If you plan on living and working in the Czech Republic, then you need accurate, up-to-date facts on the real cost of Czech living as a foreigner. The free report I've provided for you below includes 4 pages of charts with costs for common items in the Czech Republic, in both Czech Crowns and U.S. Dollars, to help you start your planning right now.

For now, here is some GREAT NEWS!

• If you are dreaming of coming to the Czech Republic to live off a small monthly pension...

• If you want to come here to be a writer, freelancer, teacher or "poor" college student...

• If you need to take some "time out" to jumpstart a new life or just have some fun...

... then you've chosen the right country, because your money really will go between 4 and 5 times as far in the Czech Republic as it does in, for example, the U.S. or U.K.

And using the Czech Republic as a base to travel around Europe is a great idea that is cheap and easy to do, both for holiday and business purposes!

However, please keep in mind that there are notable exceptions.


The Pros and Cons of Czech Living

The most important exception is that Prague itself is very expensive compared to any other city in the Czech Republic, including Brno (the second largest city), and rents in Prague are extremely expensive even by U.S. and Western European standards.

Obviously, your money will not stretch nearly as far, if you plan to live specifically within the city of Prague.

Also, please note:

If it is well known that Czech living is cheap for most foreigners, it is equally unknown that Czech living is emphatically not cheap for Czechs - or those of you planning on living on a Czech salary (English teachers). In fact, Czech living for those on a Czech salary is quite expensive.

For example, imagine paying...

• ... $60 for two tickets to a movie - not including candy, drinks and popcorn.

• ... $12 for a Big Mac at McDonald's, and a whopping $120 for a new CD.

• ... $180 a month to cover your basic health insurance, for one person.

• ... half of your monthly salary for rent, with the other half going entirely for food and internet service.

Comparing apples to apples, this is the equivalent of what you will pay for these items and services if you are living here on a Czech salary - for example, if you will be teaching English at a local school, or working for a foreign company planning to pay you a local-type salary.

In fact, a typical middle-class, educated person in the Czech Republic with an average, professional salary is able to enjoy a lifestyle that does not measure up to what a person without a high school degree, who earns only the minimum-wage, would enjoy in California, as a comparative example.

Expect that your local salary in the Czech Republic will just barely cover your most basic expenses including rent, food and health insurance. Entertainment, phone, internet, and many other costs will have to be covered by additional funds. (If your employer covers health insurance, then expect to spend that money on your monthly internet service).

Please also note that firms will quote your salary in gross terms, not net. Yet at the current 40% tax rate for foreigners, (including health insurance, etc.), even a seemingly large salary can be not enough to actually live on, especially in Prague where the cost of living is more than twice as high (or more) as the rest of the country.

You will need additional income or savings to survive in the Czech Republic if you earn a local salary. You will also have to prepare effectively in order to handle your finances, because:
• The Czech Republic is still what is considered a "cash economy," which simply means that most transactions are made in person, in cash. Nearly 90% of your purchases even in Prague will still be made by cash in the local currency. Thus you will need to understand how to transfer funds from your domestic account to here, online.

• Credit card acceptance is definitely getting more common, but is still not ubiquitous, and attempting to make credit card purchases online from the Czech Republic can often be blocked due to the high instance of credit card fraud in Eastern Europe.

For the same reason, you cannot sign up for or use your PayPal account and many other online payment systems from the Czech Republic. Personal checks do not exist in the Czech Republic, but money orders are available.

• In addition to both normal and "surprise" expenses, one additional major cost during your stay will be visa paperwork, and all of the traveling, international postage and phone bills that it will entail.

We recommend that all our clients set aside a bare-bones minimum of $500 for visa paperwork during the year that you'll be here, if you are absolutely confident that you have done everything exactly right. If you are at all unsure, then we would recommend you count on spending about $1,000 for your visa.

This is in addition to what you have already spent in order to assemble all of the required paperwork and pay all of the initial fees.

The good news is that most Czech living, including most items and services are indeed extremely affordable compared to what you may be used to back home. If you have an additional source of income or savings, your expenses here should be fairly simple to handle.

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Oxford Cambridge A Levels: Chemistry, Biology, Psychology. S Level Chemistry.

Undergraduate Medical Student, United Kingdom.
1 examination to go before I am a second year medic!

Not too sure if all those figures are entirely accurate.

I admit Prague is RELATIVELY very expensive. But rent and accomodation is also RELATIVELY very low compared to other cities.

Good post.

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Univerzita Karlova

I think you're way off on most of the figures.

60$ for a movie???? granted you stated 2 people. But that is outrageous. I've been to the movies for 90 CROWNS/person. At a nice, comfy, large movie theater, there are student discounts to for just around 110 crowns (roughly 4.50 USD).

Where did you get your figures?? Which "dollars" did you use (US, Canadian, Aussie, NZ, Bahamian, Hong Kong...)? Or did you convert from CZK to GBP to "dollars" - in which case it's crap.

If one were living here on a czech salary, prices are relatively higher than other places, but it's not London! It would seem that a high percentage of income goes to rent, but you're forgetting rent control (not applicable to foreigners). As far as actual raw rent prices (without rent control), if you live in the centre of town, then you pay for that. If you live 5km from the centre, you pay half.

Health and social tax is 16% of income. If you're talking about foreigners getting insurance, well, there are the public and private sectors. Prices also vary according to age and sex. I don't see how you can pinpoint a figure because there are too many variables. As an example, for a male 18-29 (using the public system - VZP) you would pay just over 57 USD (1350Kc) per month. It's a far cry from your stated 180 (again - which dollars?)

He was just pulling this off of a website that made these claims, they aren't his own, so don't put him down for trying to be helpful.

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Canadian by birth, American because my parents chose to move here.

"We all have faults to remind us who we truly are."

"Whatever is not what it pretends to be is unreal."

i think the figures were based off percentages of salary... being as the average american salary is around $35,000 and a movie is about $7.50, one movie ticket is approximately 1/4666 of the average person's annual salary... while in the CR the average annual salary is around 150,000kc and a movie is around 150kc, making a movie 1/1000 of the average salary, over 4X that of what american's pay... so if one were to use $7.50 per person per movie, 2 tickets would be $60 comparitively...

-matt

^ What he said

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Canadian by birth, American because my parents chose to move here.

"We all have faults to remind us who we truly are."

"Whatever is not what it pretends to be is unreal."

1- Have you seen the amount of Czechs shopping? Go to Ikea on a weekend...

2- rent control (allows money for above)

3- what is the site?

If you actualy read the information, it soon becomes clear.

Thanks DrL, M4 'n' MrC.

__________________
Oxford Cambridge A Levels: Chemistry, Biology, Psychology. S Level Chemistry.

Undergraduate Medical Student, United Kingdom.
1 examination to go before I am a second year medic!

Maybe you mean using your pre-existing paypal account here. I set up and use a (verified) paypal and eBay account from CZ.
Seems pretty steep to me. Here's what I paid for my first visa:
2 photos = 80kc
Criminal record = 50kc
Birth certificate translation = 700kc
Visa fee = 2000kc
Train ride to Dresden = 2000kc
Total = 4830kc = $205
Of course if you pay someone to do all the work for you it's quite a bit more.

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WITTY/INSPIRATIONAL QUOTES FOUND AT THE END OF POSTS AREN'T USUALLY HALF AS WITTY/INSPIRATIONAL AS I AM

It's completely off-topic, but I need some excitement on this part of the forum. All the sunny schools in the Carib have lots of active postings, mostly random nonsense. While I've always found this part to have [usually] more coherant and intelligent posts worth reading, there is a definite lacking in pure numbers.

So how about some new stuff

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Canadian by birth, American because my parents chose to move here.

"We all have faults to remind us who we truly are."

"Whatever is not what it pretends to be is unreal."