Shownotes
Moving to Ireland involves quite a bit of practical life admin that is easy to overlook before the boxes are packed. In this episode, Stephanie Wickham speaks with Taxbytes for Expats producer Matthew Bliss about his experience moving from Australia to Ireland. They cover keeping an overseas phone number, managing multi-factor authentication and bank access, setting up an Irish SIM, exchanging a foreign driving licence and using an overseas no claims history for Irish car insurance.
Why This Topic Matters
Moving to Ireland involves far more than flights, accommodation and deciding what makes the cut for the shipping container.
Some of the awkward problems only become obvious after you arrive. Your old bank may still send security codes to an overseas mobile number. An account you rarely use may suddenly require multi-factor authentication. Your foreign driving licence may only work in Ireland for a limited period, and your Irish car insurer may want several years of documentation before recognising your previous driving history.
These are small administrative details until one of them stops working. Then they become considerably less small.
In this episode, Stephanie speaks with Taxbytes for Expats producer Matthew Bliss about the practical lessons he has picked up since moving from Australia to Ireland. Although Matthew’s experience is Australian, much of the discussion is relevant to anyone moving to Ireland or returning after a long period abroad.
What Stephanie Covers
Stephanie and Matthew begin with something most of us use constantly but may not think about properly before relocating: the mobile phone.
Matthew explains why having a phone with dual SIM capability can make the move much easier. Keeping access to a number from your home country while also using an Irish number can be particularly useful where banks, government services or other accounts still rely on SMS verification.
They also discuss WhatsApp, eSIMs and the practical question of what happens to your existing accounts when your phone number changes.
A particularly important part of the conversation concerns multi-factor authentication. If your bank or another overseas institution sends security codes to a phone number you no longer control, accessing your own account can become surprisingly difficult. Matthew explains why it is worth reviewing authentication methods before leaving and, where possible, setting up an authenticator app or another form of verification that does not depend entirely on an SMS message.
The second half of the episode turns to driving.
Matthew talks through his experience of exchanging an Australian driving licence for an Irish licence through the National Driver Licence Service. He stresses the importance of checking the rules early if you intend to remain in Ireland, rather than discovering close to the deadline that an exchange still needs to be completed.
They also discuss the documentation involved, handing over the physical foreign licence during the exchange process and the temporary evidence provided while the Irish licence is being processed.
Car insurance is another practical consideration. Matthew was able to use his Australian driving history when arranging insurance in Ireland, but he needed documentation showing at least five years of no claims history. If you have changed insurers several times abroad, gathering that evidence can take a little more work, so it is worth dealing with before you need the policy.
What Listeners Will Learn
Listeners will come away with a practical checklist of issues worth considering before and shortly after moving to Ireland.
You will learn why retaining access to your existing overseas phone number can matter, particularly for banking and account security, and why multi-factor authentication should be reviewed before you leave your home country.
The episode also explains the practical benefits of dual SIM phones, how an Irish number can be added alongside an existing number and why relying exclusively on SMS security codes can create problems later.
For anyone planning to drive in Ireland, Matthew’s experience provides a useful reminder to check whether your foreign driving licence can be exchanged, how long you can use it after arriving and what documentation may be required.
Finally, the discussion covers overseas no claims history and Irish car insurance, including why it can be sensible to gather insurance records before moving.
None of these tasks are especially exciting. They are, however, much easier to deal with while you still have access to the phone numbers, paperwork and institutions you are leaving behind.
About the Guest
Matthew Bliss is the producer of Taxbytes for Expats and an Australian expat who has been living in Ireland for more than three years.
Working behind the scenes on the podcast has given him an unusual perspective. He has heard plenty of professional advice about relocating internationally, while also dealing with the decidedly less glamorous practicalities himself.
In this episode, he shares what has worked for him, what caught him by surprise and some of the recurring questions he sees from people preparing to make a similar move.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthew-bliss/
Website: https://www.mbpod.com/
Daily Journal: https://journal.matthewbliss.net/
Quotes from the Episode
“Having the capacity for those two SIMs is probably one of the most important things.” — Matthew Bliss
“If the company offers an alternative means beyond the phone number to enact this multi-factor authentication, then I would urge you to get that if you can.” — Matthew Bliss
“Plan ahead to exchange the licence as soon as you can.” — Matthew Bliss
“Once you lose your Aussie SIM, you can’t get into them.” — Stephanie Wickham
Frequently Asked Questions
What practical things should I organise before moving to Ireland?
It is worth sorting out your phone setup, access to overseas accounts, multi-factor authentication and driving documentation before you move. Keeping copies of insurance records and checking what you will need to exchange your driving licence can also save hassle once you arrive.
Should I keep my overseas mobile number after moving to Ireland?
Based on Matthew’s experience, keeping your overseas number can be very useful, particularly if banks or other accounts still send verification codes to it. A dual SIM phone can allow you to keep your original number while also using an Irish number.
How can I access overseas bank accounts if they use SMS verification?
Where possible, set up another form of multi-factor authentication before you lose access to your old phone number. Matthew recommends checking whether your bank offers app-based authentication or whether you can use a reliable authenticator app instead of relying only on SMS codes.
Can I exchange an Australian driving licence for an Irish driving licence?
Yes, Matthew describes exchanging his Victorian Australian driving licence for an Irish licence through the NDLS. He had to provide the required information, hand over his physical Australian licence and wait around three weeks for the Irish licence to arrive.
How long can I drive in Ireland using a foreign driving licence?
The episode refers to a 12-month grace period for driving in Ireland on an international or foreign licence, but Matthew stresses that the rules can vary depending on the licence and country involved. His advice is to check the details and start the exchange process early if you plan to stay longer.
Can an overseas no claims bonus be used for car insurance in Ireland?
In Matthew’s case, yes. He says his Australian no claims history was accepted, but he had to provide documentation showing at least five years without claims. If you have used several insurers overseas, it may take some effort to gather the records needed.
Related Episodes
Country, Culture & Coffee: Embracing Ireland as an Australian Expat with Matthew Bliss
U.S. Expat on Irish Driving, Landing Jobs and Making Friends with Jeremy Strozer (Part 2)
Life After the Move: What US Expats Need to Know About Living in Ireland with Tom Lennon (Part 2)
The Essential Car Insurance Guide for Expats (Part 1) with John Healy
Top 5 Tax Tips If You’re Moving To Ireland
Voiceover
Welcome to Taxbytes for Expats, the top tax tips you want to know as an expat. The podcast is here to help answer the common queries and concerns expats have when moving to or from Ireland.
Complex taxes explained simply. We’ll focus on the Irish and international tax issues to be aware of to ensure you save time, money, and stress.
Stephanie Wickham
Avoid the hassle of dealing with your bank and transfer online, by app, or over the phone on Currencies Direct today.
For Taxbytes for Expats listeners. But thanks to Currencies Direct for their support of this podcast. Hey everyone, and welcome back to this episode of Taxbytes for Expats.
Today we’re doing something a little bit different. We’re bringing back somebody that we’ve previously spoken to, and I am really excited to talk to this person because it is the producer of the podcast, Matt Bliss.
The reason why we think it’s fantastic to have Matt back is, well, he’s really interesting to talk to, but he has a lot of things to share about being an expat in Ireland and specifically his move from Australia to Ireland, how that has worked for him, the things that practically and from an administration life admin perspective he’s had to navigate.
Matt, I won’t do this intro justice. It’s probably easier if I just say hi and say thank you and say, yeah, thank you for all the great work you do and for joining
us today to have this chat.
Matthew Bliss
Well, it’s great to be back on, Steph. As the podcast producer for Taxbytes for Expats, I’ve been experiencing and in the podcast whilst also being invisible at the same time. So I’m glad I was good enough last time for you to bring me back.
It’s been a long time too. Being in the background of this podcast has helped me learn a lot more than I thought. But there’s also a lot of things that I’ve learned in the last three, three and a half years as an Australian in Ireland that I also see in a lot of Facebook forums and online questionsFrom people that are just the little things that you don’t think about before you leave, and that I think people could benefit from knowing or at least have something to send on to someone who’s asking those questions.
Stephanie Wickham
Exactly. And I also think that even though this conversation is going to be through the lens of your experience of moving from Australia to Ireland, it has broader applicability to people who are just returning to Ireland from perhaps the US, the UK, Australia, or moving.
To Ireland for the first time from any country. So I think, yeah, it’s going to be a bit Aussie centric because that’s where you’ve come from. But let’s dive in to some of the practical things and hopefully it’ll have broad appeal to the listeners.
I know we’ve kind of talked about what might be helpful here. One of the things we use every single day and constantly throughout the day, regardless of where we live in the world, is our phone.
Was like for you, you know, getting an Irish phone, an Irish sim, keeping an Aussie one. What was that like?
Matthew Bliss
Well, fortunately for me, I’d moved to London in 2013, 2014. So I’d kind of run the gamut on the extent to which a smartphone needs to be adapted for another country.
But these days, it’s actually far simpler than you’d expect. There are a lot of things to keep in mind, and I’ll mention a few of them now. But the first, I think, is the most beneficial thing that you could have.
Is some sort of smartphone with a dual SIM capability. So, what this means is that you can either have one physical SIM, the little card that goes inside the phone, and an eSIM, which is a virtual SIM card, or you have capacity for two physical SIMs in the phone.
And what this allows you to do is essentially have a phone number in either of the countries, your origin country, and Ireland at the same time, which sounds like a hassle to manage.
Sounds expensive. From the Australian context, fortunately, it isn’t too expensive as long as you pick the correct provider. But this is one of the major sticking points for so many things that expats are asking about these days, especially in Ireland, because for whatever reason, it’s fenced off in a very unique way, being in Europe, but also an off-hang of a segmented, Brexited section of the world.
Yeah, so having the capacity for those two SIMs is probably one of the most important things.I wouldn’t say go out and spend$2,000 on a phone that just has that for that reason.
But ideally, if you can aim for it, if it’s in the plans, definitely do it.
Stephanie Wickham
There’s a top tip as well that we’ve used, which may or may not be applicable. But if you open a Revolut plan in Ireland, depending on the level of the plan that you take, they actually will provide you with an eSIM for free as part of the plan.
And free is probably the wrong word. You do have to pay for the plan, as far as I know, to get this service.But what that means is it isn’t expensive to necessarily get this eSIM when you come here.
So I think what you’re saying is you’d come to Ireland with your Aussie phone that has the capability for an eSIM, keep your Aussie number, and then get an Irish eSIM until you get an Irish number.
How does that work practically? Like, how does that link in with getting a different number?
Matthew Bliss
So this is the fiddly bit. And for the Australian context that I’m working from, I know at least at the time of recording,Or from the last time I researched, that Ireland doesn’t actually offer eSIMs generally.
So I don’t know what Revolut’s eSIM option is. It might be some sort of international SIM company. But if you’re going to Tesco Mobile or Air or 3 or something like that, from what I could tell, there’s no eSIM option.
It has to be a physical SIM.
Stephanie Wickham
Okay.
Matthew Bliss
Which means that your origin country has to have that eSIM capability and offering in order to retain the number that you have.
Stephanie Wickham
Okay.
Matthew Bliss
So from the Australian context, before I left, knowing that my phone had the capability to have an eSIM and a regular SIM, I moved from my provider at the time was Optus.
I moved from them to a MASIM, which I would highly recommend for any Australian or Irish person in Australia looking to make the move back and do what we’re talking about.
I set up that eSIM before we left, made sure it all worked, and then had a physical SIM when I arrived in Ireland.And that was simply me going to Tesco and getting a 15 euro monthly prepaid setup.
It gives you everything you need.
Stephanie Wickham
And then you still have your Aussie number. You have a new Irish number. Well, how does that work with like how you communicate with your friends back home? Do they still text your Aussie number or do you give them your Irish?
This is into the weeds, but it does actually matter because I have found even keeping in contact with our friends in Australia, if you’ve forgotten to give them your new Irish number and like I don’t use my Australian,Number anymore.
How did you navigate that?
Matthew Bliss
Well, funnily enough, if you’re deep enough into the internet, you don’t actually require a phone number for a lot of the communication methods that people would use today. So if you’re using, I mean, gone are the days of Viber, I think people might still use it.
Stephanie Wickham
I don’t know anybody who’s Viber anymore. I think, yeah.
Matthew Bliss
Yeah. That’s a deep cut, too. If you’ve been traveling or internationally instant messaging anybody in the last 15 years, you’d be aware of Viber as one of those apps that was theA preeminent version of that.
But Facebook Messenger, any kind of social media platform that has messaging, it’s agnostic of the phone number, which is a great thing. The one that I haven’t mentioned that isn’t necessarily, but kind of is, is WhatsApp.
WhatsApp does use a phone number as a reference. It now offers functionality. I say now, it’s probably been a few years, but it now offers the ability to retain the WhatsApp account separate to the number.
Change to a new region or add a new SIM or phone number to your phone, you can have WhatsApp shift itself to the new number.
Stephanie Wickham
You get to stay in all the thousands of group chats that you’re in. There’s no excuse to exit stage left.
Matthew Bliss
I’m a technological person by nature, so I can say this confidently. Many others may not feel as confident, but I think gone are the days where we would move from one phone to another and we’d have to be concerned.
About how our contacts and phone numbers moved from that phone to the new one. I remember the days when I had to load up the SIM card with all of the phone numbers.
Stephanie Wickham
I remember that. Yeah, totally.
Matthew Bliss
Yeah, that would be the thing that moved.
Stephanie Wickham
Yeah.
Matthew Bliss
Not so much these days, luckily.
Stephanie Wickham
Thankfully. So I think that’s really helpful because you’re very tech savvy. Not everybody is. So this is really useful info. I can tell you my personal pain point when I moved from Australia to Ireland is a lot of the banks in Australia will only let you leave.
Log in if you can always verify using a code. I’m locked out of my Australian bank accounts now. And as a result, we just have to clear them down because once you lose your Aussie SIM, you can’t get into them.
I’m sure there’s a way you can, but it’s a bit of a nightmare. So I think the solution you’ve presented is a really practical way for people to not have to worry about that until such time as it suits them.
Because, you know, time passes and you’ve got a lot of things going on when you move here. So that’s right.Not have to be forced out of a specific system.
Matthew Bliss
Yeah. But you mentioned a very important thing, which was going to be the next step after you set up having both phone numbers, and that’s multi factor authentication, which is more important today in anything that has your personal information than ever before.
Prevalence of AI has made it very easy for people to get at large databases of information, and hacking accounts is easier than it’s ever been.
Now, as scary as that sounds, having multi factor authentication, which is a secondary means to authenticate your access to something that you are using, like a bank account, it might be a government account, a government system, could be revenue, whatever it is.
It’s really important that you’ve got the means to do that. So, there’s a few multi factor authentication things to keep in mind that I would share from my experience at the very least.
Set up if you can. If not, wait till you get to Wireland. That’s fine. But if the company offers an alternative means beyond the phone number to enact this multi factor authentication, for example, the bank might have an app that you can put onto your smartphone.
Stephanie Wickham
Yeah.
Matthew Bliss
And it authenticates through the app as opposed to using the phone number. Then I would urge you to get that if you can.
Stephanie Wickham
Okay.
Matthew Bliss
Now, there are some institutions that don’t play nice. I know that ANZ seemsTo be awful at the moment for the non Australians.
This is a bank that is one of the big players in the market. So you would have expected they’d have that on lock. But I’ve heard of people encountering issues with accessing their account and paying for things internationally.
So it might be worth inquiring with the bank or other experiences to make sure that you can get everything absolutely right.
Stephanie Wickham
Okay.
Matthew Bliss
The other major flag that I only discovered in doing my tax return this year is that theThe Australian government site used to have an external authenticator app that you could get on the app stores, Apple and the Google Play Store, but they are deprecating it now.
By the end of 2026, no one will be able to access it.
Stephanie Wickham
Wow.
Matthew Bliss
Now, if you’re not someone who regularly accesses your, for example, Australian stuff, you’re not going to get the communication about that. It was only lucky that I do my tax return and have a look at the system to see what’s going on there.
I log in and it says this app that you could rely on.From any country in the world is being removed and no longer used. So, you need an alternative means to enact that multi factor authentication.
The phone number is handy, but you can use other authenticator apps to do this too. Microsoft has one, Google has one. There are a lot of reliable third party options for that.
And it’s possible that password managers would offer this as functionality as well. So, having that multi factor authentication available to you without the phone number,Avoid all the SIM switching and roaming and all of this data charges and things that you don’t want to have to worry about.
Staying on top of that stuff in absence of the phone number just makes it easier to manage, in my experience. So I’d highly recommend exploring that stuff.
Stephanie Wickham
Yeah, that’s it. I didn’t know about that when we came back. That’s really good advice.
Matthew Bliss
Yeah, it’s only recent, by the way. Like we’re talking the last five years, companies have started to get a little bit better about multi factor authentication.
Stephanie Wickham
Yeah.
Matthew Bliss
I don’t want to say anything definitive, but I’m pretty sure.People remote working from home and having to travel and being stuck in countries away from their country of origin, meaning that international access becomes more important, might have been one of the driving factors that made that possible.
Sounds like it.
Stephanie Wickham
Yep, agree. And now a quick word on our episode sponsor, Currencies Direct. If you’re looking for a fast, easy way to transfer money to or from Ireland without the hassle and cost of dealing with your bank, keep it simple with Currencies Direct.
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Check the show notes or head to currenciesdirect.com to register.To Currencies Direct for the support of this podcast. Tell us about the driver license, driving in Ireland, having an Australian license, how that’s worked.
Yeah, give us the down low on that.
Matthew Bliss
I’ll start with the practical stuff because there’s a lot of fun, opinionated things that I can share about driving in Ireland. But first of all, I want to say to anybody who’s thinking about staying in Ireland for longer than 12 months, this is Irish people who haven’t had a license before or people coming toIreland for the first time, plan ahead to exchange the license as soon as you can.
Because that 12 months grace that the government gives you to operate in Ireland on your international license, wherever it’s from, and check the fine print, because not all licenses are reflected in the system the same way as certain other licenses.
Australians, very strong license culture over here, so we’re very happy. But that 12 months comes incredibly quick. After that 12 months grace, if you’ve bought a car, your insurerWill respect that 12 months on your non Irish license if they have the means to do so.
But you need to get that exchanged as soon as you can. Fortunately for me, I’m from the state of Victoria in Australia, and their digital systems are probably the best in Australia at this point.
And so when I exchanged the license, I went to an NDLS location. I filled out the material I needed to. They had the forms I needed to sign in order for them to check the status of my license.
License, the transmission that I drove, what I’ve learned in, all the information that for my state, Vic Roads would have on that.
And I think the turnaround was probably, oh, by the way, I had to hand in my physical license as well. This is something that we all have to do. But the note that you get from the NDLS, emailed or printed, whatever it is, is the coverage for the Gardi who might pull you over and, sorry, the police for anyone listening who isn’t in Ireland yet.
Over and ask for your license. You can proffer this note as a way to show that you’re in the process of exchanging your license. But for me, it was probably about a three week turnaround.
And then I had my Irish license in hand and everything was good.
Stephanie Wickham
Did your no claims bonus from Australia work here? How did that work, the insurance part?
Matthew Bliss
It did. You have to provide the insurer when you’re insuring the car with documentation to provide for at least five years of no claims.
From your country of origin. For me in Australia, I worked through a family friend who was an insurance broker and optimizing on price meant that we sometimes moved between insurers.
So I had to go to him to get the adequate proof that I’d been on no claims for an adequate amount of time. But it’s five or more years you need to be able to prove through the documentation, send it to the insurer, and there’ll be no issue.
And there’ll be even less of an issue if you’ll talk to a friend of the show.Mary or Healy Insurances.
Stephanie Wickham
Healy Insurances.
Matthew Bliss
Because they’ll just give you the information you need to get moving with that.
Stephanie Wickham
I think she’s affectionately known as Mary Healy, but that’s actually not her name. She’s Mary at Healy Insurances, if I remember correctly. And we have a podcast episode quite a while ago now where we spoke with the owner manager of Healy Insurances.
But yeah, good call out for people if they want to refresh on that one.
Matthew Bliss
Yeah. But very quickly, before we move any further forward, I want to mention.Something that people quibble with quite a lot online is whether handing in your physical license and doing the license exchange invalidates your license in the country of origin.
Stephanie Wickham
Ah, okay.
Matthew Bliss
What I can say with certainty for Australia is that it does not do this.
Stephanie Wickham
Okay.
Matthew Bliss
So I have a license that was paid up for 10 years, expires in 2030, which is rapidly coming towards us. When I handed in my physical license, my license was still valid and on.
Record in Australia whilst also possessing an Irish license.
Stephanie Wickham
So, what happens if you get stopped in Australia? You show the Irish one?
Matthew Bliss
Well, that’s a question that I’m still looking for the ideal means to answer. What my intuitive mind tells me is that whatever license you have is what they have to respect when you give it to them.
If you’re a fully licensed Australian driver and you have the physical license, or in the state of Victoria, you can have the app which allows you to digitally possess your license with your smartphone.
They’ve had this for three or four years at this point, then there’s no reason for them to explore any further, as far as I’m aware. If you present the Irish license, that’s valid for 12 months from arrival because Australia has a reciprocal agreement with Irish licensing in Australia, where they would also do an exchange for whatever state you’re in.
So, what I can say from my own intuition is that if you present a license and it’s valid, they should be able to accept it.I know there are other countries that have far more rigid rules than Australia would and that Ireland would.
So do your research there, make sure that you’re doing the right things for your country and ask someone that you think would know.
Voiceover
Thanks for listening to Taxbytes for Expats. Please do leave a rating or review wherever you listen to your podcast.
And as always, remember to take professional tax advice specific to your personal circumstances before acting or refraining from action in connection with.With the matters dealt with in this series.
The material in this podcast is intended to give general guidance only.
