Various advice on moving to Dresden

Hey.
I shall soon be moving to Dresden, and this shall be my first time moving away from home, so I was hoping maybe someone could help me.

I'm going to be an au-pair, so excluding food costs and accommodation costs, what are the living costs of living in Dresden? I hear it is a rather cheap place to live in comparison to other cities in Germany such as Munich. I won't get my first wage of 260€ until my first month is up, and my course costs at the Volkhochschule will come to 130€, so taking this into consideration, I don't believe there will be much to buy other than clothes (since I won't be able to take everything over), some form of transport pass (since I don't trust myself driving on the other side of the road when I am such a new driver), study fees and then money for leisure activities, how much would you recommend I would need?

For people who moved there, how did you manage to take your things over. Would you recommend just taking as much as I can in my case and then buying everything else out there? The problem I see with this though, is that when my contract finishes after 12 months I may decide to move back to the UK, in which case I won't be able to take everything back!

As for my banking, HSBC have offered to upgrade my account to HSBC Plus (at a monthly fee of £12.99 I believe), which will then enable my parents to be put on as a third-party in case anything goes wrong out there and I need money in my account, as well as free transactions abroad. However, do you believe it will be more ideal to open up an account out in Germany?

Thank you in advance,
SpiritedAway.

Costs here are not as cheap as you think.
For 1 month it costs 46 Euros to use the tram and busses and at weekends you can take another person with you for free.

Do not buy clothes in Germany. For some reason clothes in Germany seem to be 3 times the price you pay back in the UK.

To open a bank account it is not too bad, but Deutsch bank costs 5 Euros per month.
Make Sure that when you withdraw money you don't pay any extra charges.

Areas to avoid in Dresden are Gorbitz and Prohlis.

If you have some spare cash i would also recommend buying a cheap second hand bike. Dresden has some great cycle routes.

Check out DKB for a good online bank account.. They pay you, instead of the other way around.. NO FEES, including using your VISA card for cash at ATM's around the world. Avoid Sparkasse like the plague..

It's actually very cheap (in comparison to the UK) to send packages back. If you go to a local Paketshop (something like http://www.hermespaketshop.de) it costs around 30 euros to send 25kg to the UK. Take things that you will miss, and do a big shop for clothes and shoes when you go home on holiday. You may not like the styles here and good quality shoes are very expensive (something similar to Clarks will be 2-3 times the price). Especially with the exchange rate now, Germany is as expensive or more expensive.

I wouldn't go for the plus account in the UK, it should be easy enough to open a bank account here. Banking is not as free as the UK, but somewhere like Postbank should be able to offer you a bank account with no monthly charges, your host family should be able to help you with that.

I wouldn't bother with the HSBC account. As said above, you can get accounts here for 5 Euros a month or free, and if you really need the cash your parents can transfer it.

Bring the clothes you need with you, if you see anything here you can always buy it.

Do you know where your host family live yet?
The tram here is expensive unless you use it a lot (I use it to get to work and back etc). However the bike alternative isn't so bad as, Dresden can be quite small (depending on how far away you are form the center).

I believe they said they live near neustadt bahnhof.

Cool location..

Then you will live in the best place in Dresden.

Close to a large concentration of bars and general life type place.

The €46 euro is for a monthly tram ticket - i.e. if you want to travel every day. If you don't need to travel that often there are plenty of other cheaper options - a ticket for 4 trips is €4.50, for example. I'd definitely also get a bike, though - maybe your host family has a spare one? Maybe someone in your host family has a monthly tram ticket you can borrow occasionally for free?
Clothes are not that expensive if you are just going for H&M or something, but why not just stuff all your things in a rucksack? After all, you won't be bringing much else with you other than clothes. Maybe get a case with wheels if you have no muscles at all :-)
If you might babysit or teach an instrument or something for extra cash, then get in touch with the International Ladies group. They'll send your name round on their mailing list.
You can also withdraw money from your UK bank account from cash machines here if you have a Maestro card, for a small fee (less than 12.99), so your parents can top that up if you need cash quick. Take a look on your bank card for the Maestro sign.

Hi All (dresdeners),
I am indian and working as telecom engineer in bayern and I got new job(telecom) offer in dresden,
i was offered 50K per annum,
I have family and expecting baby in next 6 months.

Can you please let me know

1. how is life style in dresden

2. how safe is it for indians in dresden

3. is above mentioned salary average / less compared tto dresden.

4. how good is city for family life, i mean in future for child education( kindergrippe, kindergarten school- preferably in english)

5. how costly is education in english in dresden and what are english schools available in dresden.

6. which areas in dresden are good to live and wat is the cost of living.

I would be very much thankful to you for your valuable ideas and opinions.
I kindly request you to reply out of your experience..

thanks in adv
Kumar.

Topics merged by admin

think some of your questions may already have been answered.
look here.

Why make a post, then send everyone a PM with the post.

Hi Spirited

You might wanna have a look at the Nationwide current account in the UK, as it lets you make withdrawals within the EU for no commission or charge. I've got a Nationwide account simply for travelling.

My girlfriend's from Dresden but we're living in England - although we want to move to Dresden as soon as we can. We visit Dresden often. I'll be there Thurs 27 Aug to Tues 1 Sept 2009 if you wanna meet up? We're coming over for Badfest which is in Langebruck, a suburb of Dresden to the east of Dresden airport: www.langebrueck.de/badfest/2009/

I've heard there's companies that assist you with mving your possessions from one country to another.

Good luck with everything!

Ollie