Setting up Insurance, Internet & Electricity!

Diposting oleh alexandria joseph | 08.30


Since we are here for only 6-12 months on our current Visa, we don't need a social number. However, not having a social number can make setting up a few basic necessities quite difficult.
The most expensive thing was car insurance (and difficult to set up).

Firstly, we had to call numerous places to find out if they would even give us insurance without a social. Luckily, we called State Farm Insurance and they were extremely helpful. It was quite a unique situation for them, but they called us back and forth numerous times to ensure we got some type of insurance. The downside was, that because they can't transfer our Australian driving history to the USA, we had to be treated as if we were 16 year olds with no history and a high risk of damage. In the end, it cost us just under $1000 for 6 months! This dramatically blew our expected budget out. Thankfully, they let us pay-by-the-month which helped out a bit.

Gas and electric weren't too difficult. We could either find an American citizen to vouch for us, and ultimately be liable for our bills. Or, we could pay a $150 deposit down, which we'd get back upon cancellation when all our bills are paid. We just went with that option to save the hassel. We're not too sure how much bills will come out to be, as we are yet to have one. But from what I've heard it'll be a lot cheaper than Australian Gas/Electric bills. Also when you move into a place, the real estate agent will usually give you the number of the current supplier and you simply call up to change it over into your name. So you don't really have to go around looking for a supplier unless you want to.

Internet and Cable was fairly easy, since we had Time Warner Cable as an option. Other companies needed a social number, or you had to hire out all the equipment as well which added up to an additional $500. Time Warner Cable use a pay by the month method, so it was simply show a passport, drivers license and a valid credit card and we were ready to go. They even came out to install it the next day!

So, for now, we are living comfortably and the USA is really starting to feel like home.






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