5 Tips to Manage Immediate Banking Needs in in the UK

Money management and storage isn't the most exciting task when planning to move to a new part of the world, so here are my top tips in one place to help you work out what to do and when

1. If you can, transfer money directly

If at all possible try to cut out the middle man and transfer money directly with a friend who needs the currency you want to exchange. If you use the XE rate, you both win. Unfortunately this is a trust game so there’s no reliable way to find a person to do this on the internet. If you go down this route note that there are strict restrictions on how much you can transfer daily from UK banks. As such we used PayPal to receive pounds from our friend (while we used a standard bank transfer to send $A)

2. Use Wise for other currency transfers

Writing at the start of 2022, Wise is the best sensible way to transfer currencies. It’s quick, safe, offers decent exchange rates and low fees. It also lets you keep the money in a foreign exchange rate on your account and exchange it when rates are optimal.

3. Citibank

I highly recommend Citibank’s “Citibank plus” debit card for initial travel needs. The citibank plus account offers no account keeping, currency conversion or overseas atm fees. The latter two perks are particularly rare to find. Just use the card as you would any, with one exception - if promoted, select credit on a POS when using the card overseas. Before you leave your home country set up the Citi mobile token feature so you can use your card without having to get a OTP over sms.

4. Take some pounds in cash

It’s always helpful to have some cash even in 2022. Convert as much as you’re comfortable with (I recall we brought £100) and bring that safely with you

5. Open a neobank account as soon as you can

All you need to open a Monzo or Revolut account is your passport and an initial deposit. In the case of Monzo you will be sent a physical card to this address. The sooner you open this the sooner you will be able to spend without dealing with currency conversion. It only took me a matter of hours to get approved - it’s too easy a process not to do.

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