First of all thanks to everybody who took the time to reply!
It seems you have a lot figured out already. How long are you planning on staying?
At the moment the contract is one year long, we'll see how it goes from here and decide what to do for 2016.
Some suggestions.
- Doesn't your employer have a health insurance plan at al? (like an Italian one or maybe AXA, which is common to have for expats). If not, Anderzorg is a good option.
I asked them as they seemed to have one in the past but not anymore.
- 700 euros for rent, bills included, is VERY low for Amsterdam! That is more or less the price of social housing in 'the ring' (excluding bills).
Some other options include antikraak by 'Ymere' (if you google antikraak + Ymere you 'll find smth, but probably not ready available); 'sloopwoningen' (also at DUWO or Ymere, sometimes they set an upper age limit of 30 years though). But the best options in Amsterdam are to be find 'via-via'. You can also opt to live in "Diemen", which isn't very pretty-looking, but very doable by bicycle and cheaper. (Diemen is especially a good option if your workgig is in Amsterdam-Zuid or Amstelveen, which i suspect?).
Just to clarify because I don't know if I'm using the correct terminology: with 'inside the ring' I meant inside the A10 ring, not the canal one.
The antikraak solution seems fun and cheap but since the job will involve some travel, sometimes even a week or more, I don't know if it's the best way given that I read one has to be present for frequent visits by the owners.
The age limit should not be a problem for some months (I'm still 29) but I'm obviously excluded from anything that requires you to be a student.
What is this 'via-via' you mention?
As for Diemen: unfortunately it's not a viable option because I will work in the northwestern side of the city, near Westpoort.
Have you tried Marktplaats.nl for a place to live? I think there are also rooms for rent there. Now is a good time to look for quarters, since a number of students will be dropping out of college by now.
Thanks, I didn't know about it. I'll check it out.
As for a mobile plan, I'd wait and see how available open wifi is in the city. Also, you will probably have wifi or internet at work. Don't just sign up for some expensive data plan. Another option is to have internet at home, and then use the routers of people of the same provider for you wifi in the city. I think the provider UPC offers this possibility.
The first time I was there I had trouble finding open wifi spots in the city, some bars in the more touristy area had it but not all of them.
The UPC service is very interesting, in southern Europe there was/is something called 'Fon' (
https://corp.fon.com/en) which does more or less the same thing.
Health insurance will be somewhere in the 700-800 euro range if you take the highest maximum. Independer.nl does some comparison, but the differences are minimal (hello, price fixing!).
Thanks, I did a basic check with that site and it also seems so suggest Anderzog as the cheapest one.
Have fun in Amsterdam, beware of pickpockets :P
It's the first city in which I saw signs on the streets reminding you to pay attention to your belongings...
Simyo: I've been using Simyo for a year and a half now, same for DW. Network is KPN which is generally good. I did swap my subscription to Choozze.nu (Network is T-mobile) because it's a freemium subscription (1 time fee and no additional costs if you don't go over the 100 MB+SMS+min), the data options might also be of interest.
Choozze.nu is very interesting indeed!
If I have a more stable connection in the house I think I can manage with 100mb per month of mobile data.
Regarding health insurance you've got it figured out, be ware though especially of the following:
- The high deductible can be charged up to 3 years after using medical services. If you use healthcare be wary of this and keep the expected charge tucked away and ready to pay. Hospitals are notorious for their late invoicing. I know this because our hospital visit in febuary 2012 still has not been charged!
- Not all base insurance is equal, the cheapest are usually with limitations on freedom of provider choice. Check up front if your health provider (hospital, physiotherapist) is contracted or your insurance will only pay say 75% of the market tariff.
Ok, noted, thank you very much.
Do the Dutch not have universal healthcare?
Or is it more like the German system where you have 165 different (public ) companies all offering healthcare. This vs the UK and Canada which have a single payer system.
From what I understand it's more like the second scenario, which is a lot different from what I'm used to in Italy where we all pay taxes and healthcare is provided by the state (up to a certain point).
Again thanks to everybody and happy new year!
