moved to ex-pats and owners abroad forum

wizard

Hi,

I hope someone does come along who can help you with your queries, but it might be worth your while putting your questions on the Albufeira.com and ExpatFocus forums, where there are lots of members who are resident in Portugal.

All I can say is that we bank with Millennium BCP. You can open an account at Alvor or another local branch while you're still in the UK and manage it online.

Good luck with move and I hope you do manage to settle in and everything works out for you.

Sky digital will cost you approx 500euros for installation, it will only be free to air channels, similar to freesat in UK (no card needed). If you want a full sky package you will need a UK address for registration, don't let sky know you are in Portugal otherwise they will block the card. If you ever need to contact them while in Portugal use an English mobile as they can trace telephone numbers. You maybe best contacting one of the many sky installers whom advertise in Portugal News, The Resident, they will put you in the know.
Your TV licence is automatically taken by EDP the electricity company out of your electricity bill, it is headed under audio visual and at the moment is approx 25euros.
If you bring a UK registered car you can only keep it in Portugal for 183 days in any one year,(If the GNR stop you, you will have to prove how long the car has been in the country & if it's overstayed its visit you will be fined or even have the car comfiscated if you don't matriculate) if you plan to keep it here longer you will need to go through the matriculation process to change it to Portuguese registered with Portuguese plates, the costs involved for matriculation are quite expensive so I have been told. Personally it is better buying a Portuguese registered car, obviously you will know they are a lot more expensive to buy than british cars, but it will save you the hassle of matriculation, costs involved and being stopped constantly by the GNR, they zoom in on UK registered cars, checking documents are valid.

Thanks for that Jayjan, i'll be bringing my sky over, so will i just need a dish and installation? thanks for the info re: car
Any advice on banking?

Regards

Dave

Like Roseweb, we too bank with Millennium so can't advise you on any other banks. One thing I will say though different to UK banking is they charge for everything, cheques, debit card mainentance yearly, if you withdraw money at the counter you will be charged, so use ATM machines, and if your bank balance falls below a certain figure you will get charged a monthly fee. As Roseweb says Millennium have a branch in London so if you are in that area of the UK you could maybe open an account with them before you leave.

We switched from Santander to Barclays, and they are so much better it's unbelievable. Their online banking is available in English. They have a branch in Alvor and if they are as good as the staff in Albufeira you will not be disappointed.

Thanks for info everyone, one more thing ; Car Insurance, i've just added driving abroad to my insurance and theyre charging me an extra £26 per month, considering i won't be driving in England i find that quite expens ive, would i be better getting insurance in Portugal??

Thanks

We switched from Santander to Barclays, and they are so much better it's unbelievable. Their online banking is available in English.

Interesting! We looked at Barclays as we bank with them in the UK, but they were very expensive. Perhaps we should look again. We do do online banking in English with Millennium though. There's a branch of Barclays at the Marina, isn't there? Maybe it's not open.

Gatster sorry for not replying earlier but, missed your post for some reason (Senior moment maybe). If you drive a UK reg car you wont be able to get Portuguese insurance. I suggest you try
http://www.abbeygateinsure.com they insure UK reg vehicles for Portugal & Spain.
We paid approx 280 euros per annum with them for our vectra, sadly it has now gone to the car graveyard with major engine problems.
The insurance with abbeygate is recognised by the DVLA computer for taxing your car online, but you would have to have it posted to a UK address.

Thanks for that, got my car insurance through SAGA, great cover and a lot cheaper, be coming over 8th November, can't wait