Hi! Moving to Marbella 18th August

[claudclive]

Hi everyone, Just wanted to introduce ourselves as we're moving to San Pedro on 18th August. I'm Claud and my partner is Clive, and we are 33 and 48. We have 4 children who'll be going to the local Intl. College. There are three boys 6, 11 and 16, and one girl of 12. We're often likened to the Waltons!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So it would be wonderful if anybody living in Marbella got in touch as we hardly know anybody over there. The kids will be fine, it's just us adults who are a little apprehensive!! We're looking for a complete change of lifestyle and would love to meet couples of a similar age and families to spend a day at the beach, get together for a BBQ - anything really.

We look forward to hearing from you and in the meantime we're all very excited about our move.

[Stravinsky]

Welcome to the forum

[SunnySpain]

Hi Claude & Clive

Welcome to the forum

I have a couple of questions if I may.

How much per year are the school fees ?

What medical cover do you have for the family and how much is it ?

As for San Pedro, people have told us the area is quite nice, we are looking into moving to an area nearby, but we may opt to move further North, much depends on the property available for rent come October/November.

Regards, Dave & Maria jose

[claudclive]

Hello Stravinsky - many thanks, it's much appreciated!

[claudclive]

Originally Posted by SunnySpain

Hi Claude & Clive

Welcome to the forum

I have a couple of questions if I may.

How much per year are the school fees ?

What medical cover do you have for the family and how much is it ?

As for San Pedro, people have told us the area is quite nice, we are looking into moving to an area nearby, but we may opt to move further North, much depends on the property available for rent come October/November.

Regards, Dave & Maria jose

Hi Dave and Maria,

Thank you! The school fees are a little difficult to work out as there are 4 kids each in a different year but as an approximate they are one third of the fees here in the UK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! A discount was given for the fourth child, with 20% off for the third child and there was also something given on uniforms and so on, but we haven't really fine-tuned the figures because from the very outset, even without the fees, we were saving. Please let me know if you'd like exact figures from the school and I'll email these to you.

We've gone for San Pedro for our two month "introductory rent" area because we need to make sure the kids get settled in and to/from school easily without too much hassle. We're going to spend our first two months finding somewhere to rent longer-term - this won't necessarily in San Pedro, but anywhere from East Estepona to Marbella.

So far we have our EHIC cards and we plan to get our NIE cards within the first week of moving down. A Spanish friend has told us they're E230 each, or discounted for a family card.

You won't believe the trouble we had finding somewhere to rent for more than two weeks over the summer period - they all saw Euro signs flashing before their eyes and quite literally wanted to charge the weekly charge for the whole period with no discount for staying longer than usual! IE a rental of E2500 per week for 8 weeks - ridiculous!!!

When are you moving out, and do you know anybody out there?

Thanks again for your reply,

Claudine x

[SunnySpain]

Hi Claude & Clive,

We are looking at moving in November/December, we would have liked to move in September, but thats changed as our daughter is due to be born in October.


The advice we have been given regarding Marbella is to try and find a place in Nueva Andalucia, as for some reason they think its better than San Pedro and quite possibly a little cheaper for long term rentals.

But saying that, we also quite liked Estepona when we went in June, but its further away from Marbella than the other places I mentioned above.

On thing is for sure, we certainly don't want to live near Fuengirola (not nice)

We don't have any friends that live in Marbella, but we think its about the best place on the Costa, its modern, clean and the people seem more friendly

A word of advice if I may, if you need to find a long term rental in just 2 weeks and in August, try the websites below:

enalquiler
ivive
idealista
fotocasa

Regards, Dave

[rjnpenang]

I believe the intl college there is excelent!, (and I mean excelent!) most students go up to uni´s in the UK or the students home country. I´m sorry about the rents, but Spanish property owners see July/August as the icing on the cake, much cheaper after the 15th Sept. San Pedro is nice, very close to Gibraltar (offshore banking!). I´m sorry, but I don´t understand the 230€ for an NIE card. Regards Rob. (Mijas Costa).

[claudclive]

Hey Rob! Good to hear from you. I have a native Spanish friend who has told us that an NIE card will entitle the holder to free Healthcare/A&E/Medical assistance - be it an air-ambulance, ambulance, prescription filling or whatever else is needed. I may have got myself muddled up, or, more likely, he REALLY wants us to come over and he hammed things up a bit. I'll look into this a little and update my post soon as I find out more.

The college is deceptively large - once you get inside the building it is Absolutely Massive but one of the most impressive things was the way the children didn't seem to notice us as we were walking round and looking in on lessons - they were so focused on the teacher, and if asked a question EVERY and shot up in the air. The children in the corridors were extremely well behaved and polite - we were constantly saying Hola! Unlike schools in the UK where the children are rude and disruptive, and after school can be very intimidating when they gather in large groups. Ha - UK children are a whole 'nother topic...!!!

Will def. make an update on the NIE card when I find out more.

[MRVT]

Just a couple of things to point out!
The EHIC is for emergency health cover for holiday makers, not residents.
If you are under retirement age, you will need to get a form E106 from the dept. for work and pensions in Newcastle before you leave the UK to give you temp. health cover for up to two years.
The SIP card is the medical card, and unless you are retired, to be eligible, you have to pay into the social security system, a minimum of €240 odd per month.
The NIE is the foreigners fiscal identity number, needed when buying a property or car or any major financial transaction. The cost of the NIE certificate is around €10.
Hope this helps.

[rjnpenang]

An interesting note regarding the school fees, we put our 2 kids (18 months apart) though a Spanish PRIVATE school from the age of 6 up to 16 (in the same school). Was I found unusual was, the fees were subsidised by the goverment so monthly we paid more for the school bus than the college fees!!.
I loved it!. Regards Robert