To do anything in the Netherlands you need to have.....

Ok, we have now spent our first week in the Netherlands.  So far so good, but we have learned one VERY VERY important lesson.  In order to do pretty much anything in the Netherlands you need your residence permit.  Ok, that may seem very obvious, but it is the step after you get the residence permit that is crucial. You need your residence permit so that you can open a Dutch bank account, and a Dutch bank account is vital for so very very very many things you need to do to live your life. Let me give a few examples.

1. We got new phones and phone plans when we arrived. Used the credit up, and need to recharge.  Go online, try to recharge --- NO! Not without a Dutch bank account!  We can go the store and pay cash though.

2. They have absolutely wonderful cards that you use for all forms of public transport in the Netherlands (the OV-Chipkaart). Again, we got one of these when we arrived, have used up the credit and need to recharge.  Try to go online and recharge --- NO! Not without a Dutch bank account!  Ok, we will just go to the train station ticket machines -- NO! Not with a Dutch bank account!  We can go to the service counter, wait in line, and pay for it in cash.

Part two of this story, we also want to get a train discount card.  It's a really good deal (50euros for 40% off of all our train trips!), especially as we plan on travelling a bit!  Can we get a discount card - no! Not without a Dutch bank account!  First you need the bank account, then you can get a "personal" OV-Chipkaart, and then, and only then, can you apply for this discount card.

3. The grocery store - yep, the major chain grocery store all through the Netherlands.  You either need to pay in cash - or yep, you guessed it, you need a Dutch bank account. No foreign credits cards accepted.

4. We try to book our train tickets to Germany for next weekend. It is an international trip, on an international website.  It lets us get ALL the way through the booking process, I enter our Australian credit card details  --- and denied. Only credit cards from Europe are accepted.

Also on a related topic, there are some limitation we have found with Scott's ability to get a job.  He needs a BSN (like a social security number in the USA and a TFN in Australia). And guess what, you need a residence permit to get the BSN. Most likely, he will also need a Dutch bank account to get paid.

So needless to say, as soon as we get our residence permit we will be getting a dutch bank account. They tell me I can go to Zwolle - the capital city of this territory - this week sometime to pick it up!  Yay!