Mummy in the foothills

Can't believe it's been that long it's flown by.
After 20 years away this time I feel very much settled back. Dh has taken longer he was abroad for over 30 years (since his teen years)
Got here first week of Sept and not sure where the time went. Started Work for NHS in January and thats going fine, I work with some lovely people and patients. The background checks and things are slow, so good job we had money to live on and were at my mothers.
Bought Mums house from her as the ones we looked at fell though. Works better this way, she is buying what she wants and completes very soon.
We are slowly doing the place up needs work and paint stuck in an 80's time warp.
Dd (now 9) doing well in school, older boys, one living with us and one visits often.
Both Dh and I have been unwell at different times (once each) and went to the local Doc, and are very pleased with the care.
We already had Bank and credit card for UK so no problems there.
Dh needed a NINO that was a pain, had to go for an interview and all the rest, but they sent it soon after the interview.
I have seen a few of my old friends and slipped in with the chat no problem, don't see them much as we are all working full time. Text is great for keeping in touch.
Dh has to do his UK drivers test, he's scheduled for the theory at the end of the month. I still had my old paper license and the address is still correct.
Insurance we went with Aviva for car and house, prices are better that we paid in US.
I've gained a few pounds, need to stop eating all the chocolates and sweets, well I have got the talking part over yet.
All in all I think it's been a good move. Dh is still settling in, I think once he's driving again (he's insured to use my car but reluctant it's so small and he's tall) I think he's do even better, maybe a part time job would help.

r0briley

Always nice to get updates from those who have made the move back home for those of us that will be soon doing so-I hear you with the chocolates and sweets-I can't wait to gorge on all that goodness again, (flakes, maltesers, curly-wurlys, walnut whips)

windsong

MITF, so good to hear you are all settling in well.

What a wonderful solution to a housing problem - buy mom's house!!! I know it needs redecorating and updating but I think that is a fabulous solution!

How did you manage to acquire a UK credit card and bank account before moving there, if I may ask? (I am about to give thought to all the problems I may be confronted with after I move and banking is one of them.)

What is a NINO, by the way?

What sort of background checks do they do in the UK? Surely there is not much to research when you only just moved there.

Sally Redux

Great to hear from you!

BEVS

Thanks for the update.
I always look for these updates to see how everyone is doing.
You never know, it could be me one day.

rebs

Great to hear from you MITF, glad things are going well

rebs

NINO = National Insurance Number



I think Mummy in the Foothills was talking about the background checks done specifically for taking a job with the NHS (National Health Service). I think they, in particular, can take quite a long time. My sister recently moved jobs from a private company to the NHS and the onboarding process took ages - a good 2 or 3 months from offer to first day at work.

sallysimmons

I haven't checked in for a while, but it was good to see this post this morning, and hear that all is going well. I know we went through a lot of the planning stages at the same time. Hope your husband continues to settle in and that all keeps going well

lf1

Glad to hear that things are going well.

MrMuffin

Congratulations that things are going well and you're feeling positive. I hope hubby finds a job soon and everything falls into place for you. Thanks for keeping us in the loop! Take care!

feelbritish

Great to hear it has gone well for you and keeping fingers crossed for hubby. After reading a lot of updates and lots of thought we also will be simply moving back into our own house, have NIN, even have the old card for the local doctors, plus my old library card (probably out of date but can at least show them) Already have bank accounts and credit cards and still also have our paper driver's licences with our same address on! I think that makes settling in so much easier!
Then we will decide what we want to do next!

Brigette

Hey Mummy! Thanks for the update. It worries me just how long background checks take. I guess I'm going to have to try and save even more to offset waiting on a background check. Glad everything is going well and hopefully hubby will settle in once he starts driving

Mummy in the foothills

I think most of the question got answered already, but yes the NINO is the national ins number and my background checks were for the NHS job.
I never closed down my bank account when we moved and used it when we came on holidays, the address was my Mums house which we have now bought so that has never changed. I've had the same Credit card since I went off to college at 16, so thats been a while, I kept that all these years too.
My boys opened accounts without too much difficulty when they arrived, both ended up with HSBC.

windsong

Thanks, MITF. You did a very wise thing in keeping one foot in the UK all those years.

dave2003

[QUOTE=windsong;11253095]MITF, so good to hear you are all settling in well.


"How did you manage to acquire a UK credit card and bank account before moving there, if I may ask? (I am about to give thought to all the problems I may be confronted with after I move and banking is one of them.)"

I will be moving back to England later this year. I have already done a three month "reccie" and quickly found that a lack of a U.K. credit history could be a significant difficulty.

It seems that a credit history cannot be transferred from a Canadian credit agency to a U.K. one, so I went to HSBC here in Calgary and opened a global account, which included a U.K. credit card. Perhaps more importantly HSBC will transfer my Canadian credit history to HSBC in the U.K.