Moving to Belgium. What do I need to think about?

October 21, 2013 3:43 AM

This is a pretty big question but there are two essential parts to it: the things I need to think about when moving, and those I need to consider for living there for a reasonable length of time (18 months probably).

So, hooray I got a graduate job. I'll be stationed in Belgium. What am I going to be encountering that I might not be prepared for? Here are some things I HAVE thought about:

- The workplace will be in English and the employer and other people with connections there said it won't be too much trouble that I dropped French early on as most people there have very good English. I will however be making an effort to learn, mostly by immersion (watching plenty of French language TV, doing my best to converse in French etc)
- Accommodation's sorted by the employer
- Driving: I passed my test whilst at uni, driving on the left (the left side IS the right side! :P) but haven't driven since. This could be fun.
- Bank account - my salary will be going to my UK account. Apparently there's no way to set up a repeat international transfer, I'll have to phone my bank every time, but if anyone here knows a way, I'm all ears.
- Moving - I'll be going from near Newcastle in the UK, and I have a digital piano I want to take with me. I suspect the easiest way will be to hire a small van and take the ferry to Amsterdam. Again, suggestions?

What am I going to find strange, culturally? What aspects of daily life in Belgium are going to require me to adapt from what I'm accustomed to in the UK?

posted by fearnothing to Grab Bag (11 answers total)

Re driving, take a couple of sessions with a local driving instructor to get used to driving again and to get briefed about how to drive there.

HSBC have an expat bank account, min balance £25k! I know nothing else about it. Look at non British banks?

What will be strange? The beer will better! (Newcastle Brown is OK but vastly over-rated by the locals.)
posted by epo at 3:58 AM on October 21, 2013

I've just moved back to the UK after 13 years in the southern, French speaking, half of Belgium. From what you've said I'm guessing you're either in Brussels of the south.

For driving, you'll probably feel like you have a lot of car on the wrong side of you. When I first started driving there I tended to drive in the gutter. You do adjust though. If you're driving a manual then the gear lever is on your right. You'll probably try and change with your left hand and hit the door a few times at first. (Edit because I forgot to say - car insurance is way more expensive than in the UK. Find a "courtier" and get them to find a policy. If you can, particularly as you have little French, try to use a company that has English speaking reps. (I can give you a direct contact in Union Financiere if that would be useful - a great, very helpful person)

Bank account: It may be worth considering opening a Belgian bank account. You should be able to open an account fairly easily - national ID card (Carte de Sejour in your case) will be required. ING are quite good, Belfius are OK. Both offer home/online banking and allow you to transfer to the UK - which should be free. You can keep your Belgian account once you return to the UK. Same goes for any private pension you start whilst there.

Moving: only thing that comes to mind - get insurance for your stuff.

Other things: Agree with epo about the beer. Try moules-frites if you can. Pointless administration is the Belgian lifeblood. You'll need papers for everything and when you go to the Commune (Local Council) to register in order to get your ID card you'll need copies of everything and they'll probably still send you back for more. The adminstration is staffed by what are often known as "Petit Fonctionnaires" - people who take a delight in making paperwork a hassle. If you get a bad one, do not despair, there are good ones who will probably take pity on you.

All the police carry guns which can be a bit freaky for a Brit. Also, once you've moved into a place they will probably (though not definite) come visit to say hello and check you out.

Keep your ID card (once you have it) with you at all times. As A Brit you will forget it, often. Try not to. The Police will want to see it if you get stopped whilst driving and it's a royal pain in the butt if you've not got it on you. Losing it is also a major hassle so take care of it! (Yup, experienced both...)

Don't be afraid to ask for help. Coming from the UK and speaking English means people may assume you know stuff because it's all Europe, etc. Things will be different, sometimes in subtle ways as well as big ones.

Belgium is a wonderful country to live in and I really hope you have a good time there. If you want to ask any specific questions feel free to MeMail me and I'll do my best to help.
posted by IncognitoErgoSum at 4:11 AM on October 21, 2013 [2 favorites]

If you don't want a Belgian bank account you can get a Euro bank account from British banks.

But - and this applies not only to things like banking costs, exchange rates, DO NOT GET STIFFED BY YOUR EMPLOYER. If you're incurring costs like exchange fees, currency fluctuations, moving costs, costs of coming back to see family occasionally, tax advice, then your employer should either be picking that up, or you should be getting a higher salary to compensate. They know this. It's not asking for something special. Don't be shy. Research your banking arrangements carefully because hidden (now) costs like paying per transaction will eat into your disposable income.

I agree you should get lessons: it's never been a big deal for me to shift from driving a RHD to a LHD car, but if you're inexperienced and out of practice then the safe way to get back into the swing of things is to take instruction. However, if you get practice before you leave and are comfortable driving in the UK then you should be fine.
posted by MuffinMan at 4:22 AM on October 21, 2013

Speaking of papers - find out now whether you're going to need a long-form version of your birth certificate, and if you'll need it apostilled, in order to register with the local council. Easier to deal with that while you're still in the UK.

You might find a copy of Culture Shock! Belgium useful, at least to give you a rough idea of what to expect; my experience of that series of books is that the general impression they convey is about right, though the details can sometimes be off.
posted by ManyLeggedCreature at 4:29 AM on October 21, 2013

Response by poster: Yeah I know I will need a euro account, and my current bank (Co-op) offers them. However, as far as I can tell I will need to phone up every time I want to transfer any money, and pay £8 for each transfer. I was hoping there would be a simpler method! My employer is being fantastically generous about allowing for the extra costs. The only thing that hasn't been discussed is the cost of relocating and given the rest of what they are doing, I really don't mind if that's one of the few things they don't cover.

Incognito, I'm definitely going to take you up on that UF contact. And yes, I'll be in the south - Mons.

Regrettably folks, I don't like beer. But I do like chocolate and I've heard they know what they're doing with that stuff too.
posted by fearnothing at 4:43 AM on October 21, 2013

I was in Brussels briefly last year, and my UK chip-and-pin card didn't work in any of the train station machines, even though it was fine in the shop I went to. For that reason, I'd probably want a Belgian account if I lived there.
posted by mippy at 5:15 AM on October 21, 2013

Transferwise.com is a good option for transferring money - my bank charges £10 plus the exchange rate is worse so it's really bad value using my bank.

Watch out if you use a UK card abroad, make sure you pay in euros otherwise the shop will do the conversion at a terrible rate (typically they say "Pay in your currency!" like it's a good thing and they haven't knocked 20% off the exchange rate). This happens on bank withdrawals too.

The ferry from north shields to Ijmuiden holland (www.dfdsseaways.co.uk) is fine and a lot nicer than driving all the way down to Dover, but can be a little pricey. Unless you are rich I recommend you take your own food for dinner and breakfast.
posted by samj at 5:17 AM on October 21, 2013 [1 favorite]

If you open an English HSBC account and a Belgian one, you can do fee-free transfers (conversion may still cost you money):

Coop - HSBC UK - free
HSBC UK to HSBC Belgium - free
posted by ellieBOA at 5:45 AM on October 21, 2013

Yes, do keep your ID card on you at all times. I've lived in Belgium twice, once in Louvain-la-Neuve, in Wallonia, and once in Saint-Gilles, part of Brussels. Getting an ID card in Louvain-la-Neuve, a university town, took about 3 months; in Saint-Gilles, it took a speedy 6 weeks (other communes in Brussels take up to 6 months). As an EU national, I'm not sure how it will work for you, but as a non-EU citizen (like me), the police do come to your place of residence to verify that you live there.

Long story short: Belgian bureaucracy is rather slow. (On preview: what IncognitoErgoSum said)

Depending on how much French you remember, it might be worthwhile to know that Belgian French has some differences from the "standard" variety. Perhaps most importantly for a new resident, the "City Hall" is the "maison communale" (and not, as in France, "hôtel de ville").

You should take advantage of your time to take in local culture; in the case of Mons you'll want to witness the "Doudou," a religious procession which includes giants and battles fought between people on stilts. It happens on Trinity Sunday, which means 15 June 2014 and 31 May 2015.

I agree that Belgium is a great place to live. I would caution you against the rather dreary and wet weather, but coming from the UK that might not be all too different for you!
posted by dhens at 10:01 AM on October 21, 2013

Here is my perspective as an American who lived in Brussels for awhile 10+ years ago. In my office, everyone had excellent English skills and clearly everyone in the tourist trade or related things will have good enough English. Where there was often a disconnect was getting further afield from these things and trying to patronize businesses off the beaten path. It never was a problem in a restaurant but certainly could be a problem at the laundromat or trying to give directions to the delivery guy (Boy is there shame in hearing the frustrated delivery guy tell you all the languages they speak and realizing you only speak 1 fluently). (Double shame is the Greek lady at the Greek restaurant who undoubtedly speaks Greek, French, English and Flemish start speaking to you in Italian when they see the name on my credit card).

Speaking of languages, it was a big culture shock for me to be walking down the street and not be able to understand what people were talking about. It can be a little paranoia inducing. I got used to it of course but it certainly was overwhelming to my system when I took a trip to London 6 months later and suddenly could understand virtually everything.

I can't speak to your arrangements but where I was living I had access to BBC 1 & 2.
posted by mmascolino at 12:35 PM on October 21, 2013

You might find my ask me from last year useful, also this youtube video. Welcome to Belgium!
posted by Blasdelb at 3:37 PM on October 21, 2013