considering job offer !!
 

Hi new on here ,
long story cut short ,,involved with dutch lady for a while .....
thought about moving to Holland from the UK ,,,,I wish to but need to establish myself there first ,,,,
started looking into the possibilities of work ,then comes a job offer through an agency,,,help with accommodation , BSN ect .... but its all come very quickly,,,,Iam 90% there in my mind but have a few doubts ...with the short notice i have limited funds ( about 2 months rent ) if needed .i am divorced so what docs do i need ...ive only my passport and divorce cert ,any advice info ,, would be greatly appreciated

Re: considering job offer !!
 

The anetherlands is expensive we have just left after a year and moved to Spain. BSN etc is very easy to sort and in terms of documents it's just your passport that's important at first. I would say think carefully because the Netherlands is an interesting country to live in not quite the liberal place you expect!

Re: considering job offer !!
 

thanks for the reply ,,,what did you do in Holland ? where were you living? I was saving money to move ,but the job offers accommodation car ect ..., poss shipping costs ... the only reason im not moving in with my partner is job location ,,but at least shes only a drive away ,,,just its come a bit too soon ,,,so panicking a a bit mainly about money !!!!

Re: considering job offer !!
 

I lived in Delft and Den Haag - it is a very expensive country, I was a teacher earning over 40k but I only picked up 2100 after tax which is very high over there.

Banking is also interesting you cannot use your Dutch bank card online you will need a credit card for that and that is trickier you need to be living there at least 3 months.

Car prices and petrol are high too you are looking at 1.6 e/l for that.

If your job pays well you should be ok but it's a culture shock the supermarkets aren't like the U.K. And buying British food is expensive and only possible in specialist shops.

Re: considering job offer !!
 

yeah i know about the supermarkets !!! my girlfriend has cooked some strange meals !!!!
I will not be on as much as yourself , but its the subsidised living ,car ,, flights home every 4 months ,,,,thanks for the cc info, something i wasn't aware of ,

Re: considering job offer !!
 

I second what has been said by the other poster. I am leaving soon, had to wait 5 years due to my (non-EU) circumstances. I will soon, fingers x, get EU permanent residence and plan on moving to Spain.

I think one year doesn't hurt. For me, it has been really good career-wise, but a void as regards everything else: weather - bad, health care - bad (have a new British colleague and she is shocked by all she has had to pay for medical tests so far), food - bad, service - horrible!, supermarkets - crowded & stressful, people - mostly robots without peripheral vision...have some funny stories about this, they don't like to queue, seems they will always stand next to you or ahead - never behind you, they are just too good for that!

Weird, weird people generally speaking, completely different from all the other cultures I have experienced. To me life in NL is not life, but survival. Suicide rates - high, euthanasia - through the roof.

I travel to London frequently and to other places. I know some people say they try to survive NL by going away frequently. But, for me, that has not been enough, and all the travel really drains you. Worst part is facing the poor train/bus transport when you get back! Mostly always return to some delay or issue with trains, tram or bus.


But if the offer is good give it a try and see if it is really worth it financial-wise. Aside from health care, you have to pay municipality taxes and water taxes. Get the 30% taks ruling for expats if applicable.

And Dutch women in general don't like working full-time, they prefer to rely on men for money. Former British colleague married Dutch woman and is now miserable, she used to work 4 days when they met (part-time), went down to 2 after first baby, and was complaining that that was too much! He resented the situation, basically he let me know he was envious of other male colleague that had a wife who worked full-time as that had an impact on his financial status. The sad thing is that he went and got married for the sole reason that he was UNHAPPY in NL. He was unhappy and decided that he either had to make himself happy or leave. And thought finding a girl and getting married would be the path to happiness! I told him he should have tried another country.

Anyway, sorry for the long post, if you would like further details of any aspect of living in NL ask away!

Re: considering job offer !!
 

Wanted to confirm re the credit card thing mentioned by previous poster. This was one of the things that really bothered me when I first arrived!

I had canceled my credit cards in the US, did not want to have any. But when I got here it became clear I would need a credit card for online shopping and to buy flights. The bank cards issued here cannot be used online. In the US (and also when I lived in UK, and probably the rest of the world?!) we have debit cards which are called 'check cards' which you can use without extra charge for online purchases. NOT IN NL!

Had to get a credit card, and for some online shopping and food delivery you can use iDeal, which is a card+machine combination. For food delivery with iDeal I always get charged extra! Normally 50 cents. Also, for some reason you can't pay for budget flights with iDeal and you have to use credit card for which they charge normally 20 euros.

I think the iDeal system and lack of check cards is a way to protect Dutch merchants. At least for those people unable to get credit cards or simply none the wiser. You can only use iDeal with Dutch websites (and perhaps some Belgian ones?). It protects KLM too because you can't use iDeal for the budget (easyjet etc) flights, which then makes the KLM competing flight the same price I think.

Also the bank keeps lowering my savings interest regularly with no explanation whatsoever.

Can't wait to go back to a normal country! And cancel my Dutch credit card!

Oh, and be sure to always have some 50 cent coins for the beggars sitting by the toilets at every store and restaurant! Yes, even if you have patronized the place!

Re: considering job offer !!
 

Hi, thanks for the advice concerning credit cards
I'm moving from the UK and I'm planning to keep my UK cc, having a Dutch partner is a great help,
Especially with the government departments you have to deal with!!!

Re: considering job offer !!
 

If I am you, I will also keep the UK bank accounts going as well.

Re: considering job offer !!
 

Yeah it's only a couple euros to withdraw any amount or cc transaction,,, thanks

Re: considering job offer !!
 

"Dutch women in general don't like working full-time, they prefer to rely on men for money. Former British colleague married Dutch woman and is now miserable...":-P funniest thing I've read on here for a while...;)

Re: considering job offer !!
 

Yeah just showed my dutch girlfriend,can't say what she said! I'm just lucky I think she's very hardworking,,, sometimes!!!!!

Re: considering job offer !!
 

Yeah, as my Dutch wife sometimes reminds me, "I'm always in the sh1t, it's just the depth that varies". :)

Re: considering job offer !!
 

PAYPAL is also available with no problems here, you can link it to your Dutch account no problem.

Re: considering job offer !!
 

Agree..and the bit about the British friends Dutch wife ' just having a baby,but didn't want to work' WTF? That's a walk in the park then is ?. Got the strong impression there was a lot of wanky moaning going on there