COst of Living in Malta

Please help me what will be cost of living in Malta. Please give me an idea about following:

1- Tax on euro 20k
2- Taxi/Bus fare
3- Residence
4- Grocery
5- Utilities (i.e. electricity water etc)
6- Avg Meals in KFC/Macdonald's
7- Do employers in malta offer medical and health insurance to expats?
8- What law says about annual leaves?

Can anyone help me in above issues.

Best Regards,
Nabeel

Tax on 20k euros will be approx 2300 euros..National insurance contributions will be approx 2000 euros

Taxis are expensive

Bus fares - see earlier thread regarding rates

Residency - again see earlier threads

utilities - these costs depend on your residency status and whether or not you are named on the bills as a consumer occupier...as it is cheaper if you have both.

Its hard to answer of all of these are quite personal costs and will be different for every person you ask. Here is my 2 cents worth though!

1- Tax on euro 20k- as toonarmy said!

2- Taxi/Bus fare- Taxis are the same as England really, although they'll try and rip you off if you don't look local. Minimum fare is usually 8 euro and agree a price before you get in. Wembleys are the cheapest and ECabs are also reasonable and the cars are new and airconed.

3- Residence- as in renting? Its a LOT cheaper than the UK but of course depends what you're looking at. We had a nice but smallish 2 bed appartment in Msida for just 450 a month. Now have a large modern 2 bed place in the heart of sliema for 635.

4- Grocery- had sooo many conflicting posts and numbers on this one! For myself and my boyfriend we spend about 50/60 euro per week.

5- Utilities (i.e. electricity water etc)- this will usually be a prearranged amount per month and when you leave the actual figure will be totaled up. You may have to pay a bit extra if you went over or get some back if not. My boyfriend and I pay 100 euro a month in total and may use a tiny bit more in summer with aircon.

6- Avg Meals in KFC/Macdonald's- average for Europe I'd say. A large meal in MacDs is 7 euro I think, and normal is about 5.50?

7- Do employers in malta offer medical and health insurance to expats?- as in any country it depends on the companies policy. They'll either offer insurance or not, it wouldn't be specific to expats/citizens.

8- What law says about annual leaves- Not sure on the law, but I get 24 days a year which I think is pretty standard and probably the minimum.

Good luck!

Thank you toonarmy and iamharibo ... information from you guys will really help me while deciding about relocation..!!

iamharibo what about bus fares...need rough idea... and please give wise advise out of 20k how much i can save. i will be single and not all interested to live such lavish life.

kind regards
nabeel

Bus fares  - residents 1.30 for 2hrs, 1.50 for all day, 6.50 for 7 days with saver card, 26 for 30 days with saver card and 72 for 90 days with saver card.....non residents CONSIDERABLY MORE than these figures in simple terms.

to get the discounted fares you must be an ID car holder

as for what you can save - that is entirely dependant on your lifestyle - but out of 20k you will pay almost 4300 in tax and NI leaving you with 15500 (approx 1300 per month) to live on and still save some...i would expect you to be able to save say 150 to 300 each month if you live on your own in cheaper accomodation and spend only on living carefully.

how much do you pay for mobile and internet bills per month?

mobile and internet is another thing - again it depends on how much time you spend on both and of course whether you can do without it,model and packages of phones vary depending on selection.

try looking

at www.melita.com  and  www.go.com

vodafone do quite good pay as u go deals, i top up 20 a month max and at the moment it tells me i have 500+ free texts to other vodafone numbers. All my friends are on VF so works well for me but thats just lucky I think!