Finally a Bank Account

After almost three weeks in London, I finally opened a bank account today.  I opened it at a branch of NatWest on the LSE campus.  Many students at LSE and the nearby King’s College open accounts at this branch, so you have to wait at least a week for an appointment time. If you’re going to be in the UK for a while (more than a semester) it is nice to open a bank account because it is cheaper to wire money once or twice a year compared to most of the other options.  At many banks, you also receive a debit card, which is nice as well.  If you have an account with Bank of America, you get free withdrawals from Barclay’s ATMs, so this is a viable option as well.   US credit/debit cards work fine in the UK  as well – just make sure to let your card provider know that you will be overseas so that they will not freeze your account for suspicious overseas transactions