Dutch insurance

Finally after so many struggles and e-mails I got my Dutch insurance! The road to it wasn't easy...

I am obliged to have a local insurance if I am working in the Netherlands. My Latvian insurance doesn't count for them... And as there are quite a lot of insurance companies here, I couldn't understand which one to choose.

Step 1: CouchSurfing

After posting a question about it on CouchSurfing and getting opinions both from Dutch and expats, I learnt that the insurance here is very expensive. Insane! Back home I used to pay three times less, but OK - also the incomes were lower...

After checking all the replies and suggestions, I started to act.

Step 2: Agis

My employer has a contract with Agis, which gives 6% discount for the basic insurance. They were the only ones who replied me in English and also had a brochure in English to send me. Nice service!

Unfortunately the insurance turned out to be quite expensive - around 130-140 EUR per month. I think it's too expensive as I am not getting ill so often to make it worth...

So needed to look for another option.

Step 3: AnderZorg

As most of the people suggested AnderZorg, I applied for their insurance online (unfortunately all in Dutch). Soon afterwards I got a reply (in Dutch) that I must send them a copy of my passport and a copy of my employment contract or a copy of the paper saying that I am registered as living in the Netherlands. My SOFI number was not enough...

That was end of June, and I didn't have the employment contract (yet) and I was not registered with the city council, so I moved on.

Step 4: CZ.nl

Another suggestion was CZ, who even have their homepage (partially) in English, so I decided to try my luck there. The customer service assured me that they need only my passport copy, nothing else.

I applied, but it turned out not to be true - they sent me reply (in Dutch) asking for the same paper from the city council which I did not have...

Step 5: Interpolis

I also applied for Interpolis (in Dutch) online, who called me ~10 days later by saying that I should call to another phone number to apply as I was not a customer of Rabobank. Shitty (read: slow) customer service...

Step 6: back to AnderZorg

As I finally got my employment contract in the beginning of September, I sent it to AnderZorg. It took them some time to process, but this weekend I finally got my insurance card and all the papers (in Dutch). It will cost me a bit more than 90 EUR per month, but it was the cheapest I could find.

Unfortunately all the papers and the customer service replies (which are quite fast) are in Dutch, but Michael, Google Translate and my practise will help :)