UK Residents Who Have Moved To Florida

[N52939]

Originally Posted by mariechez

Yeah he is going to Eglin up north.

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Thats a nice area. My colleague's son and his family live there (Ft Walton). He is in the US Army but there is a huge US Navy presence in nearby Pensacola as well. The US military get access to special banking & insurance so I would see if he would be entitled to that.

One little thing for you is that part of Florida is actually on Central time so there is a 6 hour time difference rather than 5 hours in Orlando.

[MarkUKinOrlando]

The phone...I use Virgin Mobile. I pay $37 a month and get a good deal on minutes/data. The only downside is you have to buy your phone outright.

[mariechez]

Originally Posted by cornishfrogboy

Elgin is a nice area, just behind Destin, which has Beautiful beaches!

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Indeed we are booked to visit 👍👍👍👍

[mariechez]

Originally Posted by MarkUKinOrlando

The phone...I use Virgin Mobile. I pay $37 a month and get a good deal on minutes/data. The only downside is you have to buy your phone outright.

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Oh right thanks, you can’t get sim only deals then ?

[sdrfish]

This should be a interesting experience for him which is great.

With regards to a phone contract it is likely he will be given one when he gets there out of that does not happen he will be able to claim that back as an expense.

With regards to a car it is likely he will be provided one due to the length of his deployment but at some point he will need a us driving license.

With regards to banking don’t worry about this as it will be all covered in pre deployment training which will answer all of his questions.

[mariechez]

Originally Posted by sdrfish

This should be a interesting experience for him which is great.

With regards to a phone contract it is likely he will be given one when he gets there out of that does not happen he will be able to claim that back as an expense.

He has been told he needs to arrange this.
With regards to a car it is likely he will be provided one due to the length of his deployment but at some point he will need a us driving license.

Again he has been told he needs to buy a car.

With regards to banking don’t worry about this as it will be all covered in pre deployment training which will answer all of his questions.

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And he has been told he needs to open an account, he will be given 2 weeks to " sort his life out" as it were before starting work.

EDIT my responses are in the quote for some reason

[MmmBlondie]

Originally Posted by mariechez

Yeah he is going to Eglin up north.

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Is he Air Force or Army? Eglin and Hurlburt Field are the home of AFSOC but Duke Field is part of Eglin and a lot of the Army guys work out of Eglin.

I live here. I've been on Eglin base plenty of times but live in Navarre which is roughly 45min away. Verizon will definitely have the best service around here but they're one of the more expensive cell carriers. Will he be living on base or off? If he's living off base, depending if hes at Eglin or in fact Duke Field, he's going to want to stay away from some areas. His BHA will only take him so far in Destin for instance and Crestview can be a little shady.

Cars over here are stupidly expensive just a FYI. But he will need one. There's basically one main road (US 98), that will take you along the panhandle and there's only so many back roads you can take. No public transport. A friendly heads up, 98 is nicknamed bloody 98. I drive it daily to work and see/read about 6 accidents a day. Please tell him to be careful.

Ask him if he can open a bank account with USAA as he is military. If not Eglin Federal is a good one.


I've lived here 6yrs and Naturalized but i'm more than happy to tell you or him where to go/avoid/ or help.

[mariechez]

Originally Posted by MmmBlondie

Is he Air Force or Army? Eglin and Hurlburt Field are the home of AFSOC but Duke Field is part of Eglin and a lot of the Army guys work out of Eglin.

I live here. I've been on Eglin base plenty of times but live in Navarre which is roughly 45min away. Verizon will definitely have the best service around here but they're one of the more expensive cell carriers. Will he be living on base or off? If he's living off base, depending if hes at Eglin or in fact Duke Field, he's going to want to stay away from some areas. His BHA will only take him so far in Destin for instance and Crestview can be a little shady.

Cars over here are stupidly expensive just a FYI. But he will need one. There's basically one main road (US 98), that will take you along the panhandle and there's only so many back roads you can take. No public transport. A friendly heads up, 98 is nicknamed bloody 98. I drive it daily to work and see/read about 6 accidents a day. Please tell him to be careful.

Ask him if he can open a bank account with USAA as he is military. If not Eglin Federal is a good one.


I've lived here 6yrs and Naturalized but i'm more than happy to tell you or him where to go/avoid/ or help.

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Thank you. He is in the Navy and hoping to live in Destin or there abouts. He doesn’t want to live in quarters. As far as we are aware he will be at Eglin. What areas should he avoid ? Tia