Bills account for 7 students

sad_gills_fan

shopndrop wrote:

My son is about to share a house with 6 others.QUOTE]

My step daughter shares a house with 7 others and has done for 2 years. After they couldn't find a suitable bank account, they decided to each take responsibility for one bill.

For instance .. she is in charge of the gas bill so when it comes in, she divides it between 8 people and puts a note on the fridge as to how much each person owes and a time limit on payment. They then give her the cash/cheque or transfer the money into her account. She then pays the bill.

It works for them very well as they all trust each other and, touch wood, it has never failed them yet. It certainly teaches young adults budgeting and how to 'share'.
Best of luck

jonesMUFCforever

shopndrop wrote:

Presumably by "club society type of account" this is an account where you don't get any interest on the money in the account?

Surely if money there is for payment of bills, then interest is of no consequence here especially as the pennies that may accrue may have to split 7 ways!
Eric

Savvy_Sue

ejones999 wrote:

Surely if money there is for payment of bills, then interest is of no consequence here especially as the pennies that may accrue may have to split 7 ways!

Depends how you organise it. If you're all putting a set amount in each month and paying the bills quarterly, then interest will accrue. If you wait for the bills to arrive and then try to extract 1/7 from each person before you can pay them, a lot less interest will accrue.

And rather than splitting the interest, there may be enough to buy a few beers and a curry at the end of the year! (if they're still on speaking terms ...) Or give a donation to charity.

Either way, given a choice between no interest and interest, I'd go for the interest. The bank will be getting interest on anything in the account, so why shouldn't I?

ms2005

HI

I can tell you that our Npower bill (gas and electric) had all our names on so it would read Mr 1,2,3 that way no one person is responsible for the payment, we also used to sedn them 3 cheques totalling what they wanted and never had any problems.

BT wil def not allow more than one name, i had it solely in my name but you can opt for itimised billing at no extra cost so you can see who made what and when.

Regarding this you can always have a joint account and have the peyment DD from there so although it is in your name it is not your account.

Be very very careful with bills, ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS keep reciepts, cheque stubs etc etc it becomes very difficult if a payment is rebutted by the other people or even if one house mate says they paid an dit doesnt total.

barbie_babe

just idea could they have gas and electric card meters fitted and they all put aprox five in a month,as for other bills couldnt they just split them as they come in .as for names on bills try and get as many as possible with all names on.
try ntl for putting more than one name on with phone .

shopndrop

Landlord will not allow any changes, cannot change from BT to NTL. He won't even allow them an extra freezer (which they would have paid for) as their contract permits them having any other large electrical appliances so I cannot see him letting them have a meter installed.

NellyLock

having recently left a house of nine we had to sort out two joint accounts (one we called "rent" and one "bills")...

our landlord wanted one cheque frorm all of us for rent hence the rent account

the bills account was a joint account handled by 2 sensible people who collected money from everybody in the house. we did this by collecting at specific periods however perhaps in hindsight it would have been better for every member to set up a direct debit for a certain amount each month into that account. (it doesnt matter whether there is too much in the account in the end because everyone should have payed in the same so the account can just be divided equally and given back). we then gave different housemates the responsibility of sorting out the bills. so the 2 in charge of the account effectively acted as bankers for the others ie...

water bill comes in directed at x, x goes to one of the "bills" account holder and asks for money to cover the bill, they write the cheque to x and then x pays the bill.

this way ALL money comes from the bills account so it was possible to trace every bill/payment....it was also possible to go and buy house products (cleaning/toiletries etc) and take money straight from this account

for a smaller house this is probably a bit extreme but better for larger ones. hope it makes sense!

louise1234_2

By opening a joint current account your credit files will be linked.

If any housemates had credit problems, these would show on your credit file and may cause difficulties in obtaining credit.

stuwilky

louise1234 wrote:

By opening a joint current account your credit files will be linked.

If any housemates had credit problems, these would show on your credit file and may cause difficulties in obtaining credit.

Only for the period that the account was active, after that they could be removed by disassociating the person.