this post was submitted on 12 Jan 2025
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Hello, Britain! I will be emigrating to the UK in a week and I have questions and could use advice. Here are 20 questions! (lemmy.world)
submitted 4 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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Details here.

I have most of the big details sorted, but because I am going to be new in the country aside from a few family visits and one business trip, I have far from expert knowledge on living in the UK. I try to research as much as I can, but there are limits.

These questions are going to probably be subjective, and some may be dependent on where we're going to live in Britain long-term, something I can't tell you until I get a job, but I trust people on Lemmy more than some random Google search to tell me what they actually think.

So, here are my 20 questions- although some are really multipart questions- and I will probably end up asking more based on what I find out. I felt like 20 was an exhausting enough number. They are not in any particular order, I had about 8 and then I kept thinking of others and stopped trying to organize them. Please feel free to answer as many or as few as you like. Assume we won't be getting rich off of my salary, but also won't be living in a council flat.

  1. Which mobile phone company would you recommend and why? Getting a UK phone number for both me and my daughter is going to be one of the very first things on my itinerary.
  2. Obviously, I will need a place to put my money. I would rather go with a building society than a bank. Which would you recommend?
  3. Which supermarket(s) would you recommend? Which should we avoid and why? Believe it or not, my daughter is happy to eat the cheap supermarket sushi they have in supermarkets here. Is that available there?
  4. What should I think about when getting us a GP? I have health issues and need to get a National Insurance number as quickly as possible, but should I wait until we have a more permanent place to live? What are my options there?
  5. My daughter is a 14-year-old neurodivergent lesbian who has no problem letting people know exactly what she thinks and also likes to go on long tangents about esoteric subjects that interest her, which makes it difficult enough for her to find friends in the U.S., but I have no idea how she's going to find friends in the UK. She will hopefully make some in school (it's sure as hell been hard for her here, and it's going to be hard on her there being foreign), but I'd love other suggestions on ways she might make friends in the UK that might not be a way in the U.S. She is super into Japanese stuff, but slightly off Japanese stuff, like obscure anime and electronica bands from the 1970s and 1980s, although she also loves punk rock and Hello Kitty 🤷. She also is a very talented artist and spends all day sketching in sketchbooks and on her iPad.
  6. This is going to sound really stupid... do I just carry around my passport or how do I show ID if someone needs it? I'm not going to have a driving license.
  7. What difficulties do you think I might encounter trying to rent a flat or house? I really don't know how the process works in Britain. In the U.S. they often do a credit check and you provide first and last month's rent, plus a security deposit. Utilities are not always included.
  8. Once we get settled, is Ikea the best place to go to get furniture (I don't find what they have to be all that comfortable), or are the similar affordable options?
  9. How about house wares? We care much more about utility over aesthetics, especially when getting established. I'd rather have cheap, durable plates and bowls and pots and pans than pretty, expensive ones.
  10. And how about clothing? I do not care at all about fashion, I just want decent clothing that will look appropriate at a job. Obviously, I have plenty of that already, but it will need to be replaced eventually. Where do I go for cheap and durable over expensive and fashionable?
  11. Are ISPs as dependent on where you live as they are here? We have very few options available and they are entirely geographically dependent. ISP recommendations would be great. I would especially love an ISP that didn't have data caps.
  12. If I watch everything on a monitor via my computer, do I still need to pay a TV license fee or do I only need to play it if I want to use iPlayer? How does that all work? I definitely will not have an actual TV for a while.
  13. My daughter's absolute favourite breakfast treat is going to a diner and getting corned beef hash. Is that a thing over there? Is there an okay breakfast place to take her to so she can have it once in a while?
  14. I'm guessing this is a no, but if anyone knows of anywhere in the UK that serves decent Mexican food, even if it is just somewhere I can take her to as a weekend treat, please tell me. That is her absolute favourite kind of food in general. By "Mexican food," I mean "the shit they call Mexican food in America which isn't really Mexican food" (you might notice I'm not a fan), so you would have to be familiar with both in order to answer this.
  15. I have been looking for a long time and I just haven't found anything good- does anyone know a video or series of videos I can show to my kid as a basic "life in the UK in the 2020s as a teen" primer? I try to tell her all that I can, but it's not like I can tell her what it's like to be a teen in the UK in 2025. I was last there as an adult in the 2000s, before she was even born, and Britain was already a noticeably different place from the last time I was there in the 1990s. I mean I know she's going to make a lot of cultural faux pas, but it would be nice to find a way to minimize them beyond me telling her things like what "pants" means in the UK and that "cunt" is not thought of in the UK as the horrific word it's considered to be in the U.S.
  16. This is just something I've been wondering from job ads: when they say "casual dress," what do they mean? In the U.S. that means you can show up in a T-shirt and sweats. I don't want to make my own faux pas there.
  17. If we end up having to move to Wales- I am interviewing for a job in Swansea this week- it's my understanding that my daughter will have to study Welsh in school. Does anyone have any experience moving to Wales with a teenager who is suddenly put into a (what I assume would be very remedial) Welsh language class? Any advice there?
  18. I basically never carry cash on me in the U.S. at this point. What might I need to carry it for there or is it also unnecessary?
  19. Do UK institutions care about your US credit rating?
  20. I hate Marmite. Is that still a capital offence?
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[–] [email protected] 11 points 4 days ago (1 children)
  1. There are coverage maps by different networks, so check them for where you're going to live. O2, EE, and 3 are probably the main decent networks—a lot of other networks piggyback on their transmitters and may be a good price too, but make sure you'll get good enough signal where you'll be. You will get good enough signal in most places with any of those, but they do have some bad areas and you don't want that to be your home or work!
  2. I like Nationwide, which is a building society (largely due to ethical reasons but they also have a better high street presence than most banks).
  3. Supermarkets do have sushi. There is a hierarchy of quality/cost. M&S is very expensive and sells all own brands. Waitrose is fancy and can be expensive but their veg does last better and the food is higher quality, plus they do have their more basic range so it doesn't have to be ridiculously costly. Both Tesco and Saintsbury's are decent, usually are either huge or little local stores, and like most have a basic range. Morrison's are similar to Tesco and Saintsbury's. Iceland focuses on cheap and frozen goods. Aldi and Lidl are pretty good, a bit of a random selection at times but cheap for what you get.
  4. It's fairly easy to move GP, so long as you find one that has space. I don't see a downside to getting one ASAP.
  5. That's a rough age to be different, and it honestly depends on the location as to how easy that'll be. I'm afraid I don't have any ssuggestions other than look into clubs and activities outside of school to give her a wider net.
  6. There are CitizenCards that can be used, which is safer than potentially losing your passport. In the past people have got provisional driving licences for the purpose of an ID, which could work too.
  7. Utilities are often not included and you should only need a deposit (around 1 months rent). Protections are better here but you can still get screwed. Make sure the deposit is in a deposit protection scheme, and make sure the state of the place is properly documented (they should do this as part of an inventory but make sure it's accurate). Look up your rights to avoid being swindled.
  8. IKEA is good. Second hand is more of a gamble but cheaper. I know many use FB marketplace, but eBay and Gumtree are both options too.
  9. IKEA is one of the better options for basic but decent housewares. Supermarkets often do some stuff too.
  10. M&S do some basic but decent work stuff that is more affordable. I believe the quality has gone down a bit but they are still better than most that I've found.
  11. They are a bit for fibre but not for regular broadband, though that is changing. Some rented places don't like you to change utilities, so it may be easiest to stick with what's already there.
  12. I believe it is for iPlayer but you'll find good articles online for this.
  13. Corned beef means a different thing here—I believe what you call corned beef is what we call salt beef. Getting breakfast out is less of a thing here but there are decent "greasy spoons" (cafés that do good fried breakfasts) in most places.
  14. Taco Bell has started to exist in the UK but it's not exactly good. There are some but you'll have better luck in bigger metropolitan areas. We have different cuisines here due to the difference in historical immigration, so hopefully you'll find some stuff you like there too.
  15. No idea, sorry.
  16. It depends. Start off with smart trousers a shirt and you can always dress down from there. Hopefully you'll get a sense from interviews. It might even be a good question to ask during an interview, as it shows you care and are willing to fit in.
  17. No, sorry.
  18. Some public toilets require a few coins, a pound is used for unlocking trollies (shopping carts) at some supermarkets, but most places don't need cash. Some places do prefer it though, so I like to carry a bit (£10-20 plus coins) with me just in case.
  19. It is less of a thing here but I suspect it'll be relevant for loans, mortgages etc.
  20. Oh fuck, I guess I regret typing all of this now, you heathen (honestly, it's polarising here and I like it occasionally but don't love it).

I didn't mean to go through all the questions but I got carried away, so hope thay helps!

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 days ago

Thank you so much for going through all of my questions! You have been an amazing help!