h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Questions from an american (in her 20s with two little kids) coming over:

1. Credit reports - will the info from mine in the US transfer to the uk, or will it be blank when i order one to look at? or..?

2. Accounts - over here, the reasonable thing for me is to have a VISA associated with my checking account - do you have the sort of set-up?

3. Speaking of which, will my VISA or account work in the UK? I bank with Washington Mutual, if that helps. My guess would be that i might be able to set something up, but at extortionate fees. It really would be nice to have a transatlantic banking option .

4. Any bank suggestions?

5. Saving, investing, and such - how do people save for retirement and kids' educations? Are there government plans, or are they through banks...? Do people put their long term investing money into mutual funds, employer plans, etc etc? How decent is your social security equivalent (pension?) - do people expect to pay for the most of their living after retirement themselves?

6. Insurance - what sorts are typical. I'm thinking that life-insurance, vehicle insurance, long-term care (assisted living home for old age) insurance.... Is there any part of healthcare that is not provided for by the NHS, like prescription or dental that I could get insurance for?

Any help would be appreciated .

Your credit report does *not* travel with you. You will be a blank, initially. this may cause you some problems initially in getting credit. But read on...

A typical current account (what you call a checking account, we call a current account) will include a visa-badged debit card used for payment directly from your current account. At the moment, verification is still signature-based, although there are trials going on at the moment for PIN. This is more advanced on continental Europe.

Any visa card can be used anywhere in the world that displays the visa symbol. However, they will sting you for withdrawal fees for using ATMs and also the exchange rates they offer are very poor indeed.

The UK banking industry is quite complex:

1. There are 5 "high street" banks in the UK. Their names change all the time, but are currently: Barclays, HBOS (companies include Halifax and Bank of Scotland), HSBC (includes HFC), Lloyds TSB, RBS (includes Natwest).
2. There are also smaller independent banking companies which used to be building societies (similar to US S&Ls), but became incorporated to float on the London Stock Exchange. The largest of these is Abbey, there are several others which are on most high streets.
3. there are still some building societies, which offer banking services, which are still wholly-owned by their members. The largest national one is called Nationwide. Most of the remaining ones are regionally-based.
4. Most of the large banking groups also offer a separate, standalone internet bank. These often have silly names, such as Smile and Cahoot. These are accounts where you are primarily expected to interface with a central contact centre by internet, e-mail or telephone.

From my experience as a customer of many of these banks, they're all as bad as each other. Pick the one whose logo you like. Really, there's not much to choose between them.

A lot of US credit card companies have set up in the UK, so you'll see a lot of names with which you may be familiar (MBNA, Household, CapitalOne).

Most of the "high street" banks do *not* subscribe current account data to the CRAs, so in order to build up a credit history you'll need a credit card. But you'll have no credit history for them to credit score...catch 22, I'm afraid. You'll probably have to start with one of the lower-end providers to build up a history. For obvious reasons, I'm not going to recommend one.

One of the key identifiers on CRAs is your presence on the electoral roll. The UK does not have identification via Social Security number as in the US, or any other kind of ID. I'm not sure what your status is going to be with this - depends on your immigration status.

How you save for your future - blimey, you could write a guide entry on that! You can be feckless and rely on the state pension only (and assume there's enough of a working population left to support you in your old age), or put money away yourself. How you do that is entirely your own affair. I wouldn't trust the Government (UK or anywhere else) with it though. Just my opinion.

Insurance - if you drive, you are required to have insurance, or be able to prove that you can meet any claims made aginst you. In practice, this means you *have* to have insurance. Mortgage companies will generally insist on buildings insurance, and possibly mortgage indemnity insurance, before lending you any money. You don't have to buy it from the company that's giving you the mortgage, tough - shop around. the mortgage company is usually amongst the most expensive for insurance. You'll probably want contents insurance in case of accidental damage or theft/burglary. (NB if this happens to you, you've been "burgled", not "burglarised" )

Medical/dental: depends on how much money you have. Most dental work you8'll have to pay for, these days. Medical is free if you're prepared to wait for non-urgent treatment. If you want to be seen straight away, you pay. There are several types of private insurance available. Many companies offer medical insurance to their employees, some only to senior employees. Employer dental plans are rarer.

Well, that's gone on a bit, and in the time it's taken me to type ita ll out, someone's probably told you this already!

RF

Just to add to Reddyfreddy's excellent advice, when you get to the UK and require some in depth financial advice, don't go to a bank.

Find yourself a good Independent Financial Adviser (IFA). These are, as the name suggests, financial adviser that are not tied to any particular bank, insurance company or other financial institution.

The are regulated by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) who are a government sponsored organisation overseeing IFAs to ensure that they do not give you bad advice or rip you off. They do have a complaints procedure if you feel you have been badly advised.

They get their money by either commission for financial products they sell or by paying a fee similar to the way you would pay a lawyer for there advice. The choice is yours.

You can find an IFA from the FSAs web site and the services the FSA provide a the following web site.

http://www.ifap.org.uk/

Donald

An American eh? Two words: City Bank.

As a British person, I can even have a $US account, as well as £ Sterling. So would think the reverse possible.

There isn't any insurance for dental work, etc, but you can join HSA. You pay money in, then if you have to get specs, go to the dentist, or go into hospital or something like that then they pay you cash.

http://www.hsa.co.uk/

Just one question for you - doesn't Njan know the answers to any of these questions? He did live him for some time...

Thank you

Well, you forget that he's only 19 . His mummy took care of all that

As opposed to Lanna, who is 25, and whose mother *still* looks after her.

The truth is, she just likes to ask h2g2 and doesn't like to ask me.

Got Jamie to post

Sorry dear, I like to ask people who might actually know the answers, or at least doesn't have such a dodgy memory .

Didn't mean to start a domestic.

hehehe.. woman you.