Remaining Connected to "The Grid"

Remaining Connected to “The Grid”

Unlike a very small number of ex-pats, we have no intention of moving to Ecuador and disappearing off “the grid.”  We will remain fully connected to the grid, thank you very much!  Thanks to the internet, that is much, much easier now.

BANKING

ATMs and banks are everywhere in Ecuador.  We can use our US debit cards at them. We switched most of our banking from Bank of America to Charles Schwab Bank and Capital One to make using foreign ATM’s easier (and free!)   We switched our charge cards from USAirways to American Airlines to capture more travel benefits.  With online bill pay, we don’t anticipate any issues.

EMAIL

Over the past few months, we migrated all of our email accounts over from our cable TV provider to gmail so that we could access email via the internet anywhere in the world. 

INCOME TAXES

Because we leave the US on February 21, 2015, we have plenty of time to file our 2014 income taxes.  2015 will be done remotely in Ecuador.  We became residents of South Dakota; therefore, we will not be subject to state income taxes while living abroad.  YES – we are still US citizens (and will always remain so) subject to federal income taxes on our earnings (investments, my independent contracting, etc.)  I think we have the tax issues addressed. Dealing with paper Forms 1099 and other tax forms mailed to South Dakota may present a small bump, but we have plans in place.

INTERNET

When logging onto the internet in Ecuador (or another country) you don’t always have access to the same webpages you had at home.  For example:  Netflix knows you are not in the US; therefore, it won’t be available to you in Ecuador. A way to get around this issue is to “hide” your computer’s IP address by making the internet “think” you are still in the US.  There are a lot of ways to do this, but we bought a router that is programmed to have a US-based IP address regardless of where in the world it is physically located.  We will be able to surf the net and stream videos as if we are still in Charlotte.

TELEVISION

We already have DirecTV satellite installed in Cuenca.  It is hooked up to a 50” Smart TV we bought.  On a side note:  televisions and electronics are about 2 ½ times more expensive in Ecuador.

We bought a Roku3 device that will allow us to watch movies via the internet.

(not much smaller than actual size!)

TELEPHONES

We've had our home telephone number for 16 Years.  We wanted to keep it so that our friends and family in the US could continue to reach us WITHOUT having to call an international number in Ecuador.  Vonage, Magic Jack, and Ooma are all services that use the internet to become your telephone.  We bought Ooma and have been using it here in the US for a few months.  It works great. 

We hook up Ooma to our internet in Cuenca, and we immediately have our existing US-based phone number.  We can call other US numbers for free, and Americans can call us for free.  Ooma also lets us have a secondary line that I use for my business. A cool Ooma feature is:  our tablets and mobile phones also act like a US-based phone number when using Wi-Fi.  This came in handy when traveling around Europe recently.  When connected to Wi-Fi, I used the Ooma app on my iPhone to call the US for free!

Ooma telephone system

I will take my iPhone 5S (by then, I will have cancelled my Verizon contract) and have an Ecuadorian SIM card put into it.  Meaning, my iPhone will have an Ecuadorian phone number.  I’ll use it only for calls within Ecuador.  When I visit the US, I won’t have a cell phone but I will use my Ooma app when connected to Wi-Fi.

Tom already got rid of his iPhone.  He bought a BLU brand Android-based phone. (model Studio 5.0 HCD)  The BLU phone has dual SIM cards, meaning it can hold an Ecuadorian AND a USA phone number.  He signed up for Straight Talk no-contract service for $35/month.  He will use the Straight Talk here until we move, and will use it when we come back to the USA for a visit.  When we get to Ecuador, he will have an Ecuadorian SIM card installed.

Ecuador has several cell phone service providers.  Just like here, there are pros and cons to each.  We’ll get more recommendations for a service provider once we are in-country.

We will also get a land line for the condo – they cost almost nothing, and may come in handy.

Of course, we also have Facetime and Skype to remain connected.

MAIL & PACKAGES

As residents of South Dakota, we have a mailing address in Madison, SD.  We hired a private company to receive our mail. Items go to our private PO Box, then they are sorted and we get an email telling us what is there (Bank of America envelope, Old House Magazine, coupon booklet, etc.)  We tell them what to do with it – discard, forward, or scan and email to us.  We will NOT be having anything mailed to Ecuador.  Anything important will be forwarded to friends or family to be dealt with later.  Realistically, how much physical mail does one deal with today?

Something that we will miss is online shopping.  Shipping items to Ecuador is very costly and time consuming.   There are services that will allow us to order things online (Amazon, Nordstrom, etc) and have them shipped to an address in Miami.  That service will then ship them to Ecuador in bulk shipments with other ex-pats doing the same thing.  By all accounts, the service is decent and safe.  The largest outfit is/was actually an offshoot of the Ecuadorian postal system.

Forget about sending letters and packages to us from the US!  We won’t be offended by e-cards…..and we hope you aren’t as well ‘cause that’s what you’ll be getting from us!

Our plan to get items to Ecuador is to carry them back with us on return trips to the US.  That’s the easiest, cheapest, and quickest way to get items to Cuenca.   When you visit, I’m sure we will have a long list of things we want you to “mule” down for us.   I can’t promise that you won’t end up on “Locked Up Abroad” though!