What is bills consolidation and how does it work?
Simplify your life by consolidating all your monthly bills into one payment. With Just Move In, partners like The Bunch and Billing Better can manage everything from utilities to council tax, giving you peace of mind and protection while reducing your monthly payments.
With so many different utility suppliers and service providers, it can be tricky to keep track of all your bills, especially when different bills are due at different times, such as monthly or quarterly. This is where using bills consolidation can be a simple and effective solution to help streamline everything.
What is Bills Consolidation?
Bills consolidation is a way of combining all your regular bills into one simple monthly payment. This means bills like your gas, water, electricity, broadband and even council tax bills can be merged into one. It’s also an excellent option for housemates where it can be a task to have to go through all the bills and individually calculate who owes what to which particular company.
How does Bills Consolidation work?
At Just Move In we have excellent partners in The Bunch and Billing Better, who specialise in bills consolidation. In a nutshell, they’ll give you an idea of your total monthly bill (including all utilities and services) based on the requirements for your specific household, in addition to their fees which are normally included in the monthly payment. The Bunch, for example, charge a £120 per person fee per year, to set up, manage and consolidate your services and utilities into one - that’s just £10 per month. This also guarantees individual liability, so in the case of a student let or house share, you don’t have to worry about your credit score being affected if someone else doesn’t pay their bill on time.
A bills consolidation company will also have excellent relationships with various internet and media providers, meaning you can get access to the best deals, as well as flexibility with 30-day rolling options or 12-month contract options available.
These companies also typically have their chosen suppliers for electricity and gas, so will switch you over when you join, and also arrange for a smart meter to be fitted which will be linked to your customer portal for easy and effective tracking.
Water and council tax services typically have fixed prices, so a company such as Billing Better will simply set up the payment of these bills and pass the exact cost on to you. If you’re a student, you’re exempt from council tax, so that’s one less thing to worry about.
All you need to do is let the bills consolidation company know which services you would like to include in your package. For example, if you don’t have any gas appliances, you’ll only need a supplier for electricity. You can then add additional billpayers or housemates that need to be included all at the same time.
The benefits of bills consolidation
So why would you sign up for bills consolidation? There are several benefits of bundling your bills into one monthly payment.
One monthly bill
This is the main benefit of bills consolidation, where you no longer need to worry about managing the different suppliers and bills.
Individual liability
Each person in the household will pay their share and be liable individually, as well as pay from their own bank account. This means there’s no need to set up a joint bank account or have one person in charge of paying from their account.
It’s another way of reducing the pressure on one person in the event several people don’t pay their bills on time. That way, they don’t run the risk of not having enough funds in their account to cover the bills due. This is crucial from a credit score viewpoint as even one missed bill can damage your credit score.
Full management and support
Not only are housemates individually liable, if they don’t pay their share you don’t have to chase them as the consolidating company will do this for you.
Excellent supplier relationships and competitive deals
Having an excellent relationship with suppliers for services such as broadband and TV can unlock competitive rates and flexible packages compared to if you were to approach these companies directly. This can in turn help to reduce your regular monthly bills.
Fixed service fee
Companies such as The Bunch will charge an annual fee or a monthly service charge, with no deposits or set-up fees.
Full protection guarantee
You don’t need to worry about having to discuss how to split the bills with your housemates, as you’ll be guaranteed that you will only pay your share of the bills.
Summary
Let’s face it, managing and paying bills isn’t the most exciting part of life, and with all the pressures and stresses of day-to-day living, it can be overwhelming to manage all the different bills and make sure you don’t miss anything. Living with other people adds an extra element of stress as there are more people involved and often it’s one person in the house that gets assigned to deal with paying the bills and chasing everyone for their share.
Bills consolidation is a great solution to this problem, as it makes sure everyone involved takes responsibility for their fair share. Further, if someone doesn’t pay on time, other housemates don’t face the repercussions of late payment charges and their credit scores being affected.
By using companies such as The Bunch and Billing Better, you can rest assured that all your bills can be combined into one monthly, manageable payment - all with user-friendly customer portals and support teams in case you need any assistance.