Living abroad tips and hints for money savers

roystonfrance

New one on the block. Can't seem to find how you log in a new subject onto the forum

We live in France and wish to set up a fixed rate interest bank account but looking through the information given on the site, it would seem that one has to live in the U,K, to be able to use their offers. Any way around this?
Regards Roystonfrance

droopsnout

You mean at a UK bank? If so, it is virtually impossible. Are you able to give a UK address?

donny-gal

If you have parents/kids, set up to pay their water rates via DD, then you have your name on a UK address and a utilities bill which meets the criteria. Hopefully they will transfer the amount into your account to cover it each month
DG

seven-day-weekend

If you have an existing UK Bank Account then you can usually open a new account with this Bank, but if not then you do need a UK address. If you don't have one the D-G's idea is a good one. We have my name, my husband's name and our son's name on the water bill for our UK house.

Welcome to the forum by the way.

droopsnout

No posts since March!

So how is everyone getting on with the weather this year? Over here we have hardly had any rain for weeks, and there are all sorts of water restrictions in some areas around us, although not in our own little corner - yet. Official temperatures have been in the mid- to upper twenties through April and May, and are set to conrinue next week. Unofficially, we have seen shade temps over thirty in the garden, and in the sun we have seen over fifty.

A local farmer was telling me yesterday that it has been drier even than in 2003, and was saying that it is as bad this time as in 1976.

So is just France which is experiencing this dry spring, or is it the same for our fellow members in Luxembourg, Cyprus, Spain, etc? And what about the UK?

gallygirl

Well, I was in Almeria in April and saw more rain in 11 days than I have in the 5 years I've been going there. I heard a farmer frm Clacton on the radio yesterday and he said they have had 1/2 the rainfall they had in 76 & 77. PS - did you know Clacton is the driest place in the UK?......"scuttles off to look on rightmove".....

seven-day-weekend

We have had some beautiful weather, but the last two days has been cold and raining and we have had our woodburner on in the evenings! Meanwhile my son in Wolverhampton has been having barbecues in the garden....

The mountains are beautiful though, absolutely covered in wild flowers and as well as looking wonderful, the smell is beautiful too. We have loads of vases of blossom in our house so it smells like the outside.

We're off to the UK three weeks today. We have a week's stay in Jaca (Spanish Pyrenees) first on a home exchange, then will arrive in UK on around the 18-19 June. We can't decide whether to get the ferry from Bilbao or drive through France. The latter is the favourite at the moment, as the Bilbao crossing is expensive since Britanny Ferries took it over. If we drive through France we'll probably go over from Dieppe to Newhaven (20% reduction for over 60s and it's easier for driving the UK end).

What has everyone else got planned for the summer?

seven-day-weekend

We have had municipal elections today, to vote for the Mayor and Council. We are registered to vote in these.

Off we went to the Village Hall to find Agustin our neighbour in charge of the ballot box. He told the Poll Clerk our names and read the numbers from our polling cards. The poll clerk then crossed our names off her list. We took ID as we were told to do, but no-body checked it, presumably because Agustin knows who we are!

We had a list of candidates of the party we wished to vote for and all we had to do was put the list in an envelope and put the envelope in the ballot box. Job done!

We had three parties seeking election.

The PSOE (Partido Socialista Obreros Espana - The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party- the existing mayor and Council is this party, as is the Central Government, afaik it is like the Labour Party).

PP - Partido Popular (Like the Tories)

PA - Partido Andaluz (The Andalucian Nationalists, like the SNP or Plaid Cymru).

We like the existing Mayor and think he has done a good job, so we voted PSOE. He is also our Doctor (and does a good job there tooo ).

An interesting experience!

I'll let you know who won, when I do.

hartcjhart

well done SDW so many people move to Spain then whinge about things not getting done,foreigners being excluded, but cant be bothered to register and vote

seven-day-weekend

There are about ten permanent UK expats in our village. AFAIK only us and one other lady have bothered to register to vote.

It's not difficult. Our Spanish is not very good, so if we can understand, so can anyone. We had a card come through a few years ago which we managed to fathom out that we had to sign and send it back to register to vote. So we did.

Now our polling cards come through the post automatically if there is an election.

In Spain we are registered to vote in Municipal (local) and European Elections.

In the UK we are registered as non-resident voters (we have a proxy) and can vote in Parliamentary and European elections. Obviously if we happen to be in the UK when there is an election we can vote in person.

I consider it my duty to vote and will always do so if I can.