Canary Paul

Hi,

We will be moving to the States later this year. I have some boxes and a filing cabinet full of all the usual financial stuff we all have.

Ideally I want to take as few as possible when we move and destroy them before we go. I would like to scan as much as possible so I have digital copies. There are of course certain things that you would always keep the hard copy: birth certificates, property deeds, imigration information etc. I fully expect to take a couple of a4 boxes worth.

What I would like to know is what is peoples experience of what I should keep hard copies of. It's the unforseen situations where showing that I have a financial past in the UK might help but would digital copies be okay? It's the unexpected in life where if i'd only kept that then we could do this but now we can't kind of thing. There's also the weight issue, I would rather not take boxes and boxes of old utility bills etc

Any guidance would be very much appreciated.

Thanks

petitefrancaise

Having my childhood health records would've been useful. Didn't need them for over 10 years so the Scots destroyed them. Ask for vaccination records at the very least and get whatever else you can from the NHS.

Paperwork regarding retirement accounts. National Insurance details. You may want to make voluntary contributions if you're thinking of going back later on.

Employment References

Educational/professional certificates.

Ask your car insurance company for written confirmation of your no-claims bonus.

Special photos!

BTW on the advice of lots of posters on this forum, we signed up for AIG travelguard which has saved us a load of money and time.

RICH

Hard copies of most financial records & old bills are useless, but some of the information in them is not.

I tend to hoard old bills, statements and payslips, card receipts etc.. Never actually had need of any of it.

From the UK I have a couple of inches of papers relating to pension/savings plans from years ago.

Alan17

I tried to get my medical records over for no other reason than to have them, but was told they destroy them after FIVE years, not ten. Was news to me - wish they'd told me when I went in for some inoculations when I left.

I think thats all I didn't take that I regretted. The usual paperwork already mentioned was all I took over.

Canary Paul

Thanks for your responses.

I wouldn't have thought about confirmation of no-claims petitefrancaise but that's a very good idea. I guess things like that, even though they probably carry no legal weight in the States, can help when someone has a disgretion to help you or not.

Why is it necessary to get Travel Guard? Isn't this just travel insurance? Do you mean that it will tide us over til we are settled?

Certainly will look into getting health and dental records.

I think I will scan as much as possible, just open a nice bottle of red and get going with it. That way even if it's not needed I have it all to hand.

KingJeff4th

My big advice would be to keep payslips.

I seemed to need them for quite a few situations, including the visa process (on my visa type at least), proof of income for house rental and and buying a car.

petitefrancaise

Try searching for AIG Travelguard on this forum.

It's a relocation service that helps in many areas..
through them we got a lease car
an unsecured credit card
very good car/house insurance quotes
upcoming ski holiday insurance
and now, mortgage for our new house

they have a concierge service that found us an excellent private college counsellor for our daughter

It costs about $400 for the year but it has saved us loads.

Canary Paul

KingJeff4th, on the subject of things like payslips, would scans do just as well? after all, physical payslips can be doctored/forged just as digital ones can. My intention is to scan everything in filing cabinet just in case.

petitefrancaise, that sounds very good, I will look into it. Are you saying you wouldn't have got the credit card or mortgage without them. What are they in effect doing? are they acting as a bridge between say your credit history in the UK and what you try to do in the States?

Many thanks

petitefrancaise

Hi CanaryPaul,

Getting credit in the US as an international new arrival is tricky. AIG deal with international people all the time and will take into account previous financial history and no claims on previous car insurance for example.

Our car insurance quotes were much lower than a colleague's who arrived at the same time and has similar cars.

There's loads of info on here about AIG and getting a credit history. It definitely made life easier for us when we got here.

KingJeff4th

Good point, I've only ever used scans of them, so i'm sure you'll be fine. Just make sure you have them.