Kayaker

Hi,

I may be moving out to Stamford, CT with my young family on a company transfer. I have asthma and I just wondered what the costs are for getiing inhalers? Also which areas are good to live in for families?

Many thanks

ian-mstm

With health insurance, about $20. Without health insurance, about $150. Of course, there are a dozen different types of inhalers, so prices will vary... and if you need a spacer, that'll be a bit extra. This all assumes you can get coverage for your pre-existing condition.

During your negotiations with the company, ask them to cover your health insurance 100%.

Ian

Nutmegger

Many folks who work in the big Stamford companies actually live in nearby places like Ridgefield, Redding, Wilton, New Canaan, and Bethel. Which you choose could depend on your budget and what you want in a town. They are all nice towns with a New England feel, appropriate for families, and have excellent school systems.

Bob

The NHS is current cover, so as long as the works offered medical insurance cover kicks in from day one, he'd be covered for the pre-existing.

If there's a break of 62 days, then they could exclude the condition and related problems, so interim cover would be needed.

So this needs to be something to be figured out.

As for areas to live, don't know...but over the summer there were a few people moving to the surrounding areas, so perhaps a quick search might find some good info there for the OP. As for recommendations, how old are the kids? Schools are generally pretty good in that area, but which school they go to depends on the street you live on.

city-data.com might be another site to look at for info on surrounding areas.

Duncan Roberts

It really depends on if you have insurance, what that insurance covers, what type of inhaler it is and how often you use it. It could range anywhere from $0 to 100% of the price, even with insurance, which could be several hundred dollars a month.

Kayaker

Thank you all for you replies. I will push to get them to cover the cost of the inhalers.

My son is two, so we would be looking for an area with a good kindergarden etc.

Thanks for the areas it will help with our research. Out of interest are there any areas we should avoid?

Nutmegger

There are areas of Stamford you wouldn't want to live in, although others are very nice. You would not want to live in Bridgeport, some areas of Norwalk. South Norwalk is great for young folks to live in downtown apts. -- and has good restaurants -- but doesn't have the best family-living areas. Most of the big companies (as Stamford has a lot of HQs, I'm presuming it might be a big co.!) will have a tame relocation expert they refer newcomers to (a real estate agent, aka a realtor) who will know where to avoid. But do check the places I mentioned before on the Web and see if they look like the kind of places you would be interested in. I'm here for queries!

Bob

Don't know about the Stamford area, can't imagine it being much cheaper if at all compared to Boston, but even in the burbs, 3 half days a week would run $1500 a month plus your own food/snacks.

Getting way out in the burbs that figure stretches to whole days....but the good places usually have waiting lists.

Duncan Roberts

No, make sure they offer full medical, dental, prescription and vision (if needed) insurance at a reasonable price for you AND family. Make sure you understand the policies and when coverage starts, 90 days is not going to work for you.

Kayaker

Having read the replies I will make sure full med cover is stated.

I have tried searching for typical living costs for CT, but not with much luck. I would be grateful for feedback. thanks!

Bob

Depends massively across the state, which is probably why you're having trouble.

Focus on some towns that people have listed. Check out the city-data site I mentioned earlier, you'll probably get a good idea from that.

CoL won't be cheap though for those nice towns, especially any where with decent schools.

And the medical cover is whatever the company offers, there's not much you can do about that, they might offer more than one option and you pick the best you are comfortable with. It's the cost to you that is the issue and when new hires are eligible to receive cover, you need cover to begin within the 62 day time frame. A lot of companies have cover not starting till 90 days because it means the insurance can then exclude pre-existing conditions for a period of time, thus lowering the cost of the premium for the company, which is on top of what you would pay monthly.

Nutmegger

Did you look at City-Data? If you Google you will find a tax calculator (or I'm sure someone has linked to a good one on BE somewhere) that will indicate what kind of take-home will result from the salary you're being offered. Think $2,000 to $2,500 per month for a nice rental in Fairfield County -- it is not a cheap area -- but with that comes good schools, so no need to think about private education. Also note you will need two cars; public transport is pretty non-existent, other than commuter trains to NYC.

Kayaker

Had found the city data and the state/fed tax rates. The tax calculator I found took me to a list of jobs! I think I calcuated the tax to be; 16% for Fed tax and a state tax of USD4500 pa for an income of USD90K?

just wondering what other costs there are such as car tax, water, elect, gas, council tax, tv packages?

I appreciate the replies. Really helps to get a feel for where we should be looking to move and an understanding of the expenses compared to the UK.

Duncan Roberts

The first thing you need to do is research medical coverage because there is no such thing as "full med cover." The company will likely have one or maybe more policies that you can choose from and each will have their own price and coverage rates. If you don't understand what the coverage terms mean you won't be able to make a good choice. You need to research what deductible, co-pay, co-insurance, formulary, in-network, out of network, HSA, FSA, POS, PPO, HMO, pre-existing conditions, creditable coverage and a whole host of other things. If you have a pre-existing condition you can end up losing a ton of money on health expenses even with insurance so you need to know the ins and outs at least at a high level. One thing I did forget was to ask how old the person with asthma is. If they are 19 or younger then it won't be counted as pre-existing so you would only have to wait however long it took you to be covered, 90 days is common. Over 19 and it would be pre-existing and subject to all the rules for that.

Bob

I'm surprised there isn't any thing on city-data.com covering this.

Car, check out the state DMV site, it'll list how much it costs to register, title, inspect, plate the car and annual costs and if there are any excise taxes, probably in the region of $25 per every $1000 value of the car. There's also sales tax on top of everything, including second hand buys such as a car.

Water/property tax, usually covered in the cost of rent so you won't see a bill, but if you buy, well check out the town websites, they would say what the rates are, which would be high.

Other utilities, depends on the place, some might be oil heat or electric heat, gas heat is pretty rare unless in a bigger area. Gas is cheap, oil is expensive, for a 2-3 bed house possibly $300-500 a month during winter for average insulated, average house.

Electric, it's a flat rate on usage, no off peak stuff, tends to be more than in the UK, but depends if you have central AC or not etc.

TV/phone/internet package, tends to be a choice of who ever offers it in your area and that's it, so perhaps Comcast/Verizon or a satellite like Dish/DirectTV...ball park for a bundle around $100-150 a month for average boring stuff, goes up when adding movies and especially sports content.