Utility costs - Page 3

Hi

We have a 2 bedroom bungalow and visit every month for approx 10 days at a time and our quarterly bill for water is about €140, I am going to query this as it seems very high.

Step

This feels about right. I budget around 30e per mth. With sporadic visits. Mine is usually 60 ish every two months

http://www.evergreen-electrica.com/

Same here, 30eu when we are not there rising to 50-60eu after a ten day stay, but we aren’t shy about using air conditioning whether to heat or cool, electric water heater also.

Iberolla does 3 different rates we are on plane noche half price electricity between 10 pm to 10 am this suits us ....

Hi unfortunately I have not been able to get back to Spain due to the pandemic for 6 months and will not be able to get there again for at least another year but I  still have to pay for standing charges on electricity and water,this on top of (SUMO/SUMA) the Spanish rates on the property plus community charges adds up to a fair amount,my question is ,is there any way that I can get the Standing charges lowered should I ask for the electricity to be cut off for a year and then reconnected in 12 months time,I'm just trying to save some money as paying for all the above plus ridiculous bank charges is pretty expensive for something that I unfortunately will not have any use of for at least another year possibly a lot longer,any ideas please?

I live in UK my property in Spain is an apartment Alicante Provence. 

Hi Drewie,

Unfortunately, it is expensive to have utilities reconnected, but depending on the size of your property and standing charges, over the period of another year, it may still work out beneficial financially.  However, the greater inconvenience may come from not being able to get utilities reconnected in time for your next visit to Spain.  Probably best to call your suppliers to find out costs, plus procedure and timeframe for reconnection.

Regarding banks, if you're non-resident you could look at switching to an online bank that has a European IBAN, so that you can still arrange for direct debits to be set up for your regular bills.  There's been a lot of discussion about this since Spanish bank fees increased post Brexit - use the search function at the top of the page to find relevant information.

Kind regards,

Kim