Moving end of this year.. ADVICE & FRIENDS

Hi and welcome on the forum meeks

I hope other members will be able to give you some good advices and recommendations soon

Regards
Armand

Opening a bank account here can be a hassle. I would recommend going into HSBC in Sydney or Melbourne and opening one from there. Failing that, HSBC are a very good bank. They are in Hanover Street in the city centre. Not many branches though.

Oh yes, and it is possible to bank for free here. They do have fee paying accounts (£12.95 per month) but I don't recommend them unless you can use the benfits that come with them, e.g. free AA membership.

Getting a flat can be a pain. Be prepared to offer six months rent in advance. Competition for rental places can be fierce, now that the banks have decided people need huge deposits to buy. They are not as organised on this front - sadly- as they are in Australia. I preferred the Aussie system, i.e. if you don't have 20% deposit, you have to pay the bank's mortgage insurance. Much clearer than the arbitrary approach here.

Look on Gumtree.co.uk for flats. Almost all of the ones posted there are private lets. I have had no bad experiences from renting flats off of Gumtree and as they are mainly private lets, most will only ask for one months rent as depposit. You can also find quite a few that are furnished.

I'm with HSBC also. They're pretty good. The hard part in opening an account I found was proof of address. It's a catch 22 situation. You need a bill to prove where you live, but you can't get a bill in your name without a bank account. You can also ask your employer for a letter stating your address.

Speaking of employers. The job market here is not good. Unemployment is very high right now. That's all there really is to say on that.

Hope that helped,
Cheers!!

The Grassmarket in Edinburgh is a great place to hang out.  Young, vibrant, and people from all over the world.

But as the previous poster said, don't bank on finding a job.  The UK is nothing like Oz.  Young guys can spend years trying to find decent work.  It really is that bad.

Hi, we joined the HBSC before we left Queensland on the internet. When we got here we had letter to take to the bank to open the accounts but found the dificulty in not having an address. They wont accept hotels etc.  They also proved very expensive and as soon as our year contract was up we changed to the local bank for free. We live out in Auchinleck which is outback of Glasgow so if you ever want to see our corner of Scotland give us a yell. Cheers

On the subject of having an address, - and this would apply to any bank, not just HSBC, if you can move to a family member or friend's place first, even if not in Edinburgh, and set up your account then, this would help.

Also, if you are planning to live away from the city centre, then HSBC may not be the best call. They don't have many branches here in Scotland. Not sure why it worked out expensive for the other person writing just above. Our accounts were all fee free unless we used the overdraft facilities.

Also, for letting agents, Ryden Lettings in Hanover Street can be pretty good, but may require 6 months up front if you haven't found employment by the time you apply.

Work wise, if you have call centre experience, then the banks might be a good place to apply for work, i.e. HBOS or RBS.

And I wouldn't recommend living in the Grassmarket area, even though it is a great place to hang out. You'ld never get any sleep :-)

One last thing - if you like movies, then Cineworld's unlimited card for around £14 a month, which entitles you to see as many movies as you like, is a great buy. Cineworld are just along from Lothian Road, to the west of the city centre.

Another good thing to check out would be Lothian Buses, to see where the bus routes go to and how often they run. Edinburgh can be a mixed bag on that score. A lot of us use the buses even if we have cars because parking in the city centre is prohibitively expensive. But you can live close in to the city (Marchmont comes to mind, just on the south side next to the Meadows) and be a good ten minute walk away from a decent bus route (the one actually serving marchmont is dire - doesn't run often enough) or live somewhere like Corstorphine , to the west of the city (worth considering if you end up working out at the Gyle, a big business park on the way to the airport) and the buses run every 4 or 5 minutes (no. 26 bus).

I have an interview with HSBC this weekend to open up a bank account. They seem much more international friendly than other banks here...such as bank of scotland.

I would imagine Edinburgh is as compact as Glasgow, so walked around town and looking at the local map should familiarise you with the City in no time. My second week here in Glasgow has been MUCH better than the first week, where I felt mostly lost.

About jobs, there are a lot of discouraging posts about getting work in the UK,  however I dont think it is as bad as people make it sound. There are lots of opportunities for temp work and ongoing contracts. I think you should get in touch with recruitment agencies here and come with the attitude that you will get a job.

Another thing you might want to look into before coming or as soon as you arrive here is getting a National Insurance number, which is sort of an equivalent to getting a Tax Files Number in Australia. Depending on your Visa, your NI number will also give you some benefits, like healthcare. I had to call them up and get them to send me an application form, which I received yesterday. I dont know how long it takes to get processed and approved.

It has been a nice challenge for me to live in a new City. I am getting to know Glasgow as well as myself and how I react to change. Sometimes it is hard to be away from home and not know many people in a new town, but letting go of negative thoughts and just going with the flow seems to have worked the best for me.

Enjoy!