Moved back to SF...for now...Tips On Keeping UK Strings Still Attached Anyone?

Hi guys, OK after a 4 year stay in London, we thought we had had enough of London and so moved back to SF....but, to be honest, we are still not sure if we want to settle in the US for good...Initially our plan was to start a small tiki/rockabilly lounge or club within the next 2 years, and while we still have that dream, we are just not feeling the vibe here in the States..and we live in one of the most trendy/alternative cities in the US. I have a nagging feeling that i think we would be much happier if we owned this buisness outside the States...UK is always an affordability issue while US is about..." can we really hack it here" ? Atleast for us anyway. Anyway back to London, we still want to keep our London strings attached...while granted, it will never be as horrific as moving to London for the first time should we move back to UK( i am EUC, hubby is USC) it would be handy to have maintained our LLOYDS bank account and our LLOYDS VISA credit card.

Does anyone know at what point Lloyd's considers an account " dormant " before actually closing it ?...we have about 200 GBP in it, also our Lloyd's credit card, what is the best way to insure they dont cancel them ? I know using the c. cards is the easiest way to keep them valid, but will that be absolutley necessary ?

Just hate to have to go through the agonizing process of re-applaying for bank account/credit card etc if we do decide to move back to UK.

BTW we have been in SF for about 10 months now...One thing we mad sure of was to
" re-new " both our Lloyd's ATM/credit card by reporting them lost just before we left, then when the renewal cards arrived, the expiration dates were moved forward..giving the cards a longer expiratioin date.

The other thing is we do have an active UK paypal account ...so i suppose we could shuffle a few quids from the paypal account into our Lloyd's sterling account...so there is " some activity" on the bank account.

Luckily the NIN/DL/NHS cards don't expire...well not that i am aware of....anyway tips much appreciated you guys.

Thanks to everyone for keeping this indispensable tool going...couldn't have done it without this site..and i am sure many folks on this site would agree.

Cheers.
Saycheese
PS we did not leave a forwarding address with the bank/nin/nhs etc. but for bank purposes we do have friends address in the UK which we can supply the bank with for recieving renewal cards i suppose.

Lloyds surprised me and kept my bank account open for three years while I was away in the US despite the fact that I'd only opened it about a month before leaving the UK and no funds whatsoever had passed into or out of it!

Hi Tam-
Wow 3 years, thats pretty amazing. How long ago was this ? Did you happen to have Lloyds c.cards as well ?

I think most banks are 2 years with no transactions before they go dormant, but so 3 years is pretty good!

thats cool. So i take it then this is very recent info right ?

I had a bank of Scotland account that had £15.00 in it.  I didn't use it from 2000-2006 and I reactivated it when I returned to the UK with no problems. 

Just remember your password. 

How long ago was this ? Did you happen to have Lloyds c.cards as well ?

That was from 2003 - 2006. No credit cards though.