Which address for official purposes? 3 February 2022 at 11:57AM in UK armed forces MoneySaving 7 replies 121 views

CluelessinManchester

Hi lovely money savers and experts with Armed Forces experience!

My son is 20 and in the army, just completed 12m service and has now been allocated a UK base where he will spend the majority of his time. He will always have a home with me in Manchester, but is based a few hundred miles away and will visit home for extended weekends and some annual leave. We are deliberating how to go about official business with regards to his address to prevent problems in the future.

I appreciate for his car insurance he will need to use the base address, because that is where the car will be kept for most of the time, but for his Drivers License, Bank and any other official documentation and for credit applications should he use his home address (my address in Manchester) - is it ok to do this? Should I keep him on the electoral roll here?

This has initially been prompted because he may soon want to take a small loan for car, he has saved up a few £k for a deposit but may want to borrow a few more £k to get a decent car. Currently his Drivers License has the Armed Forces Training department address on which he will change, but to my address or his barracks address? (we didn't know they were going to change it when they added on his extra categories, it just came back that way).

He also has a plan to get enough saved for a house deposit in around 5yrs time and will need to look at mortgages, so we don't want to do anything now that will make the process difficult in the future.

All advice and experiences gratefully received.

Thank you

theoretica

I think that the base is now his official address - he won't want to pay council tax (or bills) anywhere else, it will presumably be the address his employer uses.

Silvertabby

His Base address for everything.  He will be paying  Council tax (along with accommodation charges) direct from his salary.

Smith2001uk

His address will be very specific. It won't be linked to his actual barrack block and room number or building. His mail will be centrally collected and forwarded to his Sqn or section, battalion etc. 

He will find that when he applies for credit etc he'll most likely need to enter his address and not just do the postcode lookup. I found it very annoying alot of the time and it often caused applications to fail and I had to speak to advisors to specifically get them to enter it as it was shown on my credit file. 

peteuk

Its his choice, he can remain on the electoral register at home (your address) or change it to his barracks.  Bearing in mind he will be moving around every two or three years and will need to be prepared to change his address every time he moves. 

GentleGiant01

I had major issues with getting credit for the the time I lived on an RAF base as the application has to be *exactly* the same address as all accounts on credit file. 

I suggest keeping address as the base address but double and triple check he’s on the electoral roll and all agreements have the address listed exactly the same and he shouldn’t have many issues. 

Silvertabby

GentleGiant01 said:

I had major issues with getting credit for the the time I lived on an RAF base as the application has to be *exactly* the same address as all accounts on credit file. 

I suggest keeping address as the base address but double and triple check he’s on the electoral roll and all agreements have the address listed exactly the same and he shouldn’t have many issues. 

I hope that things have improved now, but some years ago we were refused a mobile phone contract because the company classed married quarter occupants as being 'of no fixed abode'.

AnnieGunn

I spent 20 years in and stayed registered at my parents address for 12 years until I got my own house.  Changing addresses every 2 years on everything, especially abroad would have been a complete pain and resulted in it being impossible to get credit anywhere.  Home was always my parents home and work was always simply that, work in my eyes.

Car insurance, like you said, is the big one to one to watch so best to check with them which address they require.