Charge of the Tight Brigade

One thing that occasionally drives me nuts about living here is all the extra charges you have to pay for things that you don't in the UK. Here's some of the worst.

1. Bank charges. The most insidious. $3 per month for the privilege of having a checking account, $20 per year for every ATM/debit card on that account, 50 cents for every cheque you write, not to mention the $30 annual fee for the credit card. When Mandy lost her old credit card she got hit with a $20 'lost fee'. Then of course there's the hidden cost that comes from the fact that the money in checking accounts here doesn't earn any interest. Zero. Nothing. How do they get away with it?

2. Import duty. The big one, the Bermudian equivalent of income tax. We paid several thousand dollars to bring all of our possessions into Bermuda from the UK and this last week we paid $40 in duty on just $200 worth of things we brought back from the States. At least books are exempt.

3. Dental costs. As Orbis is one of the few employers that doesn't provide dental insurance to its employees, and as it's impossible to buy your own dental insurance, this is getting expensive. Typically over $100 for a checkup, $444 to get my bottom teeth capped, and having all four of my wisdom teeth taken out is going to cost around $2000.

4. Medical costs. Mostly covered by Major Medical insurance, fortunately. However the chest X Ray required by Bermuda immigration before they'll give me a letter saying I'm a spouse of a Bermudian (which I'll need to get back into the country once my work permit has expired) wasn't: that set me back $130.

5. The telephone company. Our phone line was in my father-in-law's name. Putting it in my name cost us $58.

6. The travel agent. $30 for every ticket they book for you. The flight we were originally due to travel to the US on last weekend was cancelled because of the problems with the Causeway, so we had to book onto a different flight. Did they waive the fee because that wasn't our fault? No. Rebooking the two new tickets cost us an additional $30 each, for a grand total of $120 for the one trip. Next time we'll do it direct with the airline.

Who said living in a country with no income tax was cheap?!