Moving Back to the UK - Practical Tips and Lessons Learned
 

We’re just over 2 weeks away from moving back to the UK and as we’ve worked through the process of moving back, we’ve learned some tips and lessons. I had some many questions when we started out, so I thought I’d share my tips with anyone who needs them.

Banking

Having read nightmare stories of people unable to open bank accounts or get credit cards in the UK, we moved our banking to HSBC a few months ago. Once our US accounts were open, we were able to open a UK account in advance and we now have debit cards and UK credit cards all ready to go when we get back. The advantage of doing it this way is that the US office can share your US credit history with the UK and therefore you can get credit cards without any hassle.

It’s been a bit of a headache administratively just because there are so many steps to go through (open US account and online banking, then open UK account, then ask for debit and credit cards etc) but all the way through, HSBC have been very helpful.

Also, if you have over a certain amount of money (different in each country) you can open a premier account – this gives you additional services and more personal attention. But even with a basic account, you can get all set up in the UK before you arrive.

Finding a rental property

We can’t stay with family and friends because we have cats who don’t mix well, so we needed to find a rental from over here. We are also self-employed and don’t have any UK credit history, so we thought we might have problems. To make it easier we hired a home-finding company recommended by another BE user. It’s not cheap but it turned out to be worth its weight in gold. Rentals are so competitive right now that we needed her speed. She spotted the house we rented before anyone else, and that allowed us to secure it.

The lack of credit wasn’t a problem. I offered to provide a copy of our US credit report and they were happy with that. (We can order those for free over here once a year).

The homefinder we used is County Home Search and it costs £750 upfront and then one month's rent if they find you a place. They do a LOT of running around for that money and send detailed reports, photos and videos of each house they visit.

National Insurance

We wanted to have these numbers in case they were needed for anything but had no idea what they were. There’s a number for ex-pats to call, which is 44 191 225 4811. Just be warned that even when they say they’ll send you your number, it seems to be hit and miss whether a letter actually goes out. I had to call 3 times and my husband had to call twice. We eventually both got the numbers but it took 3 months from start to finish.

Utilities

I have no idea about other providers, but we’re going with Utilities Warehouse. You can order gas, electric, landline, mobile phones and Internet all from them and then you just get one bill. They’ve been very helpful. If you order 4 or more services, you get a 10% discount on your energy bills, which already seem quite reasonable.

Internet

If having decent Internet speeds is important to you, you need to check the areas you plan to move to. We had to change our plans quite drastically after finding out that the place we wanted on the banks of lake got download speeds of only 1MB. Not even enough to watch a Youtube clip without it freezing up.

Don’t pay any attention to the speeds advertised by the companies except when looking at cable services (Virgin fiber optic and BT Infinity). When a company sells a package for ‘speeds up to …’ the real speeds are never what they promise and depend on how far the house is from the telephone exchange. Use this website to check actual speeds for any postcode. http://www.uswitch.com

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That's it so far. We're moving cats but I don't know what I've learned about that yet. I'll have to update when it's all done.

Don't know if this was helpful, but if anyone has any questions, let me know.

Re: Moving Back to the UK - Practical Tips and Lessons Learned
 

Very helpful Sally, thanks for sharing and good luck with your move!

Re: Moving Back to the UK - Practical Tips and Lessons Learned
 

Regarding internet, can I ask what you went with? I'm with BT (their top package) and find iPlayer, YouTube, etc., often freeze. I think it's because even though I live only about 8 miles from a big city, the area is quite rural and services are pretty rubbish (they had only dial-up for the longest time, Freeview reception is rubbish, as is DAB radio reception).

We don't have cable so cable internet isn't an option, and a USB dongle I tried sucked big-time. Luckily, Freesat is great but I'd love to find a quicker internet option as I'm on the net (for work mainly) a lot. At about £40 a month, it seems like daylight robbery.

Re: Moving Back to the UK - Practical Tips and Lessons Learned
 

Thank you,Sally! We too are hitting the UK in just over two weeks! So much research and it's like rediscovering the UK all over again!

Good luck and best wishes!

Sammy in Tokyo:thumbup:

Re: Moving Back to the UK - Practical Tips and Lessons Learned
 

I have found Utility Warehouse to be fine.
Do make sure you send in the meter readings monthly to secure the extra 10%!!!

Re: Moving Back to the UK - Practical Tips and Lessons Learned
 

interesting about Utility warehouse, as a landlord I have had huge problems with them and very unhelpful and wanting to charge for removal on pre paid meters I did not install!!

Would be interested to know what internet packages folk end up with, seems quite expensive and not great speeds. I have decided to wait til I get back and see what the neighbours all use;)

Re: Moving Back to the UK - Practical Tips and Lessons Learned
 

I'm afraid my experience won't be much help in your situation. Once we found out about the Internet speeds, we narrowed our property search down to only locations with cable Internet. We download a lot of big files for our work and because we both work online all day, we absolutely have to have fast speeds.

It broke my heart to say goodbye to the idea of living in my dream areas, but I consoled myself with the fact that it may be better there one day in the future.

In the meantime, we checked every house we saw on Uswitch and only considered them if they had cable. We wound up with a house that get Virgin's 100MB service.

I would advise anyone who used the Internet for work, or who has family members who like to download music, movies, games etc. to check out every area and only move somewhere with good speeds. Once you're in a bad area, there's nothing you can do unless you're rich enough to pay for your own dedicated T1 line. (Also, don't think being in a big city means fast speeds - some areas of the big cities have shockingly low speeds and we're going to be living in a rural area but have super fast speeds. You have to check every postcode to see what the situation is in that specific area and then ask the landlord/current owner to make sure that house is wired for the cable service.)

Re: Moving Back to the UK - Practical Tips and Lessons Learned
 

Good to know - thanks!

Re: Moving Back to the UK - Practical Tips and Lessons Learned
 

Thanks, Sally, you confirmed what I suspected. There are many reasons looking back why I wish I had bought in the town/village closer to Glasgow (it has rail links and much better TV, DAB, internet, etc.), even though the village I live in has great views and doorstep access to country paths.

The cost isn't worth moving at the moment, plus I really don't think I'll be in this area much longer anyway so moving house just for the sake of a year makes no sense, financially.

Re: Moving Back to the UK - Practical Tips and Lessons Learned
 

Thanks for all this information Sally.

I will look into The Utility Warehouse for a package on services, when I come back in a couple of months.

Hope the move goes well, especially with the kitties, let us know how it goes.

Re: Moving Back to the UK - Practical Tips and Lessons Learned
 

Great info Sally. Good luck with moving back home in a couple of months! :)

Re: Moving Back to the UK - Practical Tips and Lessons Learned
 

Utility, I'm with EON, they get a bad rap, but I've been pleased with the and they were much cheaper than EDF, which the property was connected to when I moved in. EON have just dropped their rates as well.

Internet, I'm with Talk talk, again good service, only had one quibble, when I moved apartments and they tried to sting me with a new connection charge, after telling me I would have to pay for any further moves when I moved in originally. All sorted in the end. I'm on the Essentials Package, it comprises anytime talk, which is basically free landline calls to anywhere in the UK, and 40gb BB. I'm a light user and would normally use about 5gb per mth, but just signed up for Eurosport Player for the cycling, but at 1gb per hour, I'm still going to be under the monthly limit.

Cost for the Talk Talk package is approx £27 per mth inc VAT.

Re: Moving Back to the UK - Practical Tips and Lessons Learned
 

The good news is that they're making great strides all over the country. There are some really interesting rural pilot projects using wi-fi for example (the community pays for cable to be laid to one location such as a church or school and then everyone buys an arial for their house. Some villages are getting 70MB this way. (I never thought I'd know this much about broadband!!)

BT is also rolling out their Infinity service to a lot more areas over the next few years. I'm hopeful that things will be a lot better 2 years from now.

Re: Moving Back to the UK - Practical Tips and Lessons Learned
 

Oh yes - this brings up the other problem I found out! Besides the download speeds which are measured in MB, most providers have this usage limit you mentioned, which is stated in GB. We would go over 40GB halfway through each month! The two cable services (Virgin and BT Infinity) have no monthly usage limits.

Re: Moving Back to the UK - Practical Tips and Lessons Learned
 

Talk Talk has unlimited as well, it just costs more than I pay that's all. I 'think' it's about £36 per mth.

Re: Moving Back to the UK - Practical Tips and Lessons Learned
 

Great info, thank so much!

Re: Moving Back to the UK - Practical Tips and Lessons Learned
 

Thank you Sally....All this information is extremely helpful. I am leaving for a week in Russia next week and then two weeks in Belfast (judging dog shows). I am looking forward to being "home" and to see how I feel being there.

Re: Moving Back to the UK - Practical Tips and Lessons Learned
 

sally where did you end up??? any where near Kendal ??? was looking forwrd to that coffee :thumbsup:

Re: Moving Back to the UK - Practical Tips and Lessons Learned
 

Hey cumbrian lass. We're in the Harrogate/Knaresborough area in Yorkshire. So a bit far for a coffee I'm afraid :(

Re: Moving Back to the UK - Practical Tips and Lessons Learned
 

oh why ? did this area not work out for you ?

Re: Moving Back to the UK - Practical Tips and Lessons Learned
 

It's a long story but we needed fast internet access and there were no rental properties available in Kendal with decent speeds. We researched areas with superfast broadband and settled on this one because I know it and like it. So far we're thrilled!

Re: Moving Back to the UK - Practical Tips and Lessons Learned
 

I guess you need the internet for work.........we have good internet here in Kendal,its not superfast but not slow either. But i guess you need to do whatever you have to.I am glad you are happy and if ever you are in Kendal you will have to pop in for that coffee x

Re: Moving Back to the UK - Practical Tips and Lessons Learned
 

Thanks so much for this, it's very helpful to us. We're moving under similar conditions (pets, need to find a rental, etc). And we wish you so well with your own move, it sounds as if you are settling in nicely.

I had one question, you mentioned using HSBC to open up a UK account easily. Did you also use HSBC to actually transfer US dollars to UKP? Or did you use Moneycorp or another foreign exchange service? Moneycorp looks good to us, especially for larger amounts such as savings, home sale, etc). Does anyone else have experience with this?

Re: Moving Back to the UK - Practical Tips and Lessons Learned
 

If you have HSBC accounts in two countries, you can transfer money from one to the other with no charges, so no need to use any other company. We're moving over money from our house sale in the next few days so I'll let you know if we run into any problems, but we've already transferred a few thousand pounds with no problem. There's a web-based interface that lets you make instantaneous transfers.

btw - the pets' move went very well. They have been a bit out of sorts, but they get better each day.

Re: Moving Back to the UK - Practical Tips and Lessons Learned
 

That sounds good but my understanding from other posts was that the banks apply higher exchange rates so that there could be considerable savings when transferring through a foreign exchange service, especially with larger amounts. If that's not right I'd love to keep it simple and just work with the one bank.. I'll check some more and will report back if I learn anything useful. Thanks so much for the fast reply!

Re: Moving Back to the UK - Practical Tips and Lessons Learned
 

Sally can you confirm there is no charge sending money over.........i find that quite hard to believe,as they all want a chunk.We always get charged for transfers .There are two types of costs one is called the spread and the other is ......awh i cant remember the name.

Re: Moving Back to the UK - Practical Tips and Lessons Learned
 

You'd have to talk to them yourself to get scoop, but all I can tell you is that when we transfer from our HSBC account in the US to our HSBC account in the UK, there is no charge. If we were to move money from another bank to HSBC, there would be a charge, but HSBC does not charge if you're transferring the money between HSBC accounts.

Re: Moving Back to the UK - Practical Tips and Lessons Learned
 

Sally is correct re transferring money from one HSBC account to another HSBC account. I have done it many times on-line. Perhaps it depends upon which type of acct you have with them.

Re: Moving Back to the UK - Practical Tips and Lessons Learned
 

But I think the issue is not so much the bank charges but the spread that Cumbrian Lass mentioned - the range between the rate the banks buys and sells a currency. The spread determines the rate of the currency exchange and banks and exchange services all have their own spreads, and this varies.

Since the exchange rate is more significant for larger currency transfers, my understanding has been that the presence or absence of bank charges matters more with smaller transfers, but the spread matters more with larger transfers, where a small difference in the exchange rate can mean a significant difference in the amount received.

Unfortunately I'm too new at this to say anything more intelligent about it. From reading various threads I had the sense that the foreign currency exchange services offer lower spreads/better exchange rates than the banks but I don't know if this is true. To compare apples and apples you would need to contact one or two banks and exchange services and find out exactly how much you will end up receiving on a transfer of X dollars at the current rate, including any and all fees and also taking account of their exchange rate.

So I had been thinking: follow sallysimmons' great advice and open a HSBC account for ease of switching to a UK bank, but transfer larger funds between the US and UK accounts (even with the same bank) using an exchange service such as Moneycorp or XE. Please correct me anyone if I am misunderstanding this..

Best wishes,
mick

Re: Moving Back to the UK - Practical Tips and Lessons Learned
 

I checked and there is a tiny difference between the exchange rate we're getting and the one at XE.com. Not enough to make it worthwhile to mess around though (for me at least), even when you're talking about large sums.

Re: Moving Back to the UK - Practical Tips and Lessons Learned
 

That's very good to know, it's just what I've been wondering about, how much of a difference there really is. Thanks so much and I hope my questions didn't add any stress/anxiety to your own upcoming transfer..
Best wishes,
mick

Re: Moving Back to the UK - Practical Tips and Lessons Learned
 

Sally

You may already be aware of this, but HSBC do offer better FX rates on amount over $25000 Cdn (the amt may be $30000) it has been a while since I exchanged any money, but I did do the exchange at the branch and specifically asked for their improved rate.

Glad you, hubby and the cats made it home safely. I hope It will not be too much longer before I follow in your footsteps.

Re: Moving Back to the UK - Practical Tips and Lessons Learned
 

Mick,

You are right the exchange rate is a factor when dealing with large sums. I will have to cross this bridge when I come to it. For me, HSBC just makes things so much easier to handle transactions from Canada to the UK. My traditional Canadian bank was no help when I wanted to gain access to a GBP account, so HSBC was a real bonus for me.

I tried to open a bank acct in the UK, but couldn't as I am not yet a perm resident. They must have thought I was money laundering through the local council and Scottish Power. LOL! It makes life so much easier to be able to set up standing orders and being to write GBP cheques, when necessary.

Good luck.:)

Re: Moving Back to the UK - Practical Tips and Lessons Learned
 

Mick,

The other thing I meant to mention is that I am looking at keeping the CDN Portion of my HSBC acct open, so that when the time comes to receive my Cdn Pension it can be deposited into the CDN$$ acct and then I can transfer all or part to the GBP acct when exchange rates are favourable. However, I'll need a crystal ball so that I will really know the best way to handle my pension when it comes along.

Re: Moving Back to the UK - Practical Tips and Lessons Learned
 

Thanks for all the information! We've decided to open a HSBC account soon so we'll be have some track record with them when we make the move. And thanks for the suggestion to keep the account open. I'm in the same situation with pension and social security coming up next year and so I'd like to have as many options as possible until I learn the ropes.

I hope your own move goes very smoothly! We're aiming at the end of the year, or possibly early 2013.

Re: Moving Back to the UK - Practical Tips and Lessons Learned
 

The other benefit we also got was UK credit card so we can start building a credit rating in the UK. The Canadian branch confirmed our credit rating to the UK branch and then the UK branch issued both debit and credit cards for us. It is my understanding that UK banks will not accept your Cdn/US credit rating.

We are hoping to move this year. As soon as the house is sold, we are off.

Re: Moving Back to the UK - Practical Tips and Lessons Learned
 

Just noticed that Sally already mentioned this in her original post. Oops!

Re: Moving Back to the UK - Practical Tips and Lessons Learned
 

Insurance

Along the same lines as having your credit rating from abroad recognized, many posters have experienced problems with having their insurance claims history recognized.

I am planning to have my broker/insurer provide me with a claims history on both my auto and property insurance. Also, I will be obtaining our driving records from the Govt to show our individual accident/infraction record. It may not help, but I will likely use a broker to place the insurance.

Re: Moving Back to the UK - Practical Tips and Lessons Learned
 

just set up my canadian HSBC account. It was so easy and they where so helpful, i would highly recommend doing this for anyone returning to the uk.

Re: Moving Back to the UK - Practical Tips and Lessons Learned
 

Just went in to see HSBC and they were SOOOOO confusing!!! It didn't help that the person I spoke to had a very strong accent. They claimed that I could only set up a UK account after opening a US account IF I opened one of their "Premiere" accounts which means I either have to have $100,000 in my account every month or pay $50 a month.

Sally didn't u just open a basic account?

They also said my credit rating would mean nothing in the UK. I'm super confused......