Establishing your life in the UK

I was always taught "Look Left, look Right, look Left" before crossing, so I suppose now it should be "Look Right, look left, look Right". 

I was always taught "Look Left, look Right, look Left" before crossing, so I suppose now it should be "Look Right, look left, look Right". 

I might ad "and run like he**!"

Do any of you have any suggestions on how to keep up your credit in America? I have a great credit score and no credit card debt and I would like to keep my "credit going" while I'm away because we intend on moving back to the USA eventually. Maybe purchasing things online here and there with my US c.c. and having it shipped to my parents? Any other suggestions?

I'm planning on keeping a Skype number active, and possibly a Netflix account (for watching movies online, not getting things shipped, obviously).  If both of those are paid monthly on separate credit cards, that's 2 active cards.  As you said, potentially use a third card for occasional purchases, and you should be OK.

I'm planning on keeping a Skype number active, and possibly a Netflix account (for watching movies online, not getting things shipped, obviously).  If both of those are paid monthly on separate credit cards, that's 2 active cards.  As you said, potentially use a third card for occasional purchases, and you should be OK.

About Netflix... don't bother keeping your account active. I was visiting my fiance in June, and kept my Netflix account active instead of being on vacation hold and I couldn't watch any of the online movies. They can detect that your computer is out of the country, and they don't have license agreements outside the US. I'll be cancelling my account after I get married and move to the UK (late September). "I Love Films" is the UK version of Netflix if you want to continue that sort of service.

Lisa

Hm, I'd heard you could get around that with proxies, but I'll have to check out the UK equivalents as well.

I have tried proxies with other sites and failed but I am not the most IT savvy person around so it could work for you. 

"I Love Films" is the UK version of Netflix if you want to continue that sort of service.

I would recommend Blockbuster Online rentals over Lovefilm.

I would recommend Blockbuster Online rentals over Lovefilm.

I would agree.  LoveFilm has not made me very happy and I quit last week.

Especially since the Blockbuster stores now rent WII and DS games.

I've only had good experiences with LoveFilm, but there are plenty of similar services out there to choose from.  A new one is easyCinema.com (same folks as easyJet) which is pay-as-you-rent DVDs for £1.99 each, a friend has said it's worked well for him so far.

Regarding credit cards, I still maintain an American bank account with Visa debit card, but the only US credit card I have is a joint one with my mom.  I use them both periodically, mostly when travelling.  My credit score was quite good when I moved, but I have no idea what it is now...I should probably check on that.

I would recommend Blockbuster Online rentals over Lovefilm.

may i ask why you prefer blockbuster over lovefilm?

we were netflix lovers. we are trying to choose and are lured by the "watch instantly" on lovefilm (which blockbuster doesn't seem to have).

thanks,

amy

may i ask why you prefer blockbuster over lovefilm?

we were netflix lovers. we are trying to choose and are lured by the "watch instantly" on lovefilm (which blockbuster doesn't seem to have).

thanks,

amy

Well, we had Lovefilm for a while, but we never seemed to get the dvds we set to high priority. Also, they would send bonus features separately as another rental. As in, we rented a film, then a week later we would get the bonus features for that film instead of a different film. Plus they seemed really slow after the first month (we got dvds really fast for the first month, I guess to impress us, then they slacked off and we were lucky to get movies once a week.) Since we have been with Blockbuster, we always get the titles on the top of our list, they are much faster overall, and they include the bonus features discs with the original film instead of sending it as a separate rental.

The thing with Lovefilm is that you continuously get older films that you select, and wait ages for new releases. With Blockbuster, it's opposite - you get new releases right away, but have to wait longer for older titles, so it really depends on the types of films you like to watch. I suppose if you prefer the classics, then Lovefilm might actually be a better choice. I've never downloaded films to watch straight away, though, so that might be a bonus, too, if Lovefilm offers that and Blockbuster doesn't. If you have a Blockbuster near you, you can do a combo online and store membership thingy, too. (Not that we have one in our tiny village, but it might be a good option for people who do.)

Lovefilm also kept sending me the same copy of a disk I reported faulty. 

And when ordering box sets there seems no way to get them to send you the first disk in set first.  I marked one has high priority and two and three as low and I still got 2 first.  I suppose I could have removed them from the list altogether.  And somehow I highly doubt that anyone else in the UK wanted to watch Anne of Green Gables that week.   

Lovefilm also kept sending me the same copy of a disk I reported faulty. 

And when ordering box sets there seems no way to get them to send you the first disk in set first.  I marked one has high priority and two and three as low and I still got 2 first.  I suppose I could have removed them from the list altogether.  And somehow I highly doubt that anyone else in the UK wanted to watch Anne of Green Gables that week.   

Hmmmm.... well we watched Lost through Lovefilm (like, the whole series up to now) and never had a problem with them rearranging the discs. But you are right, there wasn't really any way to organise it properly. With Blockbuster, they have Series Link set up on all series so that you always get them in the right order. (Unless you are me and accidentally choose some blu-rays and some dvds and manage to confuse the system!)

thanks! we watch a lot of TV series, so it sounds like Blockbuster may be better...