Living on Two Continents

When I moved to France, I rented out my condo, put all my things in a storage unit, and headed off across the ocean, thinking that I had closed down my life in Virginia and was starting anew in Nice. Well, I wasn’t that naïve. Before I left the States, I created a budget that included both items that I expected to spend money on in France and those things I would continue to spend money on in the US. Obviously, I would continue paying my mortgage and my condo fees (to be offset by my tenant’s monthly rent.) I knew that I would continue my AT&T Wireless cellphone service, my Verizon Wireless service (for my computer), and that I would be paying for my storage unit. (I had had a storage unit since I moved into the condo; I simply upgraded square footage when I moved.) I had also been warned about health insurance, and specifically international health insurance, so I budgeted some money for that as well.

It all sounded so easy at the time. I’ve since learned that it’s not that easy to manage one’s US affairs internationally, but I know that it would have been nearly disastrous and impossible without the Internet – and my amazingly patient and helpful parents, who have made all this possible. Here, in some more detail, are the little things that have consumed my time in France, far more than I expected I would!

US Mail

The first thing that I felt I needed to figure out when I decided to move abroad was where my US residence would be when I left. Since I was renting out my condominium, it could no longer be that address in Arlington. I considered asking my sister if I could use her address, but that thought was brief – she has a crazy enough life as it is, so adding my mail to her world would be unquestionably overwhelming. The default was my parents –they still live in the home I grew up in, and it would be easy for the postman delivering mail, as my last name is the same as theirs. And my parents presumably had the patience to absorb my mail stream. Little did I know!
Before I left, I made a detailed list (actually, revived a list I had created four years previous, when I last moved) of those companies and institutions from whom I received mail, and began the process of updating my address to that of my parents. It was at this moment that I finally appreciated the opportunity afforded me by most of my financial institutions to switch to “paperless” records – which would mean that I could access all of my records over the internet, sparing my parents the receipt of bills, airline mileage updates, and brokerage reports.

I had heretofore been a paper addict of sorts, I liked receiving snail mail, and looked forward to the contents of my mailbox daily. But I realized that my parents were probably not quite as eager for stack of paper as I had been. When I finally left the States, and left my forwarding address with the US Postal Service, it became clear how much mail I did receive on a regular basis. My mother told me that the Postman even had commented on the sudden heavy mailbag that he was carrying around. And I realized how lucky that I had an organized and attentive father, who not only made sure to pile up my mail separately from that of their household, but began a process of making lists of the mail I had received, with some detailed descriptions, and sending it to me every two weeks, asking me what to do with the various pieces in the pile. Given that I was expecting some things, and not expecting others, this service he provides is invaluable. Knowing what I know now, if I did this again, I would hire someone to do this for me! (And I’m grateful that my dad is also accepting rent payments from my tenants; we tried to do wire transfers, but my tenants and I agreed after one month that that was too expensive!)

Telecommunications

While the first thing I did when I moved to France was to buy a cell phone (here they call them portables, or mobile phones), there was no question in my mind when I left the States that I would continue my US cellphone service. A few years ago I had bought a GSM Motorola phone and international service on it, and knew it would come in handy overseas when I needed it. I also anticipated that I would return to the States, and saw no point in cancelling a telephone whose number I would like to hold onto as long as possible. I came to appreciate, once again, the online services provided by AT&T Wireless, which allow me to start and stop services on my phone at my whim. It took me a while to get sophisticated about this, but now I remember to add a text package to my phone when I will be in the States, and to cancel it when I return to France. It is also wonderful to have the cellphone when I am in the US, as all my friends have my telephone number there, and after not using my phone for a few months, I have tons of minutes to use up while I am there.

I didn’t realize it at the time, but many businesses (doctors, dentists, and universities) that I have dealt with over the years have the number too, and I have periodically received voice messages from these folks, which I am able to access in France. Very useful. The other function I have used frequently overseas is the ability to check my Yahoo mail on my phone. It is very cheap to log on wherever I am in Europe and read my mail. (Cheaper than going to an internet café!) Three years ago it proved its value when I received an email while my family was in Italy regarding the hospitalization of a dear friend of mine.

My other indulgence with respect to telecommunications in the US was to maintain my service with Verizon Wireless, with whom I have an account for internet access on my laptop computer. I had signed up for a year’s contract in January 2008, so there was no reason to cancel it (with it's outsized penalty) when I left the States in August. And I have been happy to pay the monthly bill ($60) for the complete ease of access when I have been back in the States since. It is a national access program, so I can go online wherever I am – on the bus, on the train, at my friend’s house, in the ski condo in Vermont, in the Starbucks in Manhattan. That has been worth the money to me. Seeing that it took me so long to get a computer of my own, my addiction to wireless was a major leap of faith. But I’m hooked, and it’s now what I have in my apartment in France too.

Insurance

Obtaining international medical insurance was one of the many things that my friend Priscilla put on the list of things I should have when I moved overseas. I actually thought that getting US medical insurance was the priority, given that upon leaving my corporate job, I had lost it. I attempted to get insurance on my own through eInsurance.com as suggested by one of the independent contractors working for me at the time. It would have been extremely cheap, but I learned, the day I was leaving for France, that my application was denied. Which pretty much sucked. I was forced to look back through my Employee Exit Materials and find the information about COBRA benefits for extending my health insurance. And was stunned to learn that I would pay nearly five times when I had budgeted for monthly health insurance premiums. Arghh! This is what they mean when our health system is the worst in the modern world. If you are rich, you can afford health care. If you aren’t, you can’t.

So, I signed up for the 18 months I’m eligible for. And decided it was worth it. Five months later, when I got a call from my doctor’s office that their claim for services was denied, I wasn’t so sure. I got online and started shooting emails to Aetna and Ceridian, my health care provider and COBRA service provider, respectively, to figure out what was going on. I made the case to Ceridian that I was paying them a whole lot of money to be covered, and Aetna didn’t have records of that at all. At the end of the day, it seemed that the “automated” updates Ceridian sent Aetna had not updated their records, but the “manual” update they sent did the trick, apparently. When I wrote and asked that someone pick up the phone and talk to the other side, the reply was that that was not appropriate. I’m glad I never sent my email reply.

I waited some period of time to actually get international health insurance. The fact of the matter is that my US health insurance would not cover me for anything over here in France, however. I found a website with some options and priced it out, and after some conversation with my Dad about the risk of not having it versus the cost, I went ahead in November and signed up. I’m not prone to doing dumb things, but you never know, and the $1000 seemed a reasonable way to feel reassured in case of some catastrophe.

Other topics in this vein – maintaining bank accounts in two countries and managing Christmas card distribution. If you have a specific interest, let me know!