Living abroad tips and hints for money savers

droopsnout

I used a relative's address to obtain a Freesat card last autumn. There was no problem, and they did not require the box's serial number or any identifying info, apart from name and address. But there is a charge: £20, IIRC.

You should be able to ring Sky to order the card, paying by bank card.

HTH.

droopsnout

I did not have to activate the card. This may have been because I was already registered with them at the address I provided.

IIRC, the box will in any case receive some of the channels without a card at all.

Since last autumn, however, I have shifted to Freesat from BBC and ITV, so I don't need to worry about a card any longer.

As brodev says, our lovely mods may consider this discussion detrimental to MSE, so may I suggest that further info be sought from http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=141, a specialist forum where you will find many discussions about this problem.

Happychappy

labp04 wrote: »

Hi Happychappy,

Reckon if you click on this link
http://www.ybw.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=22 and post your question you'll get run over with replies! Good luck with all that etc. My wife and I do something similar in Turkey which we find cleaner, friendlier and, at the moment (but prices are rising) cheaper.
cheers :beer:

Thank you so much, I will do this at the weekend

LesD

Telepeage on French Motorways..........

Has anyone got an auto-'badge' for using the 'T' lane on autoroutes - WITHOUT HAVING A FRENCH BANK ACCOUNT?

I thought Sanef did it with credit cards but they too now seem to want French bank details.

droopsnout

Have a look at this article from July 2010: http://www.french-property.com/news/travel_france/france_autoroutes/.

Within the article it states:

It is also easy to sign up to it.
You can do so on the internet on various sites, with most accepting either a French or UK bank account.
You can sign up at either of the following sites:

• Automatic Toll Payment System
• Telepeage liber-t

Alternatively, go direct to the web site of one of the French motorway operators.
Although you can buy the card from any motorway operator, the box works on all motorways in France.

LesD

droopsnout wrote: »

Have a look at this article from July 2010: http://www.french-property.com/news/travel_france/france_autoroutes/.

Within the article it states:

It is also easy to sign up to it.
You can do so on the internet on various sites, with most accepting either a French or UK bank account.
You can sign up at either of the following sites:

• Automatic Toll Payment System
• Telepeage liber-t

Alternatively, go direct to the web site of one of the French motorway operators.
Although you can buy the card from any motorway operator, the box works on all motorways in France.

Seems like something may have been lost in the translation!

As far as I can see, they will accept a UK-Bank account.....as long as the branch is actually in France!

They will let you have a transponder with the deposit charged to a credit card, but then want a direct debit for the monthly charges. It says if you don't send in the DD, they'll charge your credit card until you do! Wonder if I can get away with that for a while?

droopsnout

To be honest, I wouldn't have this thing, and I live in France.

They charge you a monthly fee, for a start.

I don't use the motorways much, with the exception of the annual car trip to the UK from the South-West. And when I do use the motorways, the huge, huge majority of cars use the ordinary lanes for paying by card or cash. That tells me that the French don't think too much of telepeage either.

leejo_2

cazzyb wrote: »

Hi

Would like to say that this is indeed an interesting thread.

I have decided to chip in at this point in reply to the below post.




We very recently considered this idea of a static caravan ( we can't afford a bricks and mortar property ) mainly for a rental income to be honest, but also with a view to using it ourselves. However after doing our homework we quite quickly discovered some major disadvantages.

There is an awful lot involved and a lot of things to consider but we found the main points to be:

These things are certainly NOT an investment because like cars, they depreciate VERY quickly in value. I have heard it can be as much as 40% within the first year.

A lot of sites have a rule that "to maintain high standards" you can have your van for a maximum of 10 years before you have to move or replace it. Try moving it to another site, we found out that would be impossible especially for a van 10 years old. So basically you would have to scrap it. Some sites do however state that you can have your van for as long as you like but it must be maintained to a high standard. To us that seemed a bit "hairy fairy". It is at their discression as to whether or not your van can stay once it started to get a bit old looking. The upshot of it is that you own the van but not the land it is sited on so at the end of the day you could be kicked off the site if you van is deemed to be not up to scratch. There do not seem to be any guarantees of how long you can keep the van on site especially if you buy a pre-owned one.

The running costs of owning the van, i.e. site fees or ground rent, gas, water, electricity, insurance etc varies from site to site but comes to about £3000 per year ( or about £55 per week ) on average. So you would have to shell that out each year BEFORE buying any flights/ferries. Also bear in mind that site fees rise every year so as each year passes it will cost more.

Factor in the cost of the actual van itself, they start from about £10,000 for a pre-owned one. So with an average life-span of 10 years, that works out £1000 per year. Add on the running costs of, at present, approx £3000 a year you are looking at a cost of approx £4000 per year BEFORE buying any flights and ferries.
We decided that it works out at a ridiculous cost, especially as the van will not last forever, it would only be for about 10 years maximum, plus it meant that we would have to holiday in the same place all the time which does not appeal at all to be honest.

From a rental point of view we have found out that you can usually cover the running costs for the year with the rental income but you are very hard pushed to make any actual profit. Of course though the catch is that people will want to rent you van in peak season, leaving you with the off peak weeks which I think judging from you post would be no good to you at all.

Other people may have a different story to tell but this is what we discovered when researching the idea. As you have probably guessed we have decided against it for now, unless we can find out something more positve about ownership. Hope this helps.

Hi , I know this is an old post, but have recently started looking into retiring abroad and came across this.

Many years ago we looked into buying a cottage or static caravan for holidays abroad but decided that the costs far outweighed the benefits.
In the end we settled for a property share(no not time share-my brother had one of those -but got rid of it sharpish)

In our opinion one of the better things that we have done in our lives.

Both our children learnt to swim in the pools attached to our properties that we occupied in the summer holidays. Also they were able to bring friends along for only the cost of the air fare.

We still own the property share and in due course will pass it on to our children, when we are too old to get up the plane steps!

I don't think I can post the name of the property share or can I?
I have no vested interest in the company other than I want it to go on and on forever.

Elly_May

:hello:Hello Everyone,

Phew, I have finally read through all 141 pages over the last few weeks (with a 12 day trip to Spain inbetween!) As somebody else commented I feel as though I know a lot of you already. Donny-gal you are probably one of our neighbours as my husband & I own a property on the Orihuela Costa (La Zenia) and are moving over first week of Jan 2011! We have owned our place for the last 4 years and love the way of life over there, suits us just fine as we are both very laid back; love the outdoors, Spanish food & wine and feel that it's time we took it easier and adapted a semi retired way of life especially my hubby who has a stressful time driving in and around Central London working as a Service Engineer. We are fortunate that we do not have a mortgage or any rent to pay and will be able to keep our property here in the UK which my grown up children will live in.

Anyway that was just a quick intro and I will be back on again soon.

Here in the UK it is starting to get very chilly, especially in the evenings. Another important reason for us moving - the weather!! How I miss that blue sky, sun & sitting in our garden of an evening watching the bats come out & fly overhead as night draws in with the waft of dama de noche helping to keep the mossies away!

Regards to you all.

Elly May

seven-day-weekend

Hello Elly May and Welcome to the Forum.