Living abroad tips and hints for money savers

seven-day-weekend

seven-day-weekend wrote:

You can draw IB indefinitely providing you pass the same tests for incapacity as you do in the UK.

My husband's IB is under review at the moment (just because it's time, nothing to do with being in Spain) ; he has filled in his (bilingual) questionnaire, the Spanish doctor has filled in his part and we sent it off seven weeks ago.

If they cannot make a decision based on the questionnaire, he will have to see an English-speaking doctor in Malaga. Then they will make their decision based on this doctor's report.

Keeping everything crossed!:rotfl:

Just to say : He passed the Threshold of Incapacity without having to have a medical, so IB remains. :beer:

WishI'dReadSooner

Pozidrive wrote:

The reason for checking out this thread, was to find out the best way of transferring my monthly paid pension to a Spanish Bank account. Is there a cheaper option to my Lloyds bank account? How do you get your pension to Spain?

The cheapest way to do transfers - with NO hidden costs & also usually better exchange rates than can be found elsewhere is using a Nationwide debit card in a hole in the wall.

Open a Nationwide account, you can also open an e account with them. Have your pension paid into Nationwide. You can also switch money between them online - keep any spare in the e account where it earns good interest. You are limited to £300 withdrawel at a time but if you also get a Nationwide credit card you can use that for small or large buys & pay it online in full every month so you get no charges. The exchange rate i've found is pretty much identical to the debit card - EXCELLENT no fees of any kind & no hidden charges. The best exchange rate possible.

We're hopefully moving to Turkey next year - can't afford to stay here as we're just eating into our meagre savings until retirement. In Turkey we will be able to live well on what here would be classed as a pittance.

Hi to all & hope you all have a great New Year, wherever in the world you might be.

lesandflynny

Hi There

we did get sky in spain it cost us approximately 400 euro in total, we get all itv, bbc and many other channels.

The biggest cost is the dish, it has to be pretty big 1.3 metres at approx 300 euro installed. We then bought a pace 2000 receiver off ebay and got a one off sky card for free view for £20 (although we got this in the uk and rigged it up to the receiver in the uk. As I understand Sky is illegal in Spain or something like that??????

If we ever come over we bring our full sky card which gives us all movies etc but not sport as it is not aligned to the box.

Furthermore, we asked our installers to put a quad lnb on the dish which enables us to send it to 4 rooms.

Hope this helps me.

Diane

Cardew

WishI'dReadSooner wrote:

The cheapest way to do transfers - with NO hidden costs & also usually better exchange rates than can be found elsewhere is using a Nationwide debit card in a hole in the wall.

Open a Nationwide account, you can also open an e account with them. Have your pension paid into Nationwide. You can also switch money between them online - keep any spare in the e account where it earns good interest. You are limited to £300 withdrawel at a time but if you also get a Nationwide credit card you can use that for small or large buys & pay it online in full every month so you get no charges. The exchange rate i've found is pretty much identical to the debit card - EXCELLENT no fees of any kind & no hidden charges. The best exchange rate possible.

Totally agree about Nationwide.

I own a property in the USA and use Nationwide Credit Card, Debit Card and cash from an ATM wherever possible as the exchange rate is second to none.
As said above the internet/phone facility to transfer between a decent saving account(5.05%) and a current account(Flexaccount) makes things very easy.

I have a Citibank UK account with linked US$ and Euro accounts which I use for cheques in either currency. Not as straightforward as Nationwide and exchange rate about 1% less; but was the next best I found - if you need to write cheques.

WishI'dReadSooner

Forgot to say - you also get cashback with credit card 0.5% but they usually do a deal for 6-12 months giving you 1% for this time. Hence the great exchange rate becomes even better - making it totally unbeatable - not found anything else that comes close yet! - THIS IS FOR OLD CUSTOMERS WHO HAD A CARD BEFORE JANUARY 06. UNFORTUNATELY THEY HAVE DROPPED THIS FOR NEW CUSTOMERS.

BENEFITS NOW

0% for 9 months on all new purchases
only 4.9% for 12 months on balance transfers
commission free purchases abroad
up to 56 days interest-free credit
free purchase cover for loss, theft or damage to most purchases over £50
free 12 month extended warranty on selected goods
peace of mind for all cardholders with Nationwide Fraud Watch
typical 15.9% APR (variable)

Cardew

WishI'dReadSooner wrote:

Forgot to say - you also get cashback with credit card 0.5% but they usually do a deal for 6-12 months giving you 1% for this time. Hence the great exchange rate becomes even better - making it totally unbeatable - not found anything else that comes close yet!

Are you sure about that for new cards?

I have the Nationwide Gold card and get nothing back.

Looking at their website they offer a 'Comic Relief' card that donates 0.5% to Comic Relief.(and charge a higher interest rate to you)

Mrs_pbradley936

Wearside I have sent you a private message re Suntrust.

WishI'dReadSooner

Cardew wrote:

Are you sure about that for new cards?

I have the Nationwide Gold card and get nothing back.

Looking at their website they offer a 'Comic Relief' card that donates 0.5% to Comic Relief.(and charge a higher interest rate to you)

You are correct, apparently they dropped this for new customers January 2006. Old customers - like me - still get it:j Only remembered as I just got the small lump sum cashback. I should have checked before posting. It's still a great card without the cashback though & will save you a fortune in hidden & not hidden fees.

Our last visit we needed just a small sum on the last day - for any small food airport purchases & to tide us over next time we go out so we can buy bread milk etc. from our corner store. (Not that it's really needed as you'd be amazed the number of times we've been told 'pay us tomorrow' at restaurants & shops if you tender a large bill. Only in Turkey!

I digress - hubby used his Lloyd debit card - by mistake, he won't be doing that again! We got around 10% less due to hidden fees, charges & abysmal exchange rate on £50. They & other banks must make a fortune on unsavvy customers.:mad: :mad:

moanymoany

Dear Margaret, I teach people to speak English and my hobby is learning French. I find that what puts people off is the time it takes to learn a foreign language. There are some great French organisations that teach French in France - Alliance Francais is one. The going every day or three days a week for a 2 -3 hour lesson with other learners is fun and it is not long before you have enough to get by on a basic level in most situations. In Spain I know that in some places the town hall puts on Spanish lessons for foreign newcomers and these lessons are sometimes free.

seven-day-weekend

I have been quoted 250 euros to buy a 1.25m satellite dish which is apparently what we need to be able to receive English channels on our system as we are fed up of just being able to watch Sky News and BBC World.

Is this reasonable? I know nothing at all about them.