Student Accommodation Bills and Other Charges

Some landlords will incorporate bills into the rent and split this evenly amongst all of the house and flatmates within the property. Others however will leave you to sort the bills out yourself and decide how to divide it amongst you.

Therefore, it is worth being aware of what bills you could be charged with. The most common types are:

• Council Tax
• Electricity
• Gas
• Internet
• Phone (Landline and Mobile)
• TV License
• Water

Continue reading to see how students can save money by being more efficient and find the cheapest deals. Doing this can save you hundreds of pound throughout your uni life, which could be used to buy text books, food or beer.

Council Tax

If the property is being rented amongst only student housemates, then the household is exempt from paying council tax, the same applies for living in halls of residence. You may however need to fill out a Council Tax Exemption form which you can obtain from the university or local council offices.

If the residents of the property are not all students, you will be charged at 75% of the full rate, the UK average is over £1000 so it could be a substantial figure for a student.

Electricity Bills

Heating your student house or flatshare can be an area where you can save valuable money a month. The amount that is paid is calculated by how much you have used and is commonly done by readings being taken by the electricity provider. New technologies such as, Smart Maters, are being developed that enable the electricity company to remotely read the meter.

In order to reduce the cost of an electricity bill, there are certain steps which you and your housemates can be take:

• Have a look online to see if you are able to find a cheaper electricity provider, to save time, comparison websites such as BeatThatQuote.com will do the searching for you and then consult with your landlord to see if they are willing to change.
• Make sure that you and your housemates turn off electrical appliances when they are not in use or when going to bed. Leaving items such as TV’s and stereos in standby mode can be extremely costly over a period of time.
• When using the washing machine, try to do washes at either 30OC or 40OC and with a full load.
• When boiling a kettle, only use enough water for the number of cups of tea or coffee that you want to use, boiling excess water uses more electricity.
• If you need to buy new electrical appliances, look out for the energy efficiency labels which rate a product from A to G depending on how efficient they are.
• Turn lights off in rooms when they are not being used.
• Replace normal light bulbs with energy saving light bulbs. This can also be a double money saving as your energy providers will sometimes send these to you free of charge.

Gas Bills

Some properties across the UK still use gas heating, and this is calculated in a similar way to that of electricity. Regular readings of the gas meter are taken and you are charged for what you have used. There are measures which you can take to reduce your gas bill, including:

• Consult with the landlord if there is a cheaper gas provider, have a look online and be prepared with figures to back up your claims when you speak to them. To save time, comparison websites such as BeatThatQuote.com will do the searching for you.
• Many gas companies will offer discounts for paying a fixed price each month. The disadvantage of this is that you will have to pay for gas, however the advantages are that in other months you will get more than what you have paid for and you know what your gas bill will be each month.
• If you buy your electricity and gas from the same provider, they will often give you a further discount.
• Turning your thermostat down by just 1% can reduce your energy use by 10%
• If buying new appliances, look for gas efficient ones.

Internet Bills

Not all students will require an internet connection, but for many it is a must have. One of the benefits of having the internet in your student flatshare is that it allows you to work from home and saves a journey into the university library.

All internet providers will require a telephone line to be installed in order to connect, check with that your student accommodation has this. Alternatively you can buy a dongle and get an internet account setup with a telephone network provider. Prices for both of these can be researched at comparison websites such as USwitch

There are methods for you to get free or at least cheaper broadband by integrating it in with either your mobile phone contract or satellite TV. The major mobile network operators such as Vodafone offer their customers deals where by having a mobile contract with them entitles them to free broadband. Digital television companies such as SKY and Virgin Media also offer their customers bundle packages comprising of satellite television and internet.

One thing that you and your housemates should be aware of are download limits as going over these will incur extra charges.

Landline and Mobile Phone

Landline phones are not a necessity at university as you will undoubtedly have a mobile phone.

If however there is a landline phone already in your student flatshare and flatmates insist on using it, there are fees that you have to be aware of such as a line rental charge on top of the cost of the calls that you make. But once again there are things which you can do to lower the costs of phone calls:

• Shop around and contact different phone companies to see what they can offer you. The big networks to contact are O2, Orange and Vodafone.
• Haggle with the sales person that you speak with.
• Look at combining broadband and digital TV with your telephone as this may reduce costs.
• Consider using SKYPE if you are happy to make phone calls over the internet.

When it comes to mobile phones, it is best to compare networks and sometimes play them off of each other in order to get the best and most cost effective deals.

TV License

Every student house or flatshare with a television requires a TV license. The annual cost of which is £142.50 for a colour TV and £48.00 for black and white one both of which can be paid all in one or in monthly or weekly instalments. The advantage of being a student is that during the summer holidays you can apply for a rebate from TV Licensing for the unused months.

Water Bills

The majority of water companies generally charge their customers on a fixed price twice a year whilst some still charge on a meter basis.

The advantage of paying a fixed rate is that you know what the bill will be, the disadvantage is that you will be paying for at least three months during the year when on holidays, but this can be claimed back once you have the left the property.

The advantage of the meter based method is that you are only charged for what you use, the disadvantage of this can be that the cost can be slightly more.

There are cost saving measures which you can implement in order to reduce your water bills, which include:

• Ask the landlord to have water efficient showers installed, chances are they’ll say no but there’s no harm in trying.
• If there is a leaking tap, ask the landlord to fix it.
• When using the washing machine, only do full loads.
• Use a washing up bowl.

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