Think your money issues are bad, check out these student finance nightmares...
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Adulthood - it's great, right? Freedom, independence, bills - oh wait, what?
Paying for stuff is basically what 'independence' means, and when you're a student with no money that can be even more of a challenge.
That's without the added factor of human nature thrown in. Whether it's because your friends are bad with money, you're bad with money, or your landlord is a massive pain. There are money horror stories for all shapes and sizes.
So cold we could hold our breath
Saving has to become a priority, sometimes over the basic necessities as Laura Fortune remembers an occasion in the middle of winter, her house mate decided there should be no heating turned on to reduce the energy bills.
“Myself and my other housemate agreed and slept in a freezing room that night in the attic- so cold we could see our breath and our phones had condensation on them in the morning. I went in to my housemates room the next morning (the one who thought of this great money saving idea) to get something of mine (she'd stayed out all night) and found the radiator on full blast.”
The suicidal money-grabber
The idea of a house share seems perfect to begin with, but when 'bills' become involved it often leaves friendships shattered. Anna Robertson describes her own 'emotional roller coaster' with one particular nightmare housemate.
“Alongside the screaming at 3am, the attention seeking "I'm going to kill myself and it's all your fault", and the stealing from us, she got in a bit of debt due to a nasty shopping habit. She wouldn't contribute to bills stating she was too poor but would then pay £300 for hair extensions. We eventually got her evicted, after which we had debt collectors knocking at the door weekly for her! So advice for anyone in the same boat - if bills aren't included be careful who you live with! I'd always opt to live alone now.”
The broken hob of doom
An anonymous student tells us: “One of my housemates smashed our hob, then lied about it and refused to pay, leaving the rest of us to either foot the bill, or live off microwave food for the rest of the year..”
The awkward sex chat
But Laura Boynton's tale wins the 'most awkward housemate story' award.
“The moment BT called us because our phone bills sky rocketed to a few hundred was bad. Not too great in a house of five having to ask our male housemate if he was calling porn lines. We sat down like parents and had to word it very carefully that he had made a lot of 20 minute calls but the previous night one had gone on for hours and that single call was over a hundred. Poor guy.
"His mum had to pay the bills and he moved out swiftly after. Our phone bills dramatically dropped.”
The two-twat payment racket
The most common tale is the one where housemates simple don't pay back the money they owe. Tom Brown, fell victim to this all to common student trait.
“I had two twats of housemates at Loughborough Uni. The gas and electricity bills were in my name, very naive I know, and they didn't reply to any calls, emails or texts to pay their share when we moved out and left me out of pocket by quite a bit of money.”
The loan that never got paid back
Alessandro Alika, similarly, caught onto the fact that his flatmate was using him as a free source of income after lending her about £100 every month for a few months, never seeing that money come back.
Fortunately, new social payments app Circle offers a new way to take the stress out of paying and getting paid the money owed.
Circle’s app can help solve this problem giving you a non-awkward, instant way to ask for your money back. You can even use things like emojis and gifs to turn awkward debt collecting into a bit of fun.
Of course, some people bring on their own money woes by being crap with money and cause other people strife in the process.
The self-inflicted finance wound
“Basically, it was second year and I had zero money. Coming from a lovely English WASPish middle class family I could ring up home but I'm also middle class and insecure enough to hate ringing up home and asking for money. I got jobs working in various shit places like the SU restaurant, cleaning lecture rooms etc but it never gave me enough money, and let's say my partying habits weren't really helping my budget.
"So I asked my sister, and she would send money that she worked incredibly hard for over to me so I could avoid talking to my parents. However, she started getting suspicious when I started doing it repeatedly, so she basically told my parents she thought I was a drug addict. We had a whole intervention thing, it got quite serious. Except, I wasn't a drug addict at all! On the contrary, I just didn't have any money and didn't want to ask my parents for money.”
The rip-off landlord
This is the most serious end of the financial issues you can be hit with. For most students it is usually tight-fisted landlords causing the problems as Heather Rudd recounts.
“The time I'd signed a contract which stated all bills included and then about two weeks after moving in, the land lady informed me that water had gone up. So that was an extra £20 on my rent every month. Plus, she had recently invested in NOW TV so I had to pay half of that too!”
Another student adds to the list of nasty landlords with his tale: “We had one who wouldn't give us our deposit back. Not for any particular reason just because he was a twat and never replied to our calls or letters. In the end one of my best mates is a high flying solicitor who told me exactly what to write stating some Act or another. Within a week we had the cheque. It's important for students to know what to do, although now all deposits have to be held by a third party.”
Circle makes managing your money social, allowing you to split bills, request money from friends and travel between dollars and pounds for free! It’s the app taking the pain out of payments. Find out more at: www.circle.com
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