Barbados or Bermuda Open Doors to Digital Nomads/

[Garret Gates]

I was living on Barbados for a year and I’m totally agree with Marie about business and investments in Barbados. Even though you have business bank account for Barbadian LLC, you can’t hold 100% USD account, it should be 50% USD and 50% BBD. Banks in Barbados are not even better then EBP (Im talking about CIBC First Caribbean International Bank and Scotia Banks). They are real Banana republic banks, starting from opening account till operating. If you operate around Caribbean countries, the bank can terminate your account without any explanations. Anyway Barbados is a good for relaxing and vacations, but if your income generates outside of Barbados and you can work remotely, so feel free and move to Barbados!! Love it

 

[Garret Gates]

Well damn $263 visa for Bermuda and also no tax. Keep them coming. Who will be first with the $1 visa?

Well to be honest Georgia is free for 12 months for most passport holders.

Hahah look at the cost of living in Bermuda. Better to pay 2000$ for Barbados, then to rent 1bedroom for 2500$\m.

 

[karishi]

Seems remote work program in Barbados is real and for reasons I mentioned...lol. I wonder how many other countries are gonna offer such a scheme.


https://nypost.com/2020/07/08/barbados-offering-12-month-remote-work-incentive-to-attract-visitors/

I feel that every country will offer some form of that scheme sooner rather than later, with costs tied to how secure the country is, I'd rather keep my money in the UAE rather than in Barbados, but you have to pay more for that. Taxing on WorldWide income is really hard to enforce, and the covid made remote working an option all over the world, so if you speak english you can actually work for any company. Imagine a world where most people who work for italian companies work in Romania or Albania, so that italian companies can fire them at will, and all italians work for UK/US companies. CRS can be useful to f**k people making hundred of thousands of Euro, but does it work for people making 50K a year?And would it work if 20 million people in a country worked for a foreign country, with bank accounts outside of italy?For me the realistic approach is the UK one, where you can be a non dom and you are forced to pay taxes on money that pass on UK banks. The other thing would be to raise VAT on everything which is not food: in that way you tax people living in your country, for 10 days or 10 months, rather than the current utopistic taxation approach.

 

[Martin Everson]

Hahah look at the cost of living in Bermuda. Better to pay 2000$ for Barbados, then to rent 1bedroom for 2500$\m.

I live in Bahamas so I am used to island cost of living. Sometimes you have to ignore the internet/foreigner price or rent .

I'd rather keep my money in the UAE rather than in Barbados

I would keep my money in neither. Barbados had a sovereign default in 2018 if I remember and its a poor island nation. UAE is a dictatorship with poor human rights and no democracy.

 

[Spinat]

Sometimes you have to ignore the internet/foreigner price or rent .

I totally agree. Who cares what you have to pay for Internet or rent if you make sufficient of money. If you don't make sufficient money to be able to ignore such expenses you should stay where you are and live a family live with a job at Mc Donalds!

 

[Garret Gates]

I live in Bahamas so I am used to island cost of living. Sometimes you have to ignore the internet/foreigner price or rent .

I think this link provides true information about Bermudas cost of life, cause the same was mentioned about Barbados, and they are right about a rent 750$/m (for 2 bedroom apartment)

 

[extremedox101]

I live in Bahamas so I am used to island cost of living. Sometimes you have to ignore the internet/foreigner price or rent .

UAE is a dictatorship with poor human rights and no democracy.

i'm not looking to change the topic but UAE is far better than most countries in EU nowadays, human rights means nothing today it's just older trend . look at EU laws they fight freedom everyday.

 

[karishi]

i'm not looking to change the topic but UAE is far better than most countries in EU nowadays, human rights means nothing today it's just older trend . look at EU laws they fight freedom everyday.

we already discussed that in another topic

 

[daxbr]

I was living on Barbados for a year and I’m totally agree with Marie about business and investments in Barbados. Even though you have business bank account for Barbadian LLC, you can’t hold 100% USD account, it should be 50% USD and 50% BBD. Banks in Barbados are not even better then EBP (Im talking about CIBC First Caribbean International Bank and Scotia Banks). They are real Banana republic banks, starting from opening account till operating. If you operate around Caribbean countries, the bank can terminate your account without any explanations. Anyway Barbados is a good for relaxing and vacations, but if your income generates outside of Barbados and you can work remotely, so feel free and move to Barbados!! Love it

Since I have only been there for a week, but have to admit when it comes to social life, I was struggling. What was your experience?

 

[Garret Gates]

Since I have only been there for a week, but have to admit when it comes to social life, I was struggling. What was your experience?

The same! I was opening my bank account in CIBC FCIB for a month (couple of days were promised), and that doesn’t concern to my foreign citizenship, that’s because of relaxing lifestyle everywhere. I left my docs with a bank clerk and after my sudden visit a week later, I found them on the same place where I left. The main reply: “Oh so sooooorry” is everywhere )) (Like a Justin Beiber song ) I could even write a book about my unforgettable Caribbean lifestyle with everyday fun of social life. All are snails )

 

[Martin Everson]

human rights means nothing today it's just older trend

You what? lol Lets not take this off topic. Go to i.e below thread if you need to know more about UAE hell hole. Lets stick to topic of thread

https://www.offshorecorptalk.com/threads/to-do-list-to-avoid-crs.26390/post-99975

 

[stevy777]

Barbados is unfriendly, authoritative vibe with the people, expensive for everything, buying Amazon from US expect to pay double once received due to absurd traxes, supermarkets food is bad, the roads have pot holes, impossible to cycle, dangerous to walk. The Coconut's are small, not a place for fresh fruit and vege.

There's resorts built up on west coast and south so cannot see beach when driving. Abandoned buildings everywhere. Women will be cat called and verbally abused by the men. Half the year the stinking seaweed flowing in and the air quality is not that great with the desert winds from Africa.

I've lived all over the world. Stayed here ten months. Tried to like it but it's the worst place i've ever seen. I'm moving on next week.

Just wanted to warn anyone incase they thought of wasting money and time.

I think Barbados is living on reputation as it's the opposite of what i expected.

 

[FixieHartmann]

Barbados is unfriendly, authoritative vibe with the people, expensive for everything, buying Amazon from US expect to pay double once received due to absurd traxes, supermarkets food is bad, the roads have pot holes, impossible to cycle, dangerous to walk. The Coconut's are small, not a place for fresh fruit and vege.

There's resorts built up on west coast and south so cannot see beach when driving. Abandoned buildings everywhere. Women will be cat called and verbally abused by the men. Half the year the stinking seaweed flowing in and the air quality is not that great with the desert winds from Africa.

I've lived all over the world. Stayed here ten months. Tried to like it but it's the worst place i've ever seen. I'm moving on next week.

Just wanted to warn anyone incase they thought of wasting money and time.

I think Barbados is living on reputation as it's the opposite of what i expected.

I spent a couple months on Barbados as well and share some of these experiences. It certainly has some advantages but also a *lot* of disadvantages and I was actually quite happy when I left.

May I ask where you have moved to?

 

[Marzio]

I spent a couple months on Barbados as well and share some of these experiences. It certainly has some advantages but also a *lot* of disadvantages and I was actually quite happy when I left.

Can you share your experience too? Which are the main disadvantages you found?

 

[FixieHartmann]

Can you share your experience too? Which are the main disadvantages you found?

Sure! Here are my pros and cons:

+ beautiful beaches
+ great diving and snorkeling
+ warm all year round
+ outside hurricane belt (even though there was a hurricane last year)
+ people speak English (but with a very strong accent, eg they will understand you, but you will have a hard time )
+ most Bajans are quite friendly
+ easy digital nomad visa
+ low taxes

- 95% of the people are black, so if you are Caucasian everyone will think you are a tourist and treat you as such
- it gets very warm in summer, AC 24/7 is a must
- streets are quite shitty, lot of potholes etc.
- basically no online shopping, no large electronic stores, no Amazon => everything that you need needs to be shipped from Miami and you are hit with import taxes
- just walking on the street can be challenging and you might be harassed
- there is little intellectual stimulation, eg. no meetups, startups etc. you meet a lot of locals who have never left the island and it feels like nothing important is happening on the island
- flights off the island are expensive
- it gets quite small after a while, if you prone to island fever it is not great
- a lot of the buildings are quite run down, if you want to have a nice apartment close to the beach expect to pay $2-3k, but it will still be an old and slightly run down building

As I mentioned before, Barbados definitely has some pros, but if you are 20-40, want to have some nightlife, shopping and are looking to meet other younger entrepreneurs it is not a great match.

For a holiday it could be a good option, but it is also very expensive and I don't really see a lot of advantages compared to DR, Puerto Rico or so.

 

[OffshoreMonero]

I've lived in Barbados too. It's a nice place if you want to drink cheap rum and get nothing done. Haha!

 

[FixieHartmann]

I've lived in Barbados too. It's a nice place if you want to drink cheap rum and get nothing done. Haha!

exactly

 

[OffshoreMonero]

- 95% of the people are black, so if you are Caucasian everyone will think you are a tourist and treat you as such

I'm white and they assumed I was British. I had to explain I wasn't British every time.

Know how people say all (insert race) look the same? I was often mistaken for other white people and had to tell them I've never met them before.

- streets are quite shitty, lot of potholes etc.

Can confirm. Get a vehicle with good suspension. Honking is normal there. It's how you say "hey I'm behind you". Not offensive like in other countries.

- just walking on the street can be challenging and you might be harassed

I'm big and scary looking so I didn't have that problem at all.

- it gets quite small after a while, if you prone to island fever it is not great

You see the same people over and over. It's like living in a small town.

I enjoyed going to Holetown, and lived near Enterprise beach.

Cayman Islands (Grand Cayman in particular) is far less 3rd world than Barbados IMO.