MONEY

When it comes to banking, the moneysavingexpert guy has a lot of good and useful information - which banks offer which services - who is cheapest and has best deals - etc.

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/

These might also be useful:

https://www.comparethemarket.com/  to find best insurance deals

https://www.moneysupermarket.com 

Canary Wharf

Generally speaking, to open a bank account - very similar to fica - you need to provide proof-of-address and proof-of-identity.

The main retail banks you will find on the high street in the UK are:

HSBC, Lloyds, NatWest, Barclays and Santander.

There is a new breed of bank - internet only - that is gaining traction.  There are several of these “challenger banks” and new ones seem to be popping up every other month.

 https://www.starlingbank.com/ is my personal favourite. I opened a bank account with them from my sofa, using their mobile app, in less than 10 mins.

Other challenger banks include: Monzo, Atom, Revolut and Monese.

Monese might be useful because they will allow you to open an account without proof of address.

https://monese.com/gb/en/products/instant-account

Getting a credit rating for a new immigrant might be trickier in the first few months.  https://www.experian.co.uk/ is one of the companies that provide credit score info to lenders.  Equifax and TransUnion are the other two companies that hold credit information about you.

Things like mobile phone contracts and buying a car will need a credit check.

Checking your credit score and understanding what affects your score is a good thing to do.

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/loans/check-free-credit-report/

To get money out of South Africa, and possibly do financial emigration, you may find the services of FinGlobal useful.

https://mbsy.co/CgvVh  <- affiliate link  https://www.finglobal.com/  <- main website

Contact Form

Name

Email *

Message *

Popular

WEATHER AND HOW DRESS FOR IT

A friend coming to the UK asked me the questions: Which months of the year can’t you go out walking due to weather? How do you dress warm and still look smart for work?
Read more

Shopping Trolleys

There is a little trick to supermarket shopping trolleys.   For some destructive reason, you might see trolleys randomly dumped on a verge, or worse, in a pond or canel.  Many supermarkets chain their trolleys together to try prevent this sort of behaviour.  
Read more

FUNDAMENTALS

The United Kingdom of Great Britain is subdivided into counties for administrative purposes.  In ye olde language, we might have called them “shires”. Many of these counties are further subdivided into districts. The local government is typically referred to as the county or district council.   The local councils are managed by elected councillors.   These are different from the Members of Parliament who may represent the same geographic area. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counties_of_the_United_Kingdom https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Administrative_counties_of_England https://www.gov.uk/guidance/local-government-structure-and-elections https://members.parliament.uk/
Read more