My advice would be to call Blizz customer service and get your original account fixed up.

I noticed an RL friend of mine online the other night who had not subscribed in 6 months. When I saw him at work the next day I asked him if he'd re-subscribed. Nope. He called Blizz CS and got his account and all his gear/gold back.

You could do the same thing and then go back to your original plan.