Originally Posted by sallysimmons

I don't think so. They clearly have a record of my license on file based on my conversations with them - they just need to make sure that I am who I say I am, hence all the documentation. Fingers crossed anyway!

Originally Posted by sallysimmons

Yes, we got an automatic - I have no interest in messing about with a manual!

Driving has been a piece of cake and honestly I was really nervous about it. but as soon as I started driving, it all came back - the other side of the road, roundabouts, road signs - all of it! The only thing I keep doing is getting in the wrong side of the car. I always feel like such an idiot

Originally Posted by Arctic Fox

Apologies if this has been discussed elsewhere, but how do folks, returning to the UK, get on with motor vehicle insurance?

The information I have is that after a couple of years or so, my UK 'no claims discount' becomes invalid (if you've been resident abroad) and foreign evidence of 'no claims' isn't necessarily accepted

Could become an expensive return...?

Originally Posted by Deb568

You need to bring a letter from your current insurers, stating your years insured and no claims discount bonuses, preferably a separate letter for each driver.

Originally Posted by Celticspirit

That's funny!! After almost 40 years in the US, I still sometimes go to the passenger side ;-)

Originally Posted by windsong

What a great thread! Bookmarking it for future

Originally Posted by DudleysPa

Been there, done that, usually at gas stations. For a while, I often found myself sat down in the car, all by myself, but without a steering wheel in front of me. I then discovered the art of making an exaggerated show of rummaging around in the glove compartment.

Originally Posted by ElizabethK

I've done that a lot in UK when we've visited, and yes you feel like a complete tit when you get into the passenger seat

Originally Posted by KittyB52

I do that as well. Only when we're back in the UK, the husband does all the driving, so if I go to the 'wrong' side, I can loudly exclaim 'TWO steering wheels? A little pretentious, don't you think?" before sheepishly sidling back round to the other side.


That's something else to look forward to when we move back - driving in the UK. Haven't done that since about 1995.

Originally Posted by sallysimmons

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.