UniLang

Just curious! Those of you who are homeowners or renters, what utilities/services do you pay for monthly? (Not including things like the cost of your actual house/apartment, food, or payments associated with transportation.)

For me, it's the following:

• Water
• Natural gas [for me this is the source of my heating and hot water]
• Electricity [for me this is the source of my cooking appliances]
• Garbage collection

I consider the above to be things that are pretty much mandatory (everyone pays them, living without them would be difficult). They are also things for which I have only one choice in terms of who I buy them from and how much I pay.
In addition there are the somewhat more voluntary things which are also the things I have more choice over in terms of which company I use and what level of service I want to pay for:

• Internet
• Satellite television
• Landline phone
• Cell phone

My water, gas and heating are all included in the rent; out of the essential things you mentioned I only pay for electricity. I also pay for my Internet connection and cell phone plan, that's it.

Just water and electricity

I rent a pretty standard apartment and pay the same stuff most people in my situation do:

• Rent, which includes:
  
  • Heat
  • Water
  • Free use of a communal laundry room
  • A basic television package of 18 channels
  • Somewhere to throw your garbage, including a basic station for collecting stuff for recycling
• Electricity
• Internet
• Phone

Most of town has district heating, so that covers keeping my apartment cozy and a supply of hot water that is limitless.

Stove/oven is electric, as are the fridge and freezer, so they're not exactly free to use, but any maintenance is included in my rent.

No need to have cable or satellite television with the stuff included here, and to be honest, there is no need to have an actual TV at all. I didn't have one for about seven years, and the only reason I have one now is because my sister decided to get a new one before her old one stopped working. And I use my Chromecast way more than I use that screen for watching actual TV anyway.

Landline phones have already gone out of style big time here. Even my 82-year-old grandmother doesn't have one anymore, since cellphone plans are way cheaper, and as for families... Why add that cost at all? Kids get their own cellphones as teenagers anyway, and before that they can borrow their parents' to contact their friends.

• Electric
• Internet
• Phone

*Free water
*Garbage dumpster on-site
*Free repairs

I have to pay to wash my clothes somewhere, but I'll assume that falls into the luxury category so I don't need to add it here

No need to have cable or satellite television with the stuff included here, and to be honest, there is no need to have an actual TV at all. I didn't have one for about seven years, and the only reason I have one now is because my sister decided to get a new one before her old one stopped working. And I use my Chromecast way more than I use that screen for watching actual TV anyway.

Landline phones have already gone out of style big time here. Even my 82-year-old grandmother doesn't have one anymore, since cellphone plans are way cheaper, and as for families... Why add that cost at all? Kids get their own cellphones as teenagers anyway, and before that they can borrow their parents' to contact their friends.

I like cable but it's gotten expensive so I don't have it anymore. I have Hulu, Netflix and some other stuff that's free. It's not bad but I've almost run out of things to watch, so I'm doing more serious things with my time for the most part

I appreciate a landline since it allows me to phone overseas without accumulating outrageous charges; I had Comcast for my landline before so it was very cheap to call out, and of course free within North America. Unfortunately I don't have that now either, so I'm doing other things

Gormur wrote:I appreciate a landline since it allows me to phone overseas without accumulating outrageous charges; I had Comcast for my landline before so it was very cheap to call out, and of course free within North America. Unfortunately I don't have that now either, so I'm doing other things

Mobile plans are actually cheaper than landlines in that regard these days. A lot so even.

Johanna wrote:

Gormur wrote:I appreciate a landline since it allows me to phone overseas without accumulating outrageous charges; I had Comcast for my landline before so it was very cheap to call out, and of course free within North America. Unfortunately I don't have that now either, so I'm doing other things

Mobile plans are actually cheaper than landlines in that regard these days. A lot so even.

Not over here. It's like $1 per minute to call overseas on a cellphone, unless it's just my plan. It only makes sense to use a pre-paid phone card but then Comcast is still cheaper

In my family's house in Istanbul ()

[*] Water (İSKİ)
[*] Natural gas (İGDAŞ)
[*] Electricity (AYEDAŞ)
[*] Internet (Turkcell Superonline)
[*] Mobile phone (Vodafone)
[*] Satellite television (D-Smart)
[*] Landline phone (Türk Telekom)

The first five are essential to me.

We have no garbage collection at our apartment, therefore we throw all our garbage ourselves. We also pay monthly dues here.

We have a landline phone subscription but we hardly ever use it to make calls.

I use Spotify to listen to music and I'm a Spotify Premium subscriber. I've had a Netflix subscription before but I used it to watch only one or two episodes of different series and my family all used the same account, but it eventually got cancelled because of a payment failure.

I turn on the TV only to watch news from English-language channels like Al-Jazeera, CNN International, BBC World News and TRT World.

We're renting a flat in an older highrise in Espoo, Finland, but this applies pretty widely to apartment buildings in Finland.

Obligatory:

• Water (this can also to be baked into the rent when the building's total water usage is divided across flats according to flat size so that the sum stays the same per month all year, but nowadays individual meters are getting more common)
• Electricity
• Home insurance (you have to have your own insurance plan)

Voluntary:

• Internet (nowadays some buildings may have a free lower speed cable internet, and if you want a faster connection, you make a separate plan for that)
• Phone (you might have a combined cable&mobile internet + phone plan, or just a separate phone plan altogether
• Parking space for a car (monthly fee)
• Sauna slot in the building's sauna once a week (monthly fee)
• Laundry room (some buildings have a monthly fee, some charge per use)
• Extra storage (highrises in Finland generally include one cellar storage compartment for each flat, but nowadays some buildings have repurposed additional cellar or attic space to create more compartments that you can rent for a monthly fee)

Rent includes the district heating, it doesn't depend on usage. Bike space in the bike storage is usually free, as is pram space in the pram storage, if the building has one.

Varislintu wrote:Water (this can also to be baked into the rent when the building's total water usage is divided across flats according to flat size so that the sum stays the same per month all year, but nowadays individual meters are getting more common)

Btw, it's now become mandatory to instal individual meters in new buildings and after a plumbing renovation in old buildings.

I live in a student flat; Finnish universities don't have dormitories, but there are companies specialised in renting to students with much cheaper price than private renters. Here's what my bills look like. Imo, it's quite typical for a student.

Obligatory:

• Rent (water, electricity*, heating, internet, 1h/week of sauna, laundry room** included)
• Home insurance

Voluntary:

• Parking space for a car (I think it was about 11 e/month)
• Phone (usually around 15-30 e/month with an unlimited internet connection)***

* There are some student flats where you have to make your own electricty contract, but they're somewhat rare.
** Some flats have also plumbing for your own washing machine, some don't. (Mine does!)
*** Landlines have gone out of fashion in Finland, too.