Insurance, housing, car loans, gas, electric, cell phone, internet… There are a lot of bills that pile up in our mailboxes or inboxes every month. Most of these are individual bills that we keep track of and cover ourselves. But when you’re sharing living space with roommates, utility bills are different. You’re all using the utilities together so deciding how to take care of these bills isn’t as outright as paying for your own health insurance. How utility bills will be paid is an important issue to discuss and listed here are different ways other renters with roommates have solved it.
Pre-Set Bills
David signed up for an apartment that takes care of all of the utility bills for their residents. The rate residents pay for utilities is a pre-set amount, like rent, so he pays X amount for rent and X amount for utilities for the duration of his lease.
Pros
Can pay rent and utilities at the same time
Easy to budget for since you know the amount each month
Someone else is taking care of the bills
Cons
Residents tend to not keep track of how much energy they’re using with this method
No extra money for the taco truck during months your utilities would usually be less
Pre-Split Bills
Sarah is a college student living in an apartment close to campus. To help ease along the bill-paying process, the utilities company takes the total bill for the month, splits it by the number of residents, and bills them separately.
Pros
Bill is nicely pre-split for you
No roommate wars over who owes what
Cons
Harder to negotiate a different bill paying system among roommates if another method might work better
Bills might be paid late because of one roommate who isn’t on top of things
Bill-Pay Rotation
Ashley and her roommate Michelle both don’t want to be in charge of anything and so the compromise was to switch off every other month the person who is in charge of bills. In July Ashley pays for all the utilities, internet, and recycling while the next month Michelle will make sure everything gets paid.
Pros
Can get a break from making sure the bills are paid all the time
‘Extra’ money the months you don’t pay the bills.
Cons
If the months you’re in charge happen to be more expensive you’re stuck footing the bill
May forget and pay late when it’s your month since it’s not a bill you pay as regularly
One Takes Charge
Jared doesn’t mind paying bills and doesn’t really trust anyone else with being in charge of the bills anyway. Every month he makes sure that all of the utilities are paid on time then adds all of the bills together and splits the cost between him and his other two roommates. He only asks that they pay him within a week and so far it has worked out fine.
Pros
Generally the most responsible roommate will pay the bills and so you won’t need to worry about late fees or utilities being shut off
All costs are split evenly
If you’re the roommate not in charge of paying you never stress that utilities are paid on time
Cons
The roommate paying the bills does initially foot the whole cost until they’re paid back
Potential for worry that you might not get paid back or will be paid back late
Split and Pay
In a method similar to Sarah’s situation above, Anne and her three roommates split the cost of their utilities bill among the four of them and send in their share at the same time.
Pros
No one person is footing the bills for any period of time
All costs are split evenly
Cons
Bills might be paid late because of one roommate who isn’t on top of things
Accounting of bill payment is more confusing
Forget It’s There
John receives his bills for utilities and puts it on the table with the stacks of other mail. Often he and his roommates forget to pay the utilities, hoping someone else will go through the pile and take care of everything instead.
