Now that the school year is in full swing and you have two months (almost three!) of rent secured under your belt, some of you may be realizing that there is a problem or two with how you and your roommates are handling splitting rent.  Or perhaps you are looking to move from a one bedroom or studio to live with roommates, but with the lack of discussion or guidance on splitting rent you’re probably a bit apprehensive.  Don’t fret though!  While you could always do the math yourselves and sort everything out I recommend looking into Splitwise.  It’s a great online application where you can create an account, group, and input bills as well as rent to help you and your roommates figure out how to split rent.  You can also use Splitwise to help for future apartments for those of you who are looking at apartments with different size rooms, closets, and more.

Platform Capabilities

Within your account on Splitwise there is an option called the “Fairness Calculators”.  On that page you will find the option that will offer to help you and your roommates decide who should be paying the most if say their room is the master bedroom compared to the others that are more comparable to a broom closet.  It will also include options for you to select if the room has an awkward layout, whether the room even has a door, bad sound insolation, or if two people are sharing a room.  The system will make it as fair as possible and narrow down things that would normally make people feel that they should be paying more or less for something.  Obviously if there are other factors that come into play consider them and do feel that the amounts that are calculated have to be the ultimate split.  Feel free to change it as it works best for you and your friends, the amount is only a suggestion!

Make it Fair

What Splitwise also has to offer is factoring in bills with the rent.  So, if one of your roommates decides to be responsible for paying the electric bill, another for water, and so on and so forth (include any bills not covered in your utility fee to your apartment), and it will begin to evenly distribute the amounts that each roommate would owe to the other person.  It will also factor in previous bills that if the person owed you money previously, it will deduct it from the amount that you owe to them for that month to make sure it’s fair!  Remember that this can also be downloaded as an app on your phone as well as “Plates”, which is an app for your phone to help split restaurant bills fairly.

You can always split things up by using a standard calculator or writing things out, which is always good practice in the event that electronics aren’t working.  Try your best to hold onto receipts and hold others accountable.  Remember that you can apply this application elsewhere, such as for gas on road trips or even groceries.  No one likes to feel like they are overpaying and money is a sensitive thing so always do your best to be fair and make things work!