Arrived UK--What Bank to choose

I felt so lucky that my school did host a bank event for student and I believe most of the unis they do. You must not missed it. Normally you will be able to open your account during the event. Some bank only gives you information about the process.

Opening a bank account is not as simple as in Malaysia, where you could just do it when you walk-in. You need to make an appointment! I was struggling whether to choose Lloyds or Barclay's. But during the event, Lloyds does not allow us to open at that day but telling us to register the next day, where there will also a bank event in another campus. Then we saw Barclays, where their stalls are bigger and we could just sit down and open an account.

So we just sit down without any discussion because we can't make it the 2nd day because we have trip! The registration is quite fast actually.

You should aware that the bank will send the pin number and the card to you SEPARATELY (for Barclays). Whereas I heard that for Lloyds bank, you need to head over to the bank after few days or 2nd day to collect your card. For HSBC, i remembered that there is one extra things to do by comparing to other banks (sorry I forgot). For Saintander(?) I kinda forget the name, they charge a monthly charges!!

You should check whether there is any charges for the bank (Lloyds and Barclays don't charge and HSBC I don't know) and they have different charges to transfering money in other currency. If not mistaken, Barclays charge a six pounds whereas Lloyds charge a seven pounds.

You can find all the banks besides ASDA which is located in town centre of Hatfirld. (which I might talk about it at later post....)

Remember to take the name card of the person who helped you.

Thats what I know.

Bye~~~~~