Living Abroad London by Karen White
Written by Ashley Kelmore, Posted in Reviews
Three Stars
Best for: People moving to London.
In a nutshell: Tips for moving to London.
Line that sticks with me: None that aren’t just good tips for me to know.
Why I chose it: BECAUSE I’M MOVING TO LONDON!
Review: I bought this book a few weeks ago, and finished it at least a week ago. But we were waiting to announce this beyond some close friends until our visas came through, so this review has been embargoed until now.
We’re moving as part of my partner getting a new job, so a few of the items in here aren’t our problem (they’re handling the visa, for example). But the tips on rentals, taxes, phone companies, and transportation are all fantastic. I lived in London for a year previously, but it was for graduate school, so a few things were handled: I had housing all lined up, and had a student loan to cover most of my expenses. I even somehow convinced someone at the mobile phone company to give me a monthly account instead of requiring I do pay-as-you-go.
Because the one thing that will be the most challenging is that we have no credit history in London. Landlords will need to trust that the letter from my partner’s new employer means we are trustworthy with a lease (and also, they’ll need to accept our two cats). We may have to do pay-as-you-go. It could take a long time to get a proper bank account.
I think the biggest bummer for me with this book is that they only focus on a handful of boroughs when providing living advice, none of which are ones we are planning to live in. So fully half of the book isn’t so applicable.
