Adjusting to life in budapest (pt.2)

Initially I wrote both parts of this entry together, only after it was over did I see that the text would be too long on it's own and so I splited it into two. In this second part I'm going to talk about Wifi services, banking systems and the immigration office.

Wifi:

Honestly I can not believe that I'm getting to the wifi part now; after all wifi is the most essential tool of this generation. I know a lot of people are substance addicts but the only thing I probably ever will be is a wifi addict. No, actually I'm kidding, I'm not that bad. There are a few Internet service providers here in Budapest such as UPC, Telekom, Inter.net and a few others. Truth is it may sound like you’ve got a lot of options but it's not true; most of these internet service providers only cover a few distinct districts, this means that they each have their own coverage and not every service provider offers internet in every district.

I guess this somehow makes your job easier since you don’t have to go through the process of deciding anything; your decision is narrowed down for you. It is usually helpful to ask your owner or agent which internet service provider did the previous tenants use so you can just contact the same company. I have subscribed to UPC, they provide coverage in my district and the previous tenants also used UPC. So as soon as I moved in to our new apartment, I went to the UPC office and ordered our own wifi service. It was an extremely easy process, since they already had our data and it was basically just a new contract for them. They gave me the modem and the cables on the spot itself, it was a huge packet and they didn’t ask for any deposit. They told me that the installation process is super easy and I can do it myself from home. Being the technology noob that I am, I couldn’t do it myself and I had to go their office again and request an installation, which they charge you for (I only found that out later). It took them about 2 days to come and install our service, in this time we were paying for the internet without making any use of it. The person that came was very courteous and he installed the wifi in about 10 minutes, but as it turns out it wasn’t so simple to do the whole process. At least that’s what I tell myself.

(The UPC office in Duna Plaza)

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You can acquire the exact monthly wifi prices from the UPC website here: UPC, the page is in Hungarian but you can use google translate to translate it. We are subscribed to a one year package which includes an unlimited amount of wifi with a speed of 10 MB if not mistaken. Apologies for my super rusty information about wifi speeds. Anyhow we pay a monthly fee of 5000 forints, which is reasonable. Overall I am satisfied with the UPC internet service, the speed of the internet is good, the price is reasonable, and however I'm not a really big fan of their customer services. They have a customer service line with the number 1221 and honestly every time I call I have to wait for about 10-15 minutes just to be connected to an operator and since I only basic Hungarian, I need to let them know that I need an English operator which will take another 10 minutes. In this amount of time pretty much half of my monthly mobile credit is gone and they usually just tell you that they will call you back. This can be frustrating but the alternative can be just going to their office instead of calling. This is time consuming obviously and you may have to sit in the queue for quite some time.

(The company logo)

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I know I said so many disadvantages that you all are like okay why on earth would we choose UPC? Honestly these issues happen once in a blue moon, in the four months that I have been using UPC, I only had an issue once. Okay twice actually, the second time is today to be honest. So I paid our bill online for the first time since we got UPC and the money was deducted from my account but my bill did not clear and today is the bill deadline. So like I mentioned there will be some slight issues with the services but at least the wifi has a stable speed and runs pretty smoothly. I hope that my through and honest explanation of the wifi services helps you guys out.

Alright now that you’ve got your house, you know where to grocery shop, you have a good wifi service at home, and you know all about your utility costs, what else should you do? I mean a normal person would just relax but since I'm not a normal person, I went after the next steps of my adjustment process. The next step was opening a bank account in Hungary.

Opening a Bank account:

Given I was coming from Malaysia, I had a Malaysian bank account and credit card and obviously a Persian credit card, both of which weren’t that useful here. Even if you have a Euro account and credit card, I don’t really suggest using that for long here, I’ll explain why shortly. Well firstly if you plan to stay in Hungary for long, it's much more beneficial if you open a Forint account, forint as I mentioned before is Hungary’s official currency (1 Euro= 309 forints now); that is because the banking commissions are extremely high here, okay not extremely high but since I'm not used to paying much commissions in banks I find this extremely annoying.

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Anyhow, if you use your euro account, the euro will be converted to forint each time and the exchange rate isn’t too high and there is also a banking commission. So, yeah, it's much better if you open a bank account here in Hungary. I will tell you what I did and hopefully you find the information useful. Well a famous bank here is called Raiffeisen bank; it's a reputable bank here in hungary. I asked around from a few people and they all told me that this bank is the easiest to use for internationals. To open a bank account, I went to the closest branch to my house, the corvin plaza branch, which is located right next to the Corvin Negyed tram station. Anyhow the staffs were well informed and they speak English fluently, they had a lot of experience dealing with international customers which was a relief to be honest. The process was quick and easy, the bank teller explained that I can only put money in my bank account by coming to any of the bank branches and using the cashier service. I find this a tad bit inconvenient because well it's time consuming but anyhow it is how it is. I opened three bank accounts; one in US Dollars, one is Euro and one in Forint. Upon opening any foreign currency bank accounts, the bank automatically opens a forint account for you. Please do keep in mind that using the ATMs to withdraw money actually charges a small commission as well; I'm not very well informed regarding the commission charges and so I suggest that you guys read this document before opening a bank account in Raiffeisen. (The link of the document).

Oh and if you want to order a debit card, you need to pay some charges separately and apply for a card. It takes about 8 to 10 working days for the card to be ready and you have the option to choose Visa or Master Card. I was told that they are practically the same with the only difference that you can use Master Card to pay any amount less than 5000 Forints without using your PIN code; i. e you will just swipe and leave. The debit card costs about 10, 000 forints in total. About 6000 forints for a yearly maintenance fee, about 2500 forints for another fee which you only have to pay once in 3 years and another 2000 forints was also deduced from my account which I'm assuming was for the making of the card. Anyhow, your card is exactly the same and you need to go to the bank cashier to deposit money into it. I prefer to do it monthly just to avoid the hassle of constantly travelling bank and forth to the bank.

Well that is pretty much it on banking and bank accounts; there are still some more things that I want to share with you guys so let’s see what they’re about.

Immigration Office:

If you want to live in Budapest for a long term you need to apply for a residence permit. I don’t plan to tell you guys about the whole immigration process as it is actually a long and complicated process and it varies for people with different nationalities. The long version of stuff you need to consult it with your university and the Hungarian embassy in your country. All I plan to discuss is the location of the immigration office and a few general tips.

Third country nationals willing to stay in Hungary for more than three months need to apply for a residence permit. The process is kind of lengthy. I had to apply for this since I'm originally Persian and honestly even though the process takes the time it's not that difficult to do. The immigration office is located in Budapest, Szegedi út 37, 1135. That is quite far from the city center but well accessible via public transport. You should take the metro line M2 and get off at the station “Keleti Palyuvdar”, when you get off there you look for the exit with the bus number 30 or 30A on it. So basically it's really easy to get to Szegedi ut. You just gotta take either the bus number 30, 30A or 32 and get off at the station called “Szegedi Ut”. When you get off the bus there, the immigration office is right there. Their office hours are rather specific and bizarre so be sure to check out their website before heading out there. Wednesday for example is student day and they only do student related matters and etc. You can go to their website using this link: BMBAH; this link contains many information regarding the immigration process as well and it's reliable as it is the official website.

(The immigration office)

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Okay guys it's finally done. I spent like so much time writing these pieces, it's unblievable. I really hope you guys find it helpful and yea let me know what you think.

My exams are coming up so I'm going to be inactive for a while but I promise I'm coming back with lots of new content.

Cheers!

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