Advice

[Sandied]

Hi Everybody

I am a newbe,, we have retired and hoping to move to cyprus in February next year, I hope to get good advise from expats who have done it already

please advise on the following if you can, did you have to open a local bank account to pay bills, if so which is the best?

How long does it take to get a medical card and identity card, and what documents do you need to get them?

How do we get uk channels, which is the best way?

What are the best internet/WiFi suppliers there?

We are going to rent for a while in the paphos area, do you have any recomendations re letting agents, we will be bringing a small dog

This is probably not the last you will hear from me, and concerned about doing it right

Thank you

Sandie d

[Veronica]

Hi Sandie,

Welcome to the forum.
We will do our best to answer your questions but if you take a look at some of the threads on here you wil probably find that many of your questions have already been answered. Have a read and then ask any further q's you have.
There are several different methods that we sue to get Uk tv but at the moment things are a bit up in the air as we are waiting to see what will happen when Sky changes to a new satellite. By the time you come to live here we should hopefully know what is happening. We have lost BBC and ITV on Sky but we can get it via the internet with Film on. We still get most of the Sky channels with a system that is similar to dream box.
We are just in the middle of changing our internet provider from Cytanet to Primetel as we are fed up of the slow speeds with Cytanet. Watch this space for whether it is any better or not

[Pam n Dave]

Hi Sandie,

You will probably need a bank to transfer money from the UK and if you use Currency Fair then you definitely will need a bank account. Alpha Bank seems to have a bad reputation and a couple of the others are in the news for the wrong reasons. We have just binned Alpha and are giving Hellenic a try, we've been with them for a round 4 months and so far all seem ok.

You probably wont need a bank account to pay utility bills, in fact our local Electricity Dept didn't have the facilities to take plastic.

You should be able to survive on the EHIC card until the medical card turns up provided that you start the formalities fairly soon after you arrive.

If you go to immigration soon after you arrive then they will give you a date for the interview and a piece of paper with a list of things to bring. After the interview we went to the local community office and using the yellow card from immigration obtained the medical card.

We get telly recorded in the UK and shipped out on a hard disc, it means that we are behind but it doesn't really matter when you watch the majority of the programs.

Once you decide where you will be living then that's the time to decide on internet providers, some can provide in certain areas only, we are too remote for a phone line and use WiFi to get ours. Others have a phone line but can't get WiFi.

We found letting agents to be fairly hopeless, they pushed what they wanted to, not taking into account our requirements. Others have had a different experience.

If you can write a list of your requirements and also the things that you don't want, then look for areas that fulfil those requirements, then drive around and amend the list of requirements.

Ring numbers outside properties and see what happens. Tell people that you are looking and properties will appear from nowhere. We went into the local bakery when we were looking and after a couple of visits got chatting. 4 or 5 viewings came out of that chance encounter, 1 from the bakery woman and the remainder from the coffee shop where we decided to meet and got chatting to the locals.

Don't worry too much about doing it right because you won't, we don't know anyone who would do it the same the second time around.

Dave.

[PeteandSylv]

We used to pay our electricity bill with a debit card but it's so inconvenient to keep getting in the queues that I set up a direct debit.

As to which bank is the best, the answer would be a similar one to the same question asked in the UK! The 2 biggest are Bank of Cyprus and Laiki. You will read mixed reports about all the banks though and I suggest one way to choose is to go for the most convenient one for your location and where you can park easily. If you don't like their service you can always change or add another account.

Once you have internet you can register with a VPN service to get UK TV live and with iPlayer etc. There are alternative boxes you can buy that do this for you but they always seem rather expensive to me. Your computer can be connected to your TV if you prefer to watch on the larger screen. Internet can be either via a phone line or a directly beamed service to a receiver on your roof. Both are subject to location. The alternative of 3G connections are slow and expensive. There are plenty of places to pick up Wifi connections but these are no use when you are at home unless one of the free village systems which are very slow and too slow for streaming TV. Lot's of people have huge Sky satellite dishes at very high cost and then seem to spend their lives trying to keep the reception working.

Finally I couldn't agree more with Dave's last line.

Pete

[soppik]

This site has so much valuable information. We arrive 1 August for 2 weeks to search for rental properties around Pissouri, Kouklia area as we move out the on 1st October. Hope we find some where in that time. Thank you to all those who have given us so much info. Looking forward to seeing the sunshine soon. :-)

[Sandied]

Originally Posted by Veronica

Hi Sandie,

Welcome to the forum.
We will do our best to answer your questions but if you take a look at some of the threads on here you wil probably find that many of your questions have already been answered. Have a read and then ask any further q's you have.
There are several different methods that we sue to get Uk tv but at the moment things are a bit up in the air as we are waiting to see what will happen when Sky changes to a new satellite. By the time you come to live here we should hopefully know what is happening. We have lost BBC and ITV on Sky but we can get it via the internet with Film on. We still get most of the Sky channels with a system that is similar to dream box.
We are just in the middle of changing our internet provider from Cytanet to Primetel as we are fed up of the slow speeds with Cytanet. Watch this space for whether it is any better or not

Veronica
Thanks for the reply, and the info will keep you updated let me know how you get on with the Cytanet

[Sandied]

Originally Posted by Pam n Dave

Hi Sandie,

You will probably need a bank to transfer money from the UK and if you use Currency Fair then you definitely will need a bank account. Alpha Bank seems to have a bad reputation and a couple of the others are in the news for the wrong reasons. We have just binned Alpha and are giving Hellenic a try, we've been with them for a round 4 months and so far all seem ok.

You probably wont need a bank account to pay utility bills, in fact our local Electricity Dept didn't have the facilities to take plastic.

You should be able to survive on the EHIC card until the medical card turns up provided that you start the formalities fairly soon after you arrive.

If you go to immigration soon after you arrive then they will give you a date for the interview and a piece of paper with a list of things to bring. After the interview we went to the local community office and using the yellow card from immigration obtained the medical card.

We get telly recorded in the UK and shipped out on a hard disc, it means that we are behind but it doesn't really matter when you watch the majority of the programs.

Once you decide where you will be living then that's the time to decide on internet providers, some can provide in certain areas only, we are too remote for a phone line and use WiFi to get ours. Others have a phone line but can't get WiFi.

We found letting agents to be fairly hopeless, they pushed what they wanted to, not taking into account our requirements. Others have had a different experience.

If you can write a list of your requirements and also the things that you don't want, then look for areas that fulfil those requirements, then drive around and amend the list of requirements.

Ring numbers outside properties and see what happens. Tell people that you are looking and properties will appear from nowhere. We went into the local bakery when we were looking and after a couple of visits got chatting. 4 or 5 viewings came out of that chance encounter, 1 from the bakery woman and the remainder from the coffee shop where we decided to meet and got chatting to the locals.

Don't worry too much about doing it right because you won't, we don't know anyone who would do it the same the second time around.

Dave.

Dave,
Thank you for your very detailed info, do you remember what they asked you to bring for your interview? I think that we will do what you said and do a bit of exploring before deciding where to settle, will keep you updated many thanks sandie

[Sandied]

Originally Posted by PeteandSylv

We used to pay our electricity bill with a debit card but it's so inconvenient to keep getting in the queues that I set up a direct debit.

As to which bank is the best, the answer would be a similar one to the same question asked in the UK! The 2 biggest are Bank of Cyprus and Laiki. You will read mixed reports about all the banks though and I suggest one way to choose is to go for the most convenient one for your location and where you can park easily. If you don't like their service you can always change or add another account.

Once you have internet you can register with a VPN service to get UK TV live and with iPlayer etc. There are alternative boxes you can buy that do this for you but they always seem rather expensive to me. Your computer can be connected to your TV if you prefer to watch on the larger screen. Internet can be either via a phone line or a directly beamed service to a receiver on your roof. Both are subject to location. The alternative of 3G connections are slow and expensive. There are plenty of places to pick up Wifi connections but these are no use when you are at home unless one of the free village systems which are very slow and too slow for streaming TV. Lot's of people have huge Sky satellite dishes at very high cost and then seem to spend their lives trying to keep the reception working.

Finally I couldn't agree more with Dave's last line.

Pete

Hi Pete
many thanks for the reply, i think its a can of worms and will have to deal with everything when we get there, another quick question, i assume you are getting your pesions, how did the dealing with that go, did the tax office deal with the paperwork quick, and what percentage of tax are you paying now,, sorry if that is a personal question, hopefully we may get part time work later, but not sure

Keep in touch, and will update everybody when we find out more

Sandie and Terry

[PeteandSylv]

Originally Posted by Sandied

Hi Pete
many thanks for the reply, i think its a can of worms and will have to deal with everything when we get there, another quick question, i assume you are getting your pesions, how did the dealing with that go, did the tax office deal with the paperwork quick, and what percentage of tax are you paying now,, sorry if that is a personal question, hopefully we may get part time work later, but not sure

Keep in touch, and will update everybody when we find out more

Sandie and Terry

Sorry but I can't help with the pensions question as we are far too young!



Pete

[Pam n Dave]

Hi Sandie,

Take your passport to arrange the interview, in our case the slip contained things like passports, bank statements, proof of health insurance, pension payments/entitlement documents, property rental/sales agreement to take to the interview.

Basically they were trying to assess that we could support ourselves and not be a burden on the state. The EHIC served as the health insurance document.

We went four years ago so things may have changed now.

Pete can brag about his age but by the time he gets there everything will have changed.

Once we were officially resident I think we got a document from the Cyprus tax authorities to request that we come under the double taxation agreement. This was sent off to the UK tax people who sent a condescending letter stating that we had been accepted.

The tax was sorted the following April at the UK end and we got a tax return from the Cypriot people in March.

The tax threshold here is higher than the UK but as the value of the euro drops it is catching up.

Dave.