Look out UK!

Yeah my main worry is everything coming from a different direction, passing on the other side etc, as 20ducks pointed out.

I'm curious on houses over there.....whats the average price to rent a house? I'd rather not have it be attached to anything, and I absolutely WILL have a garage for the Z4.
Us military types as of now (my rank) get around 1400 US dollars to rent a place, with some extra money for utilities. According to XE.com thats 931 pounds. So will that get me a decent/nice house preferebly two bedroom?

Oh and recommendations for what area to live in would be awesome. A large part of my decision making will be the drive to and from work, I'd prefer some twisty roads if any are availiable in that area. I really don't mind time so long as it isn't much more than 45 min, but that all depends on what place I could find.
 
20ducks said:
The best place to have a detached house w/garage is 50 yards away from a good neighbourhood pub.
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Agree with that :thumbsup:

Aebous, have a look on here...

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-to-rent/find.html?locationIdentifier=REGION%5E14519&maxPrice=900&radius=5.0&secondaryDisplayPropertyType=detachedshouses&oldSecondaryDisplayPropertyType=detachedshouses&includeLetAgreed=true&_includeLetAgreed=on
 
Awesome link. Hell I'm already in love with the 2nd house on there. A bungalow, but 4 bedrooms is alot. 3 is what i'll need at the most. Ok, I see PCM is the pounds, I'm guessing that's per month?
 
Aebous said:
Awesome link. Hell I'm already in love with the 2nd house on there. A bungalow, but 4 bedrooms is alot. 3 is what i'll need at the most. Ok, I see PCM is the pounds, I'm guessing that's per month?
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PCM is Per Calendar Month

Also worth checking how big the garages are for any properties you are interested in to ensure the Z4 fits in comfortably. Thinking not only length where some garages are shortish, but also width wise as well. I can just remember back when we were looking for our house all I wanted was a double garage the house was my wife's department :D

Norman
 
Yeah someone in my shop that will be going there before me mentioned that. So I guess I'll bring a tape measure with me when I go house hunting. I don't see very many of those homes advertising garage side. I see some nice one's though. Do they count rooms like we do in the states? Or is a 4 bedroom place like 2 american bedrooms and 2 walk in closets? I know Germany usually did that, one room was really small.
 
I think you'll find most of the rooms are smaller than you are used to, if you get a 3 bed house that is built in the last ten years or so, it will usually have a decnet sized bedroom, a smaller one, and a much smaller one.
 
This entry has a floorplan as well, double garage but note how it is not full length both sides.

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-to-rent/property-23630483.html?pageNumber=1&backToListURL=%2Fproperty-to-rent%2Ffind.html%3FlocationIdentifier%3DSTATION%255E5333%26maxPrice%3D900%26displayPropertyType%3Dhouses%26radius%3D20.0%26oldDisplayPropertyType%3Dhouses%26propFeature%3DParking&propertyType=houses&locationIdentifier=STATION^5333&radius=20.0&maxPrice=900

Sure you will find somewhere suitable ;-)
 
So, I got what us in the military call a sponser letter in. It's basically someone at the new base to help make your transition into the new country easy & painless.

Anyways, the mentioned some taxes....

A TV tax?!!??! WTF? How does it work, do I tell the powers that be I have 2 TV's and its good? What if I don't have any kind of cable/satellite do I still pay? What about computer monitors?

Does the road tax have to be paid all at once, and is that also based on make/model of your vehicle?

If they have TV tax, what other fun exciting taxes can I expect?
 
Aebous said:
A TV tax?!!??! WTF? How does it work, do I tell the powers that be I have 2 TV's and its good? What if I don't have any kind of cable/satellite do I still pay? What about computer monitors?
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£140 per year, you can have as many TVs as you like :D

Aebous said:
Does the road tax have to be paid all at once, and is that also based on make/model of your vehicle?
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No you can have 6 months or 12 months, the price depends on your car, if you bring the Z4 over it'll be £410 per year or something like that.

Aebous said:
If they have TV tax, what other fun exciting taxes can I expect?
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You used to need a licence to have a dog but they stopped that a few years back. Buy everything you can on the base rather than in our shops and you'll avoid most of the other stuff :thumbsup:
 
If you keep your US plates on the car, i really wouldn't expect that you'd need to pay road tax on that for a 6month + period although i don't honestly know!. European cars certainly dont have to and the DVLA (Driver/Vehicle Licensing Agency) wont have your car on record... On the flip side we have the advantage of hardly any toll roads (i've been driving for 8 years and used them about twice!) A 3.0i/si Manual will be ~£310 and an Auto ~£410 as its based on CO2 output per km (not annual mileage - yawn!). You can pay it 6/12 monthly and you can get rebates for unused tax!

The TV license is basically for the BBC channels. You'll notice they don't have any adverts which is refreshing, their News is truly impartial and often considered the best in the world :) Oh and dont forget it pays for Top Gear (until they started selling it off to OZ/US/Everywhere else!)

Other Taxes you'll be paying:
Fuel: Lots... ~90p/Litre for 95 Octane, ~94p/Litre for 99 Octane, ~103/Litre for Dervs.
VAT: 15% till next year when it returns to 17.5%. One thing unlike parts of the US ive noticed is that all shops here will have the price VAT Inclusive UNLESS the shop is specifically for the trade retailers.

You probably wont be paying:
Income tax, National Insurance, Local Council Tax


Let us know if you have any more questions, its nice knowing these little things that help us understand how each other's countries work!
 
I think the military will make us put new plates on regardless. At any rate it would be difficult to register the car once the current plates expire.

So if I don't hook up any kind of TV I don't have to pay the tax? All my TV gets used for is playstation and dvd watching. The few television shows I do watch I download off the web.

I was told most of the internet companies have a monthly limit on download size (traffic size maybe). Is there an ISP that does not have a monthly cap?

I'll probably do my best to fill up gas on base 100% of the time, of course road trips I won't be able to do that.
 
Quote: "You must be covered by a valid TV Licence if you watch or record television programmes as they're being shown on TV. It makes no difference what equipment you use - whether it’s a laptop, PC, mobile phone, digital box, DVD recorder or a TV set - you still need a licence." --http://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/information/index.jsp

I'd say about half ISP's allow unlimited d/l and u/l. If you can get it in your area, id suggest Be Unlimited (D/U: 24mb/2mb, Static IP's the lot, Unlimited usage) for only £18-22 a month. I regularly hit over 150GB a month and its no worries! If you want me to email you a referral, youll also get free installation and i'd get a free month hehe --https://www.bethere.co.uk/. Either that or Virgin Cable, but you probably don't want that without the TV/Phone services --http://www.virginmedia.com/

You may also want some Car Insurance? www.confused.com, http://www.moneysupermarket.com/, http://www.tescocompare.com/ help you compare prices for these.

Finally goto www.Quidco.com (Everyone should use this!!). This is a cashback site and is amazing if you are buying all your insurances/utilities. Basically you click on the service link through their website, set everything up, and within a few months youll have some free money! Example, when i moved in Oct 08, i got: £40 internet, £60 Gas/Elec, £10 Phone, £100 Home/Contents/Travel insurance... So thats £210 for about 5 mins work :D
 
Sweet thanks EdButler, I'll request that when I get closer to heading over/moving in.
As far as car Insurance, USAA will still cover me over there for about the same price i'm paying in Vegas. I'll never have cheap insurance :(


Oh, what companies over there support the Iphone?
I have it jailbroken so I'm not worried about that.
 
Aebous said:
Sweet thanks EdButler, I'll request that when I get closer to heading over/moving in.
As far as car Insurance, USAA will still cover me over there for about the same price i'm paying in Vegas. I'll never have cheap insurance :(


Oh, what companies over there support the Iphone?
I have it jailbroken so I'm not worried about that.
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For iphone on a new contract you would need a O2...

if you have an O2 contract you can also get O2 broadband which is unlimited for £7.34 a month and they use Be equipment so you get the same speeds :D
 
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