Tips on preparing to move home
 

Hey Everyone!

This question is for everyone that has moved back or is coming close to completing their move back.

Is there anything you wished you knew at the beginning of your preparation for you move back or any tips that you wished someone had shared with you?

I was thinking as someone starting their preparations to be home in Scotland within the next 12-18 months that this might be a good question to ask people who have already made the move! 🙂

Re: Tips on preparing to move home
 

We were very lucky that friends made the same move 7 years ago so could give us a lot of direction. We (well me) used this forum to the max and decided not to be too proud and just ask anything. There are so many helpful folks on here and I cannot praise them enough.

As for thinking ahead, I would start making inventories of what you would like to ship back and what needs to be sold/donated. The actual process can be quick but the mental process can take time. It can be hard to let some things go and you have to be prepared to decide what is important and what isn't. Everyone is different in this respect.

Tax planning definitely. Depending on your circumstances, I would also start preparing for departure tax and what you need to do. I would also organise banking ahead of time and make sure you have proof of where your money is coming from. We had to provide proof as to our funds in order to make an offer on a home at this end.

If your are buying a home, prepare for the process to be long or slow depending on your outlook.... Compared to Canada where real estate agents turn things around ASAP, solicitors are notoriously detailed, very thorough but pedantic. Which being Scottish is a very well known trait.
May I ask, what part of Scotland are you thinking of settling in?

Re: Tips on preparing to move home
 

With the great help from people on this site we really did “okay” on our return. We sold/gave away items of furniture that would be either to big or easily and cheaply replaced on we back in the UK had three moving quotes and chose the middle one who were the better sounding company anyway, brought all our car insurance documents so started straight away on no claims, brought our youngest sons school work from the past 6 months (he was starting college) we worked out what we would need straight away ie cutlery pots and pans etc so gave those items in Aus to charity (some nice items we kept and had them shopped over) the only thing we wished we had done was to pay our NI whilst overseas as it’s cheap to do so but if your planning on working here straight away and will eventually make up the total of 35 years (?) needed for a full pension then you don’t really need really need to make top up’s. Good luck

Re: Tips on preparing to move home
 

Thank you for those tips!

thankfully we all have opened banks accounts on previous trips home so that’s one thing crossed off this list 😀

I am trying to look into seeing if it is possible to start the home buying process before we leave although unless you pay cash I don’t believe that it will be possible

we will be heading to Cumbernauld!

Re: Tips on preparing to move home
 

Thank you!

I have started the process with my parents to have them start paying their NI contributions and will hopefully have that set up in the next few weeks here 😀

my brothers and myself are unfortunately a long way from retirement so paying into our missed years do not make sense for us

Re: Tips on preparing to move home
 

Just as an FYi at the moment if you buy in the UK before you have lived back home for 6 months you are classed as a non resident and subject to paying more stamp duty (ours would have been an extra 8k on a 375k house) Apparently you can claim it back once you have been home the 6 months but not sure how lengthy that process would be. We rented and will complete next month just after 6 months.

We decided not to bring back furniture as the shipping was so expensive and we knew we could buy again here cheaper. We ended up going with UpakWeShip. We shipped 18 big boxes, packed them up ourselves on a pallet and shrink wrapped it ourselves. They then come and collect the pallet £1850 Sept 2021. Wont work for everyone but suited us.

We found Aviva and NFU that currently take your no claims into consideration for car insurance. You need evidence. Also home insurance we will need evidence too.

We completed on our house sale one day and flew the next. At first we thought of staying a week to tie up loose ends, but then thought we would just be waiting around in an airbnb, so changed our minds. My advice ..... definately give yourself that week of extra time. It was so stressful and for Canada if you leave the country before you complete (there could a delays) you would have to pay capital gains on the house sale proceeds. I just assumed it would.all be done by bank transfer like the UK and we would complete ok, so flying the next day would work. No they actually take a cheque from the sellers solicitor and pay it into the bank etc, so delays are possible!! Also trying to transfer large sums of money back to the UK when out of the country is hard work, so if you can get that done before you leave that is alot better.
We left our bank account open for final bills to come out etc, and didnt cancel credit cards until home and all subscriptions and deposits etc that came from that were sorted (e.g. we used that card to book car hire at Gatwick and needed card for that once home) also kept our Telus phone contracts for a few weeks once back to make sure we didnt miss anything.

Canada post are great and to redirect for a year to UK was only $250, we thought that wasnt too awful, so paid for piece of mind.

Dont under estimate the pressure of the move, its worth taking some downtime after if you can. Also be prepared for the highs and lows, although it maybe what you want, there is still a loss of your old life and it takes time.
Good luck with it all 😁

Re: Tips on preparing to move home
 

Hi I am moving back to the UK Sept/Oct and am bamboozled by all the information out there, I have read some of the comments here and have made some notes, happy to hear of any other tips learnt over the past few months. It seems its harder and more expensive that 2 years ago.

Re: Tips on preparing to move home
 

The thing that took me by surprise was no credit rating - it wasn’t recongnised! I couldn’t even get a £10 p/m Tesco mobile account! To put it in perspective we are buying a house here mortgage free - thank goodness!

Re: Tips on preparing to move home
 

If you don't mind me asking, how did you solve the mobile phone problem in the end?
People have mentioned this issue before and I think some of them found a workaround but I can't remember what it was.

Re: Tips on preparing to move home
 

I just bought a phone outright and got a Tesco pay as you go SIM card, and buy one of their rocket bundles each month.

Re: Tips on preparing to move home
 

OK, thanks.

Re: Tips on preparing to move home
 

One other thing…if you need to get secure employment…you need to provide proof of address (2), for direct employment or even just with (good) recruitment consultants. Was just reading posts about accommodation so thought I’d mention it. We secured a rental to support our visa application, it was really hard to get something but now are thankful we didn’t go down the hotel or airbnb route.

Re: Tips on preparing to move home
 

That’s quite an achievement. How did you manage to open UK bank accounts before moving to the country?

Re: Tips on preparing to move home
 

I went into Clydedales ( now Virgin) bank on a trip home one year and they were able to offer me a very basic bank account. All I needed to do was have 2 pieces of ID (one of which they requested being by British passport) and proof of address here in Canada and they opened the account for me! I have had it for about 5 years now and send money over monthly.

My parents went in the next year and they were able to open the same type of account as I did

Clydesdale was the only bank that would even entertain the idea of opening an account for us

Re: Tips on preparing to move home
 

Very canny move on your part! I don't know of a single bank that would do that now.

Re: Tips on preparing to move home
 

You're probably right Helen, things seem to have tightened up a lot.

Back in 2015 when my husband (UK/Aus citizen) and I were visiting the UK to buy a property for our upcoming move, we went into a Halifax branch to see if we could open a bank account. My brother in law, who lives in the UK, was with us. Halifax opened a savings account for my husband with his UK passport and my brother in law's address. I was quite surprised, but we were upfront that we didn't live in the UK and they were the ones who suggested using his brother's address.

The only thing they wouldn't do was put my name on the account as well to make it joint, but they did that once I got my spouse visa and could show them my BRP and ID.

Re: Tips on preparing to move home
 

Like you, Spouse of Scouse, I have a bank account dating back from years ago. From my school days actually. It's just a current account but I'm grateful for it all the same.

The combination of not being able to open a bank account without a utility bill or similar as proof of address and the difficulty of securing a long-term rental with the result that your only option is to stay in an Airbnb - meaning you won't have the utility bill needed to open the account - must be creating a bit of a Catch 22 for some people.
As I've said before I'm a big fan of the Wise Borderless Account but it's not a real bank account and I would be very loath to use it for, say, holding the proceeds from a house sale in the country I was leaving.

So I guess the solution would be to
1. open a Wise account before you leave France/America/Australia etc
2. if you've sold a house, leave the proceeds in your foreign bank account for now
2. book an Airbnb in the UK
3. once ensconced in the Airbnb, either find a long term rental and pay the deposit and fees using your Wise account OR buy a place and transfer the funds straight from your foreign bank account to your solicitor in the UK.

There's always HSBC International of course but I've never really looked into that.

Re: Tips on preparing to move home
 

Be aware that holding money in a Wise account for longer than 3 days (if more than the free allowance for each currency) incurs a charge if in Australia: https://wise.com/help/articles/5Sle9...1cmJnbIVNGsm3h

Re: Tips on preparing to move home
 

Hi,

We opened a UK HSBC account whilst living in Perth, Australia it was quite easy to do we made an appointment with HSBC Perth and they informed us of what to bring to the appointment and as soon as it was opened we transferred money over whenever the rates were good (we did this with Ozforex) it was really easy to do and took the stress off the long list I had made for our return to the UK. Good luck ps we also had a mortgage in principle already set up with Halifax Building Society which we also set up whilst in Australia

Re: Tips on preparing to move home
 

We also set up a bank UK account through the HSBC here in Canada. It was simple enough!