The Hidden Double Costs of Moving to Spain | BeautifulGalicia

The hidden double costs of moving to Spain — what nobody tells you

Everyone budgets for the new life. Nobody warns you how long the old one keeps costing money.

We thought we’d planned it well. Spreadsheets, budgets, a contingency fund. What we hadn’t accounted for was the old life that simply kept ticking along — months after we’d left. Two of everything, for longer than we’d like to admit. It’s more expensive than it sounds.

In this article

1. A word on Brexit first
2. The house: the heaviest double cost
3. Your UK phone number: essential and annoying
4. The car: three months of double insurance
5. Other insurance policies that don’t just stop
6. Our costs at a glance
7. Frequently asked questions

Moving abroad has two sides that rarely appear in the same blog post: the new life beginning, and the old life ending. That second part takes time. And money. More than most people expect — us included.

This isn’t a cautionary tale. We’d do it all again without hesitation. But had we known this beforehand, we’d have kept a larger buffer. That’s why we’re writing it down.

A word on Brexit first

If you’re British and reading this, there’s an extra layer that Dutch or German emigrants don’t have to deal with: since January 2021, you no longer have the automatic right to live and work in Spain. That changes the financial picture quite significantly.

Before you even think about double costs, you’re likely looking at visa fees, a gestor (a Spanish administrative agent — genuinely worth every penny), document translation, apostilles, and possibly a trip or two back to the UK to sort paperwork. None of that is cheap, and none of it shows up in the cheerful “cost of living in Spain” articles you’ll find online.

Post-Brexit note

The most common routes for British citizens moving to Spain are the Non-Lucrative Visa (if you have sufficient savings or passive income) and registering as autónomo (self-employed). Both require proof of financial means, health insurance, and a clean criminal record. Budget for legal and administrative costs on top of everything else in this article.

The house: the heaviest double cost

We already owned our house in Galicia before we left. In theory, sensible — no uncertainty about where we were going, no need for temporary rental accommodation. In practice, it meant eight months of Spanish housing costs for a house we weren’t yet living in.

The IBI — Spain’s equivalent of council tax — runs whether you’re there or not. The same goes for buildings and contents insurance, local authority charges, and in our case a minimal utilities bill to keep the pipes from freezing over winter.

Eight months. It adds up rather more than you’d expect when you’re staring at a spreadsheet back in the Netherlands.

What we learnt from this

Try to align the sale or end of your UK tenancy as closely as possible with your move date. Every month of overlap is a month of double fixed costs. Easier said than done — but knowing this in advance helps you set the right buffer, rather than raiding the contingency fund you’d earmarked for something else.Your UK phone number: essential and annoying

This is the one we genuinely didn’t see coming. Spanish SIM in, job done — that was the plan. It wasn’t quite that simple.

Our UK number turned out to be tied to rather more than we’d realised. UK banks — and this is well-documented among British expats — are notoriously resistant to updating your two-factor authentication to a foreign number. HMRC sends verification codes to your UK number. So does your pension provider. So do half a dozen other services that matter rather a lot when you’re living abroad and need to sort something urgently.

You think you’re leaving your old life behind. Your phone number disagrees.

We still pay for a UK number. We’ve whittled it down to the cheapest possible option — a pay-as-you-go SIM kept just active enough to receive texts — but it’s an ongoing cost that we hadn’t factored in. Probably around £10–15 a month, depending on your provider.

The practical fix: before you leave, go through every important account and check what number is registered for two-factor authentication. Where you can update it to an app-based authenticator instead, do so. It won’t solve everything, but it reduces the dependency.

The car: three months of double insurance

Bringing a UK-registered car to Spain sounds straightforward. It isn’t — and post-Brexit, the paperwork has become considerably more involved than it used to be for British residents.

We’ve written about the full process of importing a car to Spain separately, but the short version relevant here: re-registering to Spanish plates takes time, patience, and a good gestor. In our case, three months. During that period you’re legally required to have Spanish insurance to drive on Spanish roads — but your UK policy doesn’t simply disappear. Two policies, one car.

We were paying roughly an extra €80 a month during that overlap. Not catastrophic in isolation, but when it’s sitting alongside all the other double costs, it’s another line on the wrong side of the ledger.

Other insurance policies that don’t just stop

Insurance policies are quietly treacherous. They feel small — a few pounds here, a few there — but they continue until you actively cancel them. And cancelling takes time: notice periods, forms, sometimes letters to a UK address you no longer have easy access to.

In our case, a life insurance policy linked to our UK mortgage continued longer than it needed to, as did a buildings policy we’d been too slow to cancel. Neither was enormous on its own. But the combination of all these small lingering costs across the first few months added up to something worth having budgeted for.

Practical advice

Three months before your move date, make a list of every insurance policy and subscription you hold. Note the cancellation terms for each. That list will save you a meaningful amount of money — and the effort takes less than an afternoon.

Our costs at a glance

We don’t like vague articles with no numbers. So here, as honestly as we can manage, is our own experience:

We’ve deliberately avoided giving a single total figure, because it varies too much depending on your situation. What we will say: assume at least three to six months of overlap on most costs, keep a separate buffer for it alongside your moving costs, and don’t let it catch you by surprise the way it caught us.

The move itself you budget for. The aftermath is the part people forget. That’s really the only point of this article.

Frequently asked questions

How long do you have double costs when moving to Spain?

Allow for at least three to six months of overlapping costs on most fixed expenses. A UK phone number often needs to be kept for much longer — sometimes years — because UK banks, HMRC, and other services are tied to it. Do I need to keep my UK phone number after moving to Spain?

Almost certainly yes, at least for a while. UK banks are notoriously reluctant to accept foreign numbers for two-factor authentication. HMRC, your pension provider, and numerous other services will also send verification codes to your UK number. A cheap pay-as-you-go SIM kept active is the simplest solution — look for providers offering a basic plan for under £10 a month. What are the biggest hidden costs of moving to Spain after Brexit?

Since Brexit, British citizens no longer have the right to simply move to an EU country. The visa and residency process adds legal fees, document preparation, and apostille costs that EU citizens don’t face. On top of that: double housing costs, keeping a UK phone number, re-registering your car to Spanish plates, and insurance policies that don’t automatically cancel. Can I cancel UK insurance policies when I move abroad?

Yes, but check the notice periods first. Most policies require one to three months’ notice. Start making your cancellation list at least three months before your move date — and make sure you have a UK address or forwarding arrangement for any correspondence, since some insurers will only communicate by post. Do I need a gestor when moving to Spain from the UK?

Strictly speaking, no. In practice, almost certainly yes. A gestor is a Spanish administrative agent who handles bureaucratic processes on your behalf — residency registration, NIE number, car re-registration, tax obligations. Post-Brexit, the paperwork for British citizens is considerably more involved than it used to be, and a good gestor will save you both time and money. Expect to pay a few hundred euros for their services.

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