Moving To/Living In London Megathread - ALL QUESTIONS TO GO HERE

djpbarry

Ruthie-Roux wrote: »

Hi,
Im going to be moving to London shortly, and as Im unemployed, will be relying on doing the 3 month sw transfer. I heard a lot of horror stories a few years back about people left waiting for weeks/months for the trafer to go through, but it seems the system has changed since then and its now transfered directly into your bank account for the three months. Has anyone succesfully done this *recently* and how smooth was the process?

I'm afraid I can't offer any advice on this particular subject. But, to be honest, if you're prepared to take on any old job to keep you ticking over, it's unlikely you'll need to worry about benefits - there's always work going somewhere in London. For example, I cycle past this place on my way home from work every day and they've had a sign in their window saying they're looking for staff for some time now:

http://www.shepherdneame.co.uk/pubs/southwark/duke-york

I'm sure I'd find plenty of others if I looked harder!

Jamey

Bench Press wrote: »

scratch that, have an UK Ulster Bank account sorted out

Cool - for future reference you could just use your friends address. Once you have any sort of address that you can collect mail at you'll be fine.

flushje

I hope to move to London towards the end of August. I met a girl from London here in Dublin at the end of last year so have committed.

I'm currently working in Paddy Power for the last 5 years but finding it hard to get interest from companies in the UK.

Ideally, I want to get a job there before I make the move, because I have a fear that if I take the plunge and don't get a job over there I will have nothing to come back to.

Can anyone who has done this give me advice and who to apply to, what agencies to apply to etc.

Any help would be appreciated...

who the fug

Any chance of moving within Paddy Power to London , what do you do ?

flushje

who the fug wrote: »

Any chance of moving within Paddy Power to London , what do you do ?

Customer service, so nothing really, bar working in one of the shops. I don't think I could do that to be honest, but it is still something I am considering.

x43r0

flushje wrote: »

Customer service, so nothing really, bar working in one of the shops. I don't think I could do that to be honest, but it is still something I am considering.

If it was something you'd consider doing (even while looking for something else in the mean time) there are a hell of a lot of bookies around here. I live close to Stratford and there are loads around the high st

rainbow kirby

Need a new phone ASAP, and really not in the mood for a PAYG junker (spoilt by having a decent Irish phone!). Anyone likely to give a sim-only contract when I've just moved over?

brónaim cád??

Why don't you get your Irish phone unlocked and just get a sim there? I'm with GiffGaff and they're really cheap and great for lots of data. I was with o2 but they were getting to dear.

How so Joe

rainbow kirby wrote: »

Need a new phone ASAP, and really not in the mood for a PAYG junker (spoilt by having a decent Irish phone!). Anyone likely to give a sim-only contract when I've just moved over?

I got a contract with 3 shortly after I moved over - the only issue was because I have no credit history they asked me to pay a £150 deposit. Mine included a phone, but it's probably the same for sim only contracts?

rainbow kirby

3 declined me on the credit check for a new phone because I've only a couple of weeks of history here Particularly frustrating because I'm a bit of a data monster and there are very few other networks with really high/unlimited data at a reasonable price.

The guy in the shop said that rolling sim-only should be fine, but I'd like to hold on to my Irish phone separately for a while longer.

LadyMayBelle

Id go with giffgaff too..Im with Three at the moment, good for unlimited data and small bill; I use Skype to text home and its way way cheaper and so handy.

tibor

+1 for giffgaff. £10 a month for 500 mins, unlimited txt and 1gb data. Sorted.

tok9

Ya I'm finally after getting my giffgaff sim after 3 attempts but so far (3 days) I'm happy with the service.

Was previously on T mobile PAYG waiting for the sim and I now hate T mobile.

woof im a dog

i never heard of this giffgaff crowd but looking at the deals on website it seems the way to go!

silvervixen84

Some words of wisdom from Buzzfeed for anyone planning to make the move over!

http://www.buzzfeed.com/robinedds/moving-to-london-expectations-vs-reality

What? Oh Rly!

Hi,

My girlfriend and I are moving over to London in middle of September and have 2 cats and about 8 normal size storage boxes to bring over. What is the cheapest way of moving everything over?

Any help would be greatly, greatly appreciated!

Mr. A

Moving over to London for an internship in October (hoping to stay passed that). Do I need, coming from Ireland, some sort of documentation to stay resident there for a while? As the internship does not pay, do I need something to secure staying there?

who the fug

Mr. A wrote: »

Moving over to London for an internship in October (hoping to stay passed that). Do I need, coming from Ireland, some sort of documentation to stay resident there for a while? As the internship does not pay, do I need something to secure staying there?

If you are an Irish or EU ciitzen then no also read this

ipadzz

Just dropping in to say that my boyfriend and I went through every post on this mega thread before we made the move to London this summer. We are here just under a month now and are very happily settled.

Just want to thank everyone for their opinions, offerings and advice. We have actually compiled our own 'How To' on a blog post so we can pass on the advice we received experiences we had to others.

If you want to check it out, it's here: http://bit.ly/1bZrUUj

Louche Lad

ipadzz wrote: »

Just dropping in to say that my boyfriend and I went through every post on this mega thread before we made the move to London this summer. We are here just under a month now and are very happily settled.

Just want to thank everyone for their opinions, offerings and advice. We have actually compiled our own 'How To' on a blog post so we can pass on the advice we received experiences we had to others.

If you want to check it out, it's here: http://bit.ly/1bZrUUj

Clear, concise, well written — thanks!

brónaim cád??

I just read your blog. It was very clear and easy to understand and helpful.

enda1

brónaim cád?? wrote: »

I just read your blog. It was very clear and easy to understand and helpful.

Wouldn't be telling people to forget about zones one and two through :S

Strange one that.

djpbarry

enda1 wrote: »

Wouldn't be telling people to forget about zones one and two through :S

Strange one that.

Agreed. Whatever about Zone 1, there are definitely going to be plenty of people moving to London who can afford to be in Zone 2.

ipadzz

Appreciate the comments about zones 1 and 2, but for many people moving from Dublin to London (where the cost of living and competition is quite higher) without jobs it's a big burden to keep costs low and get a good deal house-wise - which you will likelier find in the suburbs.

Appreciate that some people can certainly afford zones 1 and 2, but we definitely stick with our point of view and the experience we have personally had.

who the fug

whatever about zone 1 and 2, will follow that blog for the first run with that cock sucking bank called Barclays

exiledelbows

Haven't come across estate agents charging 6 months rent but maybe I got lucky. 6 weeks maybe, but not 6 months.

Jamey

I agree about the Zone 1/Zone 2 issue. I've just moved to Zone 2 and I'm paying the same rent as a colleague of mine in Zone 3. It's doable if you do your research and spend time looking for an affordable place.

As regards the 6 months rent up front - our estate agency told us that we would have to pay this if we couldn't come up with a UK based guarantor for our flat. It might be worth mentioning this in the blog and from experience other Irish friends have also had to come up with guarantors (on top of their references) for their flats as estate agencies are not comfortable letting to people who have no credit history in the UK. On the other hand some Irish mates were allowed to move in to a property once the landlord was satisfied that they had cash in their a/c or had a job - it's a different experience for everyone. One major problem for us was the agency were worried about letting to someone who was only on a 1 year contract in work (as the lease would overrun the employment contract) - be careful of this also.

Another tip for flat hunting is to be wary of Referencing agencies. These are separate companies to estate agencies and estate agencies outsource the job of gaining tenant references to them. They are extremely slow and basically want to know everything about you to the point of stealing your identity - this goes for the identity of your references and guarantor too, if you are asked to provide a guarantor. I would be reluctant to use an estate agency again who uses a referencing company.

djpbarry

Jamey wrote: »

As regards the 6 months rent up front - our estate agency told us that we would have to pay this if we couldn't come up with a UK based guarantor for our flat. It might be worth mentioning this in the blog and from experience other Irish friends have also had to come up with guarantors (on top of their references) for their flats as estate agencies are not comfortable letting to people who have no credit history in the UK. On the other hand some Irish mates were allowed to move in to a property once the landlord was satisfied that they had cash in their a/c or had a job - it's a different experience for everyone.

So we're talking exclusively about people who have yet to secure a job here? Because to be honest, that's fair enough. There's absolutely no way myself and the missus would let out our place in Dublin to someone without a job unless they had substantial cash reserves.

chancer12

serrity wrote: »

Yes, it should be possible to get at least temporary reception/secretarial work in London at the moment. However it may be tricky to get something lined up in that area before you move over, so you'd probably need to have a friend to stay with or some savings to tide you over, to allow some time for job hunting.

Any chances guys getting reception/secretarial work? My son is moving over and looking to get any kind of job to have a quick income. However, he hasn't any bar experience and I wonder what his chances would be of getting office work? Only experience to date is in supermarkets (part-time student work). However, he does have a degree

woof im a dog

chancer12 wrote: »

Any chances guys getting reception/secretarial work? My son is moving over and looking to get any kind of job to have a quick income. However, he hasn't any bar experience and I wonder what his chances would be of getting office work? Only experience to date is in supermarkets (part-time student work). However, he does have a degree

id say your son would be grand even if he hasnt worked in a bar before

i had no experience working in pubs but managed to get a job in one and worked there till i found a job a bit more similar to what i did in college