Hi,
my lady partner and I have recently taken early retirement and are so fed up with yet another freezing UK winter that we are now looking to move somewhere nice and sunny all year round. However, we need lots of info and hope someone on here can help us out.
We intend to rent our UK house out to family and use that income to rent a nice villa, that way if something serious crops up we can come home again at short notice.
What to do about healthcare? We're thinking of retaining UK residency so that we retain access to the NHS, plus we can get 12 months travel insurance to remain in Spain for £20 per month each. Also, we are both on free repeat prescriptions and can have them picked up by family and posted to us there.
What to do about money? Being non-resident in Spain can we open a bank account there? How would we efficiently exchange our £ for euros each month, and be able to access those funds?
Do we need a visa to be on long term 'holiday'?
Any help gratefully received!
Rod
Researching a move to Alicante area
Welcome to Expat.com Rod!
Hope that you'll soon be advised.
Do not hesitate to take a look at the different articles of our participative guide.
Harmonie
Briefly - if you live in Spain full time you cannot 'opt' to remain UK residents, no Visa required for EU citizens (for any EU country) You will need a Spanish bank account to pay bills, use a currency transfer company - usually a better deal than the banks. You will have a period of healthcover via your UK NI payments. Suggest you research more here
https://www.gov.uk/living-in-spain#page-navigation
Hi Spainrico, thanks for your reply.
Since my 1st blog I've found Travelex which gives us to a Euro cash card so that we can use cashpoints, plus we can set up DD's to pay any bills in Euros. The other point is that we can administer our Travelex account online, so that we can top up the card and amend DDs no matter where we are (as long as we have internet access)
We're now booked in for weeks holiday/recce in Cabo Roig in early May and booked a car so that we can take a look at other areas in the Alicante area. If we decide that we like it there, we intend to become expats later this year.
I'm a keen golfer and I'd be interested in becoming a member at one of the courses in the Cabo Roig area. I can't find much info about this on the golf course websites, can anyone shed any light?
Rod
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