Look here first -> Banking in the UK

Any suggestions how to arrange banking/money transfers from Canada, (where I have a credit union account) to England, where I will be attending university for 10 months? If it is going to take a couple of months to open a UK bank account, as I've been told, I'm going to run out of cash, and I also don't have enough savings to be spending 15 to 20 pounds on a transfer fee each time.

Has anyone here ever tried to cash cheques at a bank in a foreign currency? Looks like I'm gonna have issues on this one.

Has anyone had any luck with opening up a UK account while still in Canada?

I want to open a British account now, so I can put savings into it for the next 6 months before I make the big move.

Any thoughts/experiences with doing this?

when going to the uk, u'll need to bring a plastic card showing a visa, plus or cirrus symbol, so that u can withdraw cash from ur canadian account using an atm. moderately expensive, but essential.

without sight of ur passport, most uk banks will refuse to open a bank account in ur name because of money-laundering regulations. even if u do it in person, many will insist on seeing a uk utility bill plus proof of ur previous canadian address.

it has been reported that hsbc has an account that costs £12 per month that is easy to open.

http://www.canuckabroad.com/forums/stud ... t5120.html

if u don't want to pay for ur uk banking (most uk chequing accounts - called current accounts here - do not have day-to-day transaction charges if ur account is constantly at least £1 in credit and also have no monthly fee), then the easiest type of account to open at any bank is a basic bank account (no cheque book, no debit card and no overdraft). the uk government does not compel banks to ask for proof of address on basic bank accounts, though some will put obstacles in ur way for commercial reasons, especially if this type of business is deemed to be unprofitable. basic bank accounts usually pay less than 1% interest and current accounts 0.1% or less.

http://www.moneymadeclear.fsa.gov.uk/pd ... counts.pdf

with the value of the gbp currently dropping like a stone, it'll probably be sensible to delay opening a gbp account for as long as u can!

ian.

I used Lloyds TSB and the account was set up straight away. from what i gaather, as long as you take in 2 photo id's reference letter from your bank back home and reference from your employer you shouldnt have a problem. I have an english mate that lived abroad for a long time and it took him almost 2 weeks to set up the same account...go figure!!