Aliwales

Hellloooo all!

Ok, due to my obsessive need to know everything way in advance i was wonering if you lovely people who have already jumped ship could let me know about the cost of utility bills?

Is it the usual gas/elec and water? is it paid monthly as in uk? Is it as outrageously expensive as it is here, as i currently fork out approximately £180 per calendar month !!! on all three. Also somebody was trying to tell me recently abut paying to have your rubbish removed. . does this not come out of your council rates?! im soo confused its a wonder i can function!!

p.s: family of 3 in a regualr sized 3 bed home

Experiences/ thoughts gratefully appreciated, Ali

Woodlea

Wow £180 is expensive per month for the UK?
We pay on average $200 a month for electricity (averaged over the whole year) for a nice warm 4 person house in North Canterbury.
No water.
No gas.
And yes you have to pay to have your rubbish removed. I pay $5 a week for half a wheelie-bin. Or you can buy the plastic bags from the council and put your rubbish out once a week like in the olden days.

Stormer999

Just the two of us the gas/electric/water is £150 monthly.

Woodlea

WOW - prices have risen in the last 4 years, I'm sure I wasn't paying that much for 4 people, let alone 2, when we left - scary! Makes NZ look cheap - nice one

Stormer999

Yes and our council tax is £184 monthly and that will not drop in the massive council spending cuts!

londonescapee

Depends on where you live with rates is my understanding. We rent so do not have to pay rates as these are paid by the landlord - and include water and rubbish/recycling collection (although I am sure they just increase the rent a bit to cover that). All we pay is electric and telephone/broadband once a month by direct debit.

They won't collect garden waste in Auckland City Council you have to get some company to come tow it away for you. They will collect big things but you have to pay which is what we had in Brighton - it was bizarrely free for us in Lambeth of all things! Or you just stick it out on the road and someone helps themselves

Our eleccy is $100 a month and phone/broadband which includes 'unlimited' calls to the uk is $130 a month. Sky I think have their basic package for telly at $55 a month but there is freeview here.

Persephone

We are two adults in a newish 3 bedroom house.
Our bills per month are approximately:
$100 electricity
$40 gas - comes in 45kg bottles [for one gas fire and oven hob only] we will have used 4 this year
$90 telephone and broadband
$60 Sky

Rates are around $1,700 per year and do include rubbish removal. We separate our rubbish into three bins [recycling, general rubbish and food/garden waste].
Can't think of any other bills we pay regularly

nero

Everyone will have slightly different bills based on the providers they use and the council area they reside in.

Our electricity bill is on average @$120 ($170 max and $90 minimum) per month
We do get about $320 from the Auckland Energy Consumer Trust once a year, just for having electricity in Auckland
Rates for Auckland Regional Council are $261 per annum
Rates for Auckland City Council are $1302 per annum
Water rates courtesy of Metrowater @ $100 per quarter
Broadband + Phone @$100 per month
You can get garden waste removed for $8.50 per month
Once a year Auckland council has a collection for everything that you could not pop in a garbage can

I am sure with Auckland Super City everything will change as I know friends in different parts of Auckland get charged differently for certain things - like out west you have to pay for garbage sacks for your rubbish where as we do not!

Hope this makes sense

simonsi

Wots that about then?

nero

If you live in certain parts of Auckland and pay the electricity bill (whether you are a renter or an owner) you own shares in the Auckland Energy Consumer Trust and you get a dividend once a year, which this year was $320. Which is brilliant. It gets paid out every September. That is the nubbins of it.

Woodlea

Same with Mainpower, as it is a Trust everyone who is on their network gets about a cent or two off their rate. So that's everyone in Waimakariri and Wigram as Mainpower are the network supplier. Probably the same for Orion in Chch and the other network suppliers too. Difference with Mainpower as opposed to the Auckland one mentioned by the previous poster is the dividend is given at source rather than a lump sum later.

Cheesehead

This winter we have paid up to $350 per month for electricity only!!! And that is living in Auckland. Our house is a shocker - we have had several electric heaters going just trying to take the edge off the cold.
Phone is about $125 including broadband
We have water tanks so totally free
Rates = $340 per quarter

shelloid

wow! That's a lot!

We pay $120 per month electric
~$50-100 per month (over the winter) on firewood
$150 month for telephone, broadband and sky
no rates, as we're in rental
we use ~1 council rubbish bag every other week (sometimes once a weeek but not often) - a pack of five council rubbish bags costs about $11
$15 per fortnight on contents insurance
$10 per month for our bank accounts
$20 per year for our debit cards (1 each at $10 per year)

there's 2 of us (plus the cat) in our household - in a 3 bed house. Looking at it this way, we're probably paying slightly less than we did in the UK on bills and stuff (I think it's the lack of a huge massive council tax bill each month that does it!).

BEVS

It's a divi on the lines. We get similar also via Tasman.

Aliwales

Wow thanks for the replies guys! if im renting i may be on a parr to what i pay here, which is good!!! Note to self rent somewhere good for winter and dont have any brucy bonus's lol x ta