To think student friends shouldn't share finances because of the risks involved?

[allyt113]

I'm referring to 18+ year old uni students who are close friends and are sharing accommodation. I think they shouldn't transfer money to each other's accounts or deal with each other financially because it will eventually turn into a blame game, especially if they're irresponsible with money.

And the background to this is?

Surely if you're going to move away from home for uni, then you should be able to provide for yourself and not rely on a friend or expect them to

Are you talking about lending flatmates money? If not I don't have a clue what you're on about.

Care to elaborate?

This surely depends on what you mean?

Obviously I wouldn't get a joint account with student friends. But we had a shared water bill, and actually shared all the shopping, cooking etc. We just wrote down everything we'd spent and netted it all off. Some stuff (specifically ice-cream..., more so than alcohol!) wasn't communal, everything else was. If someone was ending up too out of pocket, they were paid back,.otherwise we just kept netting off. We didn't get shared insurance because we didn't want responsibility for anyone elses thefts or accidents.

It worked really well.

You make little sense

If you're referring to transferring money for bills, there's not much you can do about that. Either have a joint account from which the money comes out of, or one person pays the bill and the others transfer their share.

Do you mean like Friend A is responsible for paying the bills so the other friends transfer their share to them rather than find a way to do it directly?

Nice idea in theory, but if you're renting a room in a shared house it's likely you'll end up sharing finances to an extent. Usually landlords won't take responsibilty for utilities, so if you end up with a housemate who doesn't pay their way it's usually tough luck. But yes, of course people shouldn't be dickheads and should make sure they budget so they can pay their share of living expenses.

How do they do bills?

In one student house we set up a four way joint account, but then we were all liable for fees if one person forgot to do their transfer, and closing it was a pain in the bum.

In a post-student house share we tried to split who had what direct debits equally but still ended up having to settle inequalities every few months.

Or is this halls and they're just lending each other money? Splitting takeaways? I think generally it's quite common to become somewhat financially entangled with housemates, even if it's just 'your turn to buy the milk'

Landlords and utility companies don’t bill each student directly. They just want to be paid in full. If you have roommates, you are linked financially. Generally if one flakes, the other roommates are on the hook.

The way to avoid this is not having roommates, but affording a place solo is often impossible so students take the risk.

My DD is in a shared uni flat. They all pay their rent separately but share bills. She is in charge of utilities. Someone else is in charge of the broadband account. I assume they all transfer money to each other to cover their bills. It all seems to work out.

I think it’s a good way to learn about sharing bills etc, a lot of my friends moved into houseshares when they graduated so it was good to be used to it. Sharing food etc I don’t think is worth it though’

I’m confused? Is one student borrowing money off another?
When I was a student we had an arrangement where paid one bill and we transferred the money over, another paid another etc. All worked out fairly. Companies won’t bill each resident individually so I can’t see how else it could be done?

DD says they each have a bill in their name and they have a monthly standing order between each account so they all pay their share and that way they are each building up a credit rating for the future.

Huh?

In one student flat I was in one of the girls was the tenant of the landlord and the rest of us were sub tenants of her. We all transferred out rent to her account every month. This wasn’t a particularly unusual set up.

It was also before the days of mobiles so we all paid towards the landline telephone which was in one persons name.

If students are cohabiting then they will need some sharing of finances.

My son shares with five others. They’ve been paying bills together all year, it works out fine. He’s v good with money though and I think the others are too.

When I was a student we had a 'joint' account for bills that everyone paid in a set amount each month, so we got huge bill at the end of term we weren't stuck with no-one having any money left to pay it. It was all in my name though. In theory I could have run off with all the money I didn't I think they were all quite happy for me to take responsibility for it all!

I don't really understand your point OP. But my DS shares a house with 3 other students. Rent includes everything except food so he doesn't need to pay anyone in the house any money - he just makes one payment a month to the agent - as do the other 3 tenants. Seems fairly standard for all the uni accomodation properties in his area.

YABU - what on earth are you talking about? How do you expect shared houses to run? My BF and I were at diff Uni's and always sent money back and forth to help each other out as we were paid weekly from our jobs and often needed a bit of help...