Need advice from parents of kids who studied abroad!

Applying to College
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<p>D is leaving in 3 weeks for a semester in London, and possibly the summer, as well. Could anyone gives me a general idea of how much money their kids brought with them, as well as credit card vs debit card? Also, D will be living in a flat with a kitchen. She doesn't know who she will be living with, and, as such, does not know what kind of kitchen supplies will be there. Any advice as to what would be the must-haves. She was guided to a website that sells essentials, but I have no idea the quality, nor if the prices are reasonable. I don't know how easy it will be for her to pick up items that she needs, but I'd rather not overbuy. </p>

<p>ANY other sage advice from ones who have lived this experience would be very much appreciated from this study-abroad-newbie mom!</p>

<p>Thanks CCers!</p>

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<p>I would bring at least 2 cards just in case one in damaged, lost or stolen.</p>

<p>How much your D spends depends on if she is a big spender or not. You can easily spend your life savings pretty quickly in London!</p>

<p>How close is this flat to where your D is studying? How close is it to “West End” London (if you don’t know, google distance to Leicester Square)? I am asking this because if the flat is beond walking distance, your budget may be eaten up by public transport costs. Get an oyster card ASAP. Using this card to pay for the bus/tube reduces the fare (it’s a plastic card which you can “load” with money and then swipe to pay for transport). Walking everywhere reduces costs considerably. I walk from Waterloo to Barbican every day. Takes about 40 mins, but at peak times the tube is not much quicker due to crowding.</p>

<p>I rarely eat out and cook most of my meals at home. Supermarket shopping (including hom things, not jut food) costs me £30-£40 a week. But I’m no longer a student trying to survive on a budget. If you bought budget brands you could survive on less. However, I suspect many foreign students spend more.</p>

<p>Eating out can cost anything from £3 to £100s. McDonalds for example costs more than in the US and that is generally the trend. But at the other end of the scale you could choose a michelin starred restaurant if you really want. A good guide is if something costs $1US will cost about £1 in the UK. </p>

<p>London has a population of more than 7 million people. You can buy ANYTHING you want (I have heard Harrods occasionaly sold elephants in the past!). The whole you-can’t-buy-peanut-butter-in-Europe thing is a myth for a start (it can be found next to Marmite in a million stores).</p>

<p>If your D is extremely picky and will only buy American brands, I think it will still be possible (but more expensive) to survive. ASDA is a UK supermarket which is owned by Walmart and has a lot of stuff (though I don;t think there are any branches in the centre of London. I could be wrong though). Lots of small but expensive corner shops in the centre on London sell American brands (at great expense) of groceries for tourists.</p>

<p>Most people shop in Tesco, Sainsburys or Waitrose. All of these shops deliver and you can order online. There is also a (more expensive) supermarket section in Marks and Spencers.</p>

<p>If you are very concerned about “quality” you can do all of your shopping in Harrods and Selfridges. But you will need a VERY big budget for that. I really do think you will be fine in a normal supermarket though. Tesco is like the evil Walmart of Europe. They are everywhere. You could always try the “finest” (that means more expensive) range. </p>

<p>You can find your nearest supermarket using these websites. You need to enter the post code of the flat. This is like a zip code and is the last line of the address.</p>

<p>[Tesco.com</a> - online shopping; bringing the supermarket to you.](<a href=“http://www.tesco.com%5DTesco.com”>http://www.tesco.com)
[Sainsbury’s[/url</a>] </p>

<p>For household stuff, you can actually get a lot of that in supermarkets too. If not, try somewhere like Argos ([url=&lt;a href=“http://www.argos.co.uk%5DArgos”&gt;http://www.argos.co.uk]Argos</a>](<a href=“http://www.sainsburys.com%5DSainsbury’s%5B/url”>http://www.sainsburys.com) - guessing the web address here) for things like hangers, hairdryers, towels etc. The two biggest drugstores which are everywhere are Boots and Superdrug. Again, bigger supermarkets sell a lot of this stuff in any case.</p>

<p>I don’t know your D so I don’t know what she “must have”. I suggest arriving a few days before the start of the program, with just a suitcase of clothes and essentials for study (laptop etc). Even though Londin is expensive, it will almost certainly be cheaperto buy many staples here than pay excess luggage fees to have them shipped/flown over.</p>

<p>I haven’t even gone into markets here. Some are cheap, but others are post markets which are expensive (Borough Market the most famous example). Yet others are for specific good eg ethinic food ingredients. Depends where your D is living if she will be close to one of these.</p>

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<p>Thank you, cupcake! This information is very helpful! D is not picky and is not (by necessity!) a big spender, so I’m sure your suggestions will be on the mark for her.</p>

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<p>My daughter studied in England last summer. She brought both a debit card and a credit card. She didn’t take the opportunity to try her cards in an ATM until she was running low on cash, but by then she was on a weekend trip to Ireland and found out the local ATMs rejected her cards and the banks were not open on weekends. She had to borrow money from her friends. When she got back to England, she also found that her cards still would not work. It took us several hours and at least 2 failed attempts to get her cards straightened out. Fortunately, we were dealing with her university credit union, which I believe went to much greater lengths to fix the problem than most banks would have.</p>

<p>We were told that it is a relatively common problem in England, and especially in Ireland, that ATMs will reject non-local credit and debit cards on the assumption that they were stolen. Especially if your daughter is using a new card, test it out first at home to make sure it works. Also, we were told it’s a good idea to let the card issuer know that she’ll be traveling outside the country. Of course, her parents should have copies of the card numbers, etc. in case you have to straighten out any problems from this side of the pond.</p>

<p>Come to think of it, the only time I ever had fraudulent charges on my credit card was when someone got hold of my number to purchase crystal in Waterford.</p>

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<p>You just need to let your bank/card issuer know you are going abroad before you leave the USA. Otherwise it is only sensible for them to block it. Also, make sure you have a 4 digit numerical PIN. Many ATMs (“Cash machine” or “hole in the wall” in the UK) will not accept more than 4 digets, and may not have any ketters on the key pad. So if you remember your PIN as a word, try to remember it as a number.</p>

<p>If you have a bank account at Bank of America, you can withdraw cash from Barclays in the UK for free. I think this also works at BNP Parisbas in France. </p>

<p>VISA and Mastercard are accepted most places. American express less so. If you has a Discovery card they’ve never heard of that in Europe and it probably won’t work.</p>

<p>Now we get on to the chip thing. Cards (credit and debit) in the UK have this little smart chip thing in them. This means that when you pay for things, rather than signing for them, you put the card in a chip reader machine and enter the PIN. American cards won’t work in these chip readers. This shouldn’t be too much of aproblem in the UK because by law retail establishments have to offer the sign-for option, as otherwise they will breach disability laws. So you just need to clearly ask if you can sign for your purchase. They might say no, but insist. There will be an old fashioned card reader around somewhere. They have to have one (in touristy parts of London there will be no problem at all). The only time lack of a chip card is an issue is using vending machines. For example, you will not be able to buy or collect pre-paid rail tickets from the station vending machines. You will have to queue at the counter and speak to a real person. The other place is out of hours petrol stations. When I take my card to get petrol (at the above-mentioned ASDA actually) in the evening the petrol station, is not manned, but I can put my card in the pump and it works. Without a chip card you couldn’t do this. Only an issue if your D is planning to hire a card and drive (a car in central London is madness!).</p>

<p>I would strongly advise arriving in the UK with some UK cash just in case. At least enough to get from the airport to accommodation. You could take travellers cheques for an emergency, but they went out with the dinosaurs in Europe so to change them can be difficult (you need to visit a main bank on a week day). Nevertheless, they could be a good back up in worst case scenario (wallet stolen or similar) and they can only be cashed by the signatory so they are a lot safer than wads of cash.</p>

<p>The other reason to bring cash is lots of places will not accept a card payment under £5, or will make a charge for such a small payment.</p>

<p>If you have a checking account and savings account attached to the same debit card, look into this. In the UK it is one card, one account, and you don’t want to go to an ATM and find all you can access is your empty savings account and the card will not access your full checking account. Best ask your bank about this if it applies.</p>

<p>I meant “posh markets” not “post markets” above BTW!</p>