broadband in the UK varies. i'm using virgin media 2 in 1 service - 2mb unlimited broadband (cable) + cable TV for GBP20 a month. quite ok laa, very stable line and about 30 channels TV. cables broadband doesnt need BT phone line, so i dont have phone (i use skype anyways).

previously i used bulldog 8mb unlimited broadband + phone line for GBP40 a month.

basically bedsit, shared house and room in house are basically referring to the same thing: renting a room in a house.

bedsit are what they traditionally call when the house owner rents a room to somebody else. usually it includes bedroom and bathroom, but u dont really get to use the kitchen. nowadays bedsit just means u'll share the house with the house owners themselves.

shared house / room in house means the owner rents individual rooms to different tenants occupying each rooms.

but basically all is the same lah.

Hi all,
i'll be going to Cardiff in the next 4 days
having trouble to find which is the good bank for students in Uk..
probably i'll open HSBC account because my U is oso using HSBC..
any recomendation?

Meh, what do you guys eat there everyday? I see some people they whack cans food almost everyday.

just a normal formal letter stating I hereby bla bla bla that mr. xxx is financially capable to fund his/her study. + signature.

referral letter from british council. ask them if they do it for you. it is just a letter that state who who is studying what what and good character etc. just to show you are really going to uni under british council approval, not going to jump aeroplane. well this letter is not so important though. just get you questioned lesser by the officer.

part time sales assistant. those restaurant could be good or bad. some employer are just an a**, low pay but work like a cow. and nothing to be proud to be included in C.V. for silver service as compare to sales assistant in bigger shop.

bed sit usually refers to two ppl one room (esp. couple) or a very small room in a sharing house. shared house is typically renting a room with other tenants, or look for few friends to rent a house and shared it.

rate in broadband. i prefer virgin media (was NTL), it is cable broadband hence doesnt need telephone line. about 20 quids for 4mbps. 15 for 2 mbps. quality is very satisfiable.

cardiff uni? doing what? i was graduated from cardiff uni. and this weekend is cardiff too, but staying in bristol now.

i stick to HSBC. their internet banking is not bad.

cook yourself everyday. rarely people whack cans food except baked beans, sweet corn, tomatoes puree etc.

or bread, noodle and cereal as much too.

masak sendiri isnt too bad. just make sure wherever u're staying allows u to cook ur own food. when i was a bachelor, my weekly home cook expenditure is about GBP20-30 a week. if u dine out, it'll be close to GBP70. so start brushing up on that cooking skills.

but there's an abundance of fastfood in the UK. i'm not talking about mcdonalds or KFC franchise, i'm talking about kebab/doners, chinese/east asians and pizza/burgers. there're lots of halal/vegetarian foods available too, so not a big problem for muslim or hardcore buddhists.

waiters and cleaners in restaurants (let it be chinese restaurants or fast food outlets).

Learn how to cook. It is a way to release stress

Oh yah, some of those outlets mentioned by azarimy serve fried chicken which is almost similar to KFC style/taste..

As for broadband stuff, there are quite a lot of service providers. But sometimes, not all of them are available in an area.

speaking of broadband:

there are lots of broadband companies in the UK. run a google and u'll see there's atleast 15 nation wide. it's divided into two general categories - one that requires phone line (similar to streamyx), and cable/satellite broadband.

i've used the phoneline broadband (bulldog), and was fortunate enough to live close to the exchange, hence my 8mb does feel close to 8mb. so yeah, i've tasted lightning fast downloads . but then i moved to another place, which was pretty far away from the exchange, so i switched to virgin media's cable broadband. apparently, cable broadband doesnt have distance issues, so no matter where u live, u get pretty much the same speed u pay for.

and 2mb does feel like 2mb (not like streamyx hahahhahah!).

Lol @ broadband!

I just reached UK 2 nights ago, staying at my bro's place till Monday before heading off to Bristol. Tried to get a phone, they said i needed a bank account. Wanted to open a bank account, they said needed letter from uni and all that bla bla bla. I'll only get that letter during orientation on 19th i think, so worse comes to the worse i'll have to ask them to charge it to my bro's account.

Hmm, heard this coming weekend will be internation welcome weekend, followed by freshers weekend which is nights full of music and clubbing in the local union bars. wonder how good the union bars are, but they shouldn't be too shabby i suppose.

Chinese Restaurants in London offers lousy pay. £3.50 an hour is way below the national wages. you should at least be earning £5.25 an hour.

Hey,how is the student visa application works?let say after i get the number and then go to the counter,what will the officer do,check everything of my documents in front of me?or just give them all the thing then that's all?

Thanks for the inputs.

So UK$500 a month expenses = RM3.5K

Inclusive water bill, foods, broadband, electricity, gas tank, entertainment and etc? I hope everything is included for RM3.5K, if not won't have the opportunity to go UK.

What is the cheapest food can we get there? 3 breads for UK$2? In Aussie they are selling 3 breads for AUD$1 (plain bread, not gardenia bread those)

Yea, heard about the Chinatown, can get all the nice foods. Price ok ah?

- Do you guys play arcade games? How much do they charge per game? Token? (I'm addicted to this )
- How about Beers? Coffee Bean, Starbucks? LOL, one ice blended there RM40 ah?
- McD, KFC?
- Clubs per entry?


I remember a bunch of fellas bought a PS, play for few days gave back to the shop where they bought and get back full refund, the exact amount. Damn too much man, they are asians.

All damn kiasu looking for free entertainment.

Weh, any of you met any orang putih gangsters before?

This post has been edited by zeist: Sep 16 2007, 07:52 PM

the officer will check to see if everything's ok. if something's wrong he'll tell you what to do. if everything's in order, you pay and get a receipt that you need to show when you come to collect your passport once its ready. before you leave they will call you to collect your fingerprint, and then off you go.

---

Added on September 16, 2007, 8:45 pmits best you open the account at the branch on/nearest to your campus.

you can ask for "letter of enrolment" from the uni, and once you have that, the rest is a snap.

This post has been edited by WillHung: Sep 16 2007, 08:45 PM

GBP500 should be enough for the basics - rent, bills, foods, facilities, learning. entertainments such as arcade games, clubbing, cinemas, bowlings etc might require more, unless u cut down on the others.

cheap food is relative to what u wanna get and where u get them. stores like lidl or aldi sell extremely cheap stuffs, but usually the quality's questionable. but u could get fresh bread for GBP 0.20 each. i cant find gardenia, but good quality bread hardly costs more than GBP2. most of the foodstuff here are about the same price in malaysia even after conversion, so u should be able to survive. but cooked/preparred foods are quite expensive. ala carte dishes at a decent restaurant could easily cost u GBP8-12, compared to cooking urself, which can cost about GBP1-2 per meal.

arcade games are about GBP 0.50 - 1.00.

well at asda you can get a loaf of bread for 19p. hehe.

ala lebih kurang laa tu hahaha.

i need a bus to go to nearest asda (1 pound return), but lidl is just beside my house hehehe.

erm..U of Glamorgan,u noe bout it?
still hv another 3 days b4 going there..
my fren told me to get a letter fr U so that i cud open a bank acc.and buy phone sim-card
izit easy to make n international money transfers with Hsbc?
from M'sia usually takes how many days?

despite having HSBC both in malaysia and UK, they're separate entities. meaning, it's just two totally separate banks, only they just so happened to share the same name. so money transfer facility u can use is normal TT, which takes about 3 days.

but the fastest way for money transfers from malaysia is via maybank. my wife uses her maybank card to withdraw money from ATMs in the UK, directly from her account in malaysia. they charge RM12 per transfer, regardless of the amount.

it's pretty much instantaneous, so ur parents or whomever could just bank in the money into ur maybank account, and u can take the money out in the UK almost immediately.

u gotta enable ur bankcard for use overseas before hand. so u got 3 days...

ok i have a bit of english money on me and i have a UK bank account. im currently in malaysia but returning to england soon.

does that mean i cannot go to an hsbc branch here in KL and deposit my money to go into my UK hsbc account (without any charge hopefully)?

are you going to University of Bristol?

ya you will need a bank account to get a contract phone. where you'll need a bank letter from the university before you can opened a bank account.

be patient, do it step by step. in meantime when you are free, go do those easy stuff first, register gp etc.

oo alright, uni of glamorgan is in cardiff. enjoy cardiff, it is a good nice lively friendly yet affordable city to live in.

you will need a bank letter from the uni to open a bank current account.

as for sim card, you do not need a bank account for prepaid (so called pay as you go / talk in UK) sim card. but you will need at least a debit card to get a phone with subscription / contract.

as for money transfer, let say Telegraphic transfer, it would usually took about 3 days esp. on weekend. but sometime you might get it as soon after a day, due to time difference between malaysia and UK, it is difficult to get it immediately paying-in in malaysia.

can we bring food like meggi, serunding bla2 to UK?how much maximum luggage can we bring?30kg and if it exceed how much they'll charged u?