Energy bills are the last thing you want to be sorting out when you move in to a new house, and start a new year at uni. But unfortunately energy, water, internet and TV licence bills are a fact of life that we all need to deal with. Here is a quick guide to help you get your student bills sorted as quickly and easily as possible, and save a bit of money as well.
1) Know what your bills are going to cost you:
Bills will vary depending on how much energy you consume, or water you use, for example. So it is never possible to know exactly what your utilities are going to cost you in the future. But get a quote for fixed price energy bills and internet packages now. This will give you an accurate picture of what your household bills are going to be and what you will need to budget on a weekly basis to pay for your homes bills. Once you have an accurate quote for all of your utilities, you can now start to budget so that you aren’t left short at the end of the month or end up getting in to trouble by not paying bills.
2) Choose the right student bills package for you:
22 million people in the UK are currently overpaying on energy bills by never switching and paying their incumbent energy providers standard variable tariff. This is probably not the best situation for you to be in as a student. So make sure that you are on a fixed price contract which is getting you a good energy deal for your time in your house.
At Huru, we source great fixed price energy tariffs for our customers so that they have certainty over their bills and don’t end up over paying by getting caught on standard variable tariffs.
When you are looking at internet packages as well, make sure you have one that works best for you. For example, at Huru we know that some of our customers won’t be in their property for an entire year and so we have sourced unique 9 month internet contracts for our customers, so you won’t end up paying for internet at a property where you’re not even living.
3) Split the bills fairly
Organising the bills for a shared house can be a complete nightmare. You could end up having to pay an entire bill yourself and then chasing your housemates for the bills later. This is not ideal if you are living off a student budget and are living with a lot of people.
Si check out a service that will automatically split the bills for you. If you use Huru, each and every housemate can sign up and we’ll split the bill equally between you. This is by far the fairest and easiest way to manage the utility bills for a shared house.
4) Control your heating
If you want to keep your bills down, then the easiest place to start is by making sure you are not wasting heating. Over half of energy bills are spent on heating, so make sure you aren’t needlessly wasting money during the summer months and use your heating smart in the winter. This can be tough when there are lots of people living in a house, but take responsibility for it and you’ll see the benefits in your cost savings.
5) What savings can mean for you
By getting control of your bills, taking advantage of splitting services, switching to better deals and keeping a lid on usage, you can save money. In fact, you can save hundreds a year. In reality that could mean for you; 2 return flights for a sunny holiday this summer, a new phone contract, a trip to the cinema every week of term, 29 pizzas for the house or 63 pints for your party budget.
It’s all out there for you to make the most of. So start with the simple things and sort out your bills. Because as we say at Huru, some things are worth worrying about but bills aren’t one of them. So if in doubt when you are moving in to a new house, just get in touch and we’ll let you know how we can help!!
Originally published at Huru.
