Leaving The UK

[Hokie97 5]

Hey everyone. We are in the process of booking our tickets to the US for June. Yay! But I want to make sure we do everything right before/during the move.

I know there is a form that my husband is suppose to fill out, but I printed it out and none of it applies to him. He's been on benefits since 2001, so he doesn't pay council tax or income tax or anything because he's been on housing benefit and single parent benefit. Until I got here and how he is on disability benefit. As soon as we book our tickets, he'll be calling all of those departments to inform them, but is there anything else we should be doing?

Also, has anyone had their mail forwarded to the US (or another country for that matter)? It's really expensive, and we don't get much anyway, but I didn't know if the UK Government and the utility people would allow us to have a US address for our last bills?

[English Muffin 59]

I know there is a form that my husband is suppose to fill out, but I printed it out and none of it applies to him.

Which form?

[Hokie97 5]

There is a P85 form here: http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/nonresidents/tmaleaving-the-uk.shtml

[elmcitymaven 9,711]

Neither my husband nor I bothered to do a P85 when we left the UK -- more's the pity, since I reckon I would have received a nice little cheque. Oh well. It's certainly not required.

We did get our post forwarded to us for six months after we left. I called up all the utilities and told them our moving date about two weeks before we left. (We left notifying BT until the very last day since we were paranoid about losing our internet before we left -- just needed some idiot flicking the switch a few days early and we would have been screwed. Considering that it took nearly two weeks to set it up when we moved into that last place, I wasn't taking any chances.) I told them we were moving away permanently and we gave them the US address for the final bills but since I was on direct debit for them all it wasn't a huge deal. I have no recollection if the final bills came directly to our US address or via the forwarded post, sorry.

LoveFilm still send me emails from time to time asking if I will consider coming back as a customer. After I cancelled with them over the phone, they called me a day later to ask what they could do to win me back, including an offer of 3 months' free rentals. I kept saying over and over, "I am leaving the country. Permanently. Like, bye-bye. I can't be your customer because I will not be able to receive the discs." It was quite bizarre. Marks for persistence though!

[Hokie97 5]

Thanks for your reply elmcitymaven.

I printed it out and started to fill it in, but because he's on benefits we don't pay anything, it's paid for him. I didn't know if they'd hunt you down if you didn't fill it out. We will call them to let them know we are moving so the benefits stop, but like you and BT, I'm afraid if we tell them too soon they'll cut off benefits before we move, and that would be bad! They've currently screwed up and we haven't been paid on time the last three pay days.

We get a lot of telemarketers, and we let them go on and on with their spiel. Then we say we are moving, so we aren't interested. Then they offer to be our cable/phone/whatever provider where we move. It's fun to say, well, we're moving to America, can you help us there? They usually hang up. It's sad that it entertains us, but it does.

[Gemmie 142]

(We left notifying BT until the very last day since we were paranoid about losing our internet before we left -- just needed some idiot flicking the switch a few days early and we would have been screwed. Considering that it took nearly two weeks to set it up when we moved into that last place, I wasn't taking any chances.) I told them we were moving away permanently and we gave them the US address for the final bills but since I was on direct debit for them all it wasn't a huge deal.

I too left it until the last minute to let BT know that I was leaving because I didn't want them cutting me off. I needed my land line to contact my husband! My year contract with them was ending in a week anyway. However when I called them a few days before I was leaving, they told me that because I didn't let them know 2 weeks in advance, they were charging me 25 pounds extra on top of the final bill that wouldn't be sent to me until the normal date. I tried to argue that the contract ends in a week anyway so rather than officially cancelling it, could they just let it expire and not re-new it... they were having none of it. If I had just let it expire and not signed up to another year, I wouldn't have been charged!

So be careful when dealing with companies like BT. Everyone I know has problems with them, they'd rob their granny for an extra pound.

[elmcitymaven 9,711]

At the risk of derailing this into an anti-BT tirade, I clearly recall fighting for 3 months -- 3 months!!! -- to have BT come out to our flat in Blackheath to install a landline back in 2001. In the meantime, we were surviving only on our mobiles and running up huge bills. I ended up doing all my calls to BT from a phonebox on the heath because it was stinging me for mucho quid just to bicker with them about when they could come out. They kept saying that an engineer had to come out and fiddle with the box because the flat had stood empty for so long before we moved in. But every time I tried to set a date, they would cancel or even more outrageously, the engineers would not come into the flat at all but instead left cards saying they had been but I was out even though I was most certainly in! (This happened twice.) Finally, at the end of my tether, I called them one last time and said that I would be reporting them to the Ombudsman, that this was not the 1970s or Kathmandu, and I expected an engineer immediately. Well, what do you know. It didn't take an engineer at all. The representative said, "Oh, I'm so sorry. It appears we just need to change something on our computer system. Give it half an hour and you'll be on." And indeed, I was.

[treehugger 23]

At the risk of derailing this into an anti-BT tirade, I clearly recall fighting for 3 months -- 3 months!!! -- to have BT come out to our flat in Blackheath to install a landline back in 2001... Well, what do you know. It didn't take an engineer at all. The representative said, "Oh, I'm so sorry. It appears we just need to change something on our computer system. Give it half an hour and you'll be on." And indeed, I was.

Oh dear oh dear...three months of waiting and wrangling, for it to be be sorted out in 30min from a distance?!?!? How did you manage to keep your cool, that's what I want to know!!

[elmcitymaven 9,711]

Gin. The phonebox on the heath was outside the Princess of Wales pub.