?
- Council Tax; when the Council catches up with the fact that the occupant has changed; they'll send you a bill for the year from April 1st (the start of their their financial year) offering the option of DD payment over the 1st 10 months; so unless the outgoing occupant has given them your name and the exact moving date (to pay the few days Council Tax from 1st-5th April which they will owe) you might be able to stall them a bit to get a few weeks grace. Write or phone the Council Tax office to say 'hang on- we only moved in on the 5th or 6th or whatever' and they'll take a few days to re-calculate the bill less afew quid than the full year's tax. Then you phone or say- I want to pay by DD, so you might get a couple of week's delay with luck!
- Tv License; strictly speaking you pay this from day one- but agin, you could fudge it for a few weeks, as they are unlikely to break the door down! And rememebr if you have a licence on your old place you can transfer this to the new addresss.
- Gas / Electricity; this is even better, because it will take them some time to catch up with you. Again, even if the exiting resident has given them your name the utilities companies will just write to you or 'the new occupant' and ask you to give them opening meter readings and invite you to set up a DD. So unless you ring them on day one, you can easily stall the bills for a few weeks. And if you switch providers, (which you can do, although you have to stay with whoever you inherit for thehandover period of a few weeks) you can say you'll settle the final bill as we did on a couple of occasions. And when you do sign up, providers such as British Gas are very flexible about timing and BG ask when you want the DD to come out . Rememebr to switch to a cheap, no paper bill-,online billing, dual fuel tarrif as soon as you can.
- Sky/Virgin tv; no idea
- Home Insurance; you can't escape this as the mortgage Company will expect this to be in place on day one for buildings- we used their own policy (oir lender was Nationwide) as it was competitive and they gave free cover between exchange and completion. You don't legally have to have contents cover from day 1, although you will probably want it. We did - luckily - as we were burgled in week 3 because we didn't strenghthen the uselsss window locks (we have now)!

Good luck

sharpee

Also don't forget your first mortgage payment may not be the normal set amount depending on what dated the month you move n and the date of your mortgage payment.

YoungBaker

Thank you all so much - very much appreciated.

agrinnall

I would say there's a good chance your first CT payment will be in June - but that will mean in the first year you'll either be paying in the usual 'holiday' months of February and March, or you'll be paying a full year (less the first few days of April) over 8 months rather than 10.

AlexMac

News on Council Tax; from Martin Lewis's regular newsletter email; you can now spread payments over 12, not 10 months; worse for Council cashflow- better for yours
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/council-tax-bands-change?utm_source=MSE_Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_term=26-Feb-13&utm_campaign=reclaim&utm_content=132#discounts

agrinnall

AlexMac wrote: »

News on Council Tax; from Martin Lewis's regular newsletter email; you can now spread payments over 12, not 10 months; worse for Council cashflow- better for yours
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/council-tax-bands-change?utm_source=MSE_Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_term=26-Feb-13&utm_campaign=reclaim&utm_content=132#discounts

It's your opinion that it's better for the payers cash flow, not a fact. I for one prefer to have 2 months with no payments.