[Megsmum]

OK

so after over a year of planning and research we are now at the Doing stage.

except now it is all here I don't know what to do, basically my plan is to open a non residents bank account and start transferring money monthly into it any suggestions on this, I thought I would wait until we are there to get an NIE as we will need that to buy house etc.

I suppose the rest will happen as required, but this seems a bit ad hoc for me and I feel that we should be doing something else or that I have missed something!

 

[Lolito]

We made a long list of things to do in the UK (i.e. un-registering from GP, cancel Tesco's clubcard, etc.) before leaving and another list of things to do in Spain on arrival.

Since for most things, you need your Certificado de Empadronamiento, I see it pointless trying to do anything from the UK right now. First thing first, on arrival, go to your Town Hall and register yourself (Empadronamiento), you don't need to buy a house or even rent it, you can give your friend's address to register there.

After that, go to Extranjeria (usually the Police Station) and register as resident.

... and with that, you can start with opening bank accounts, buy houses, etc...

 

[Lolito]

I believe you can take 10,000 euros in cash with you, that's what we did, at least we had enough money to do all the things we wanted to do before the headache of opening bank accounts, etc.

 

[ExpatWannabee]

We didn't find that opening a bank account was a headache. In fact, it was the first serious thing we did after moving to Valencia. All they asked from us (at the Caixa bank) was our passports to photocopy, and our email address. As we didn't have a permanent address at the time or even cellphones, they just asked us to provide them when we got them.

 

[Lolito]

Might have to open one with them... as Santander is a pain and is charging me 40 euros a year to keep it open. They asked me for lots of things (Santander in Valencia), and I am Spanish! But since I didn't have 'wages'... they didn't want to know, so I had to get lots of proofs that I had enough money, otherwise they wouldn't open the accout.

 

[90199]

If you are considering the transfer of money, have a look at the below company that I use,

Foreign Money & Currency Exchange Services, Euro Exchange, UK Currency Converter :: SmartCurrencyExchange.com

 

[baldilocks]

Hi Cambio.

Don't know if you are OAPs or not. If you are -fine. If not, your priority is to get S1s from Newcastle, get registered as residents and get yourself registered on the Spanish Healtchcare system. Why? because Newcastle stop issuing S!s to non-OAPs from 1st April 2014 and after that, you will only be able to get residencia with health-care insurance.

 

[Megsmum]

Hi Cambio.

Don't know if you are OAPs or not. If you are -fine. If not, your priority is to get S1s from Newcastle, get registered as residents and get yourself registered on the Spanish Healtchcare system. Why? because Newcastle stop issuing S!s to non-OAPs from 1st April 2014 and after that, you will only be able to get residencia with health-care insurance.

Yep aware of that, thankx Baldi - Newcastle have said to phone in December -