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.

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...

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.