This will confirm whether your loans, mortgages, credit and store cards repayments are up-to-date. Then contact all financial institutions from banks to credit- and store-card companies with your new address. This will prevent any new offers, replacement cards or bank statements being copied, forged or stolen should they be sent to your old one. To be doubly safe, contact the Mailing Preference Service (020-7291 3310; .uk) to remove your name and previous address from most of the UK's direct mailing lists.Redirecting mail. Get a redirection form from your local post office, so that all mail is automatically sent to your new address.

It costs £31.50 a year or £63 for two years.Electoral roll: Contact your council to put your name on the electoral roll at your new home. An oversight could affect credit applications.When you are moving home, it is often the least obvious items that turn out to be the most testing. So make sure you do your homework before you make that Big Move.For more advice on moving, visit Experian (0870 241 4297) produces two guides on moving homes. Abbey National's 'Mortgage services' is available at most branches.

Rebecca Hunt works for a pharmaceuticals company and Francis Brett is a classical singer. They currently rent in Stockwell, south-west London, but are getting married next year and want to buy a flat in Finsbury Park, north London. They have a budget of around £190,000 THE PROBLEM Rebecca Hunt works for a pharmaceuticals company and Francis Brett is a classical singer. They have a budget of around £190,000"At the moment I work in Welwyn Garden City and commute 90 minutes each way.

If we move to Finsbury Park it will cut my travel time by an hour. We are both real city dwellers and don't mind if the area is rough around the edges as long as the flat is nice and the transport is good."The difficult thing is that Francis works at weekends and I work during the week, so it's impossible to find time to view properties together. We really don't know north London at all as I grew up in Wandsworth and have always lived south of the river."Sorting out our finances has been the primary challenge so far, but we've now managed to get a budget and we're ready to start registering with agents. Another potential problem is that we've been living in our Victorian rented flat for a long time and have amassed a large amount of furniture and possessions."We've got the biggest TV in the world, an electric piano, masses of books and records, and some enormous chests of drawers, so we need somewhere with space." PHIL'S ADVICE "Francis's main problem is the funny hours he works, and the difficulty will be getting both of them to look at properties at the same time. Although they have only just begun house hunting they are definitely going about things in the right way."They have sorted out their finances, which could have been an obstacle, and considered their commuting needs carefully so Finsbury Park is a good choice.