No sunsets or sunrises captured
Even though by now I could have probably captured a sunrise above the sea if I were to walk downhill in time, I have not succeeded in capturing either of these pictures yet. I could have done this easily when we were staying 25 meters from the sea as in the picture above. Yet, I didn't, and to be honest, now I regret this slightly. When I was browsing through my folders today, I found this one picture I took when we still lived there, it was actually taken on a very windy morning. Who would have thought so looking at this picture? I really love how it turned out. While taking it, I was not too sure if it would be good enough to share because the ray of light was so bright that it actually hurt my eyes trying to capture it. I'm glad I tried!
In need of a ray of light today
Especially my dear other half has been stressed and mostly annoyed today by all the disinformation as well as the incompetence of some people that should help us have less stress instead of more. I already shared with you the incompetence of the health insurance risk department, remember that? Well, this is still an ongoing chapter, I sure hope that by the time July ends, we will be insured. Currently, I feel embarrassed every single day by their level of incompetence. But this is what I deal with, not my boyfriend. He has other struggles, the registration for self-employment comes with hurdles, even if you hire a so-called "gestor" to take this stuff out of your hands and not stress over going to "bureaucrazy" offices where you are sent home without getting stuff done most of the times. I shall share a few examples.
Simple task: bank with Spanish IBAN number
Our gestor only said we need a Spanish IBAN number for the taxes, he failed to mention the biggest issue: the non-acceptance of most of the online banks by the tax office.
We googled and googled various things (I admit, I started with faith and just reading about different options without knowing what I was getting myself into!), I bumped on several websites all stating similar lists of banks where 1 stood out for English-speaking customers. This one had the best fees as well as a good option for car rental, I made an appointment for Monday (the earliest possible), meanwhile, my boyfriend discovered this bank is almost corrupt as they suddenly change fees to amounts as high as 50 to above 100 euros monthly which are even legal so it seems because written in the fine prints. Ok, that was enough to cancel this bank, move on!
Chicken and egg
Online banking it became, forget about the car rental, never mind, we don't want to be scammed, they are probably luring us in to become customers with these cheap fees so that they can rip us off with 50 to 100 euros a month later, not interested! Online bank accounts were mentioned everywhere as a good option. As a very satisfied Revolut Metal customer, I was very happy when my boyfriend decided to go for Revolut Business. He had already been filling in the form and meanwhile I went to their FAQ and found some disturbing things about them not approving people, often without reason. And then I also realized they speak about uploading the right documentation, so I already felt that he needed to register as self-employed first to get this done. I was right, but for a bit, it seemed this could be overcome by sending in some non-disclosure agreement from a few weeks ago. Wrong, he was denied with the reason "We have denied your application". I can only think of the reason being, a missing registration, but to register he needs a Spanish bank account first. Funnily enough, Revolut is advertising a whole list of accepted businesses in Spain, including the "autonomo registration" which is funny as then they should know a bank account is needed first. Classic chicken and egg!
Next option
Another, the often-recommended online bank was found and this lady right here was VERY happy to discover that this bank has an app for the phone but also a desktop app. I was first sad that I would have to give up my so beloved Revolut vaults where I save up and budget things every day, I really started to get fond of this! But the universe had heard my request for a better option, yay, even separate IBAN numbers can be created in these "spaces". My budgeting mind went all crazy thinking how much handling this saves me when collecting money for certain goals and then bills being deducted, I could just send them that sub-account IBAN number for every different goal each their own account. Nice!
Done? Or not?
By the time we arrived at this point, I can safely say that my boyfriend was about to go insane for a little while as he felt like things were made impossible for no reason. And he was right because how hard is it to mention the fine print. If someone needs an account for their taxes and they can't use it, they aren't going to hold on to that account, so why even bother letting them sign up, just be clear. The account was free, and no costs were involved to close it (read: no profit to be made), why make it impossible knowing the high demand for certain things by the tax agency? I just don't get it, sigh!
You guessed it, he discovered that this account was not ok either. He wanted to close it and open the business account from them because only 1 was allowed, no personal banking plus business banking, nope, make your pick, it's either that one or that one. Which I thought was odd, but ok. Meanwhile, many hours later, he discovered this is all going to be an issue as well, even with the business account and we were back to square one. Great!
To be continued
We "think" he found a solution with a branch and then their online banking as well, but of course, when trying to apply online, the system did not accept some documents, so an appointment is needed. Let's hope this will go smooth in the end because honestly, I'm fed up going from A to B and back to C as well as being sent to D in the end. Which is something we will have to do tomorrow for our registration of residence. I'm a tiny bit nervous because they just tend to send you back with tiny reasons that aren't stupid and just overreacting showing who's in control (like you need a copy we don't accept original, so go back walking 30 minutes, we don't care!).
Ray of light, we are going to need some tomorrow, I believe we will be close to where this picture was taken tomorrow and I truly hope to step out of the bus and see something like this, sniffing up some ocean breeze again for a clear mind before we enter the madhouse!
Thanks for reading!