I'm moving from Toronto, Canada to London, UK in a few months and have noticed on a few web sites that it can be very difficult to open a UK bank account. Does anyone have any advice about how to open an account before I arrive in the UK, or is it okay to wait until after I arrive? Unfortunately the bank that I use in Canada does not have any affiliations with UK banks, but we do have HSBC branches in Canada.
You an do either... However experience of other expat shows that unfortunately HSBC is more a "local world bank" than the "world local bank" they say... as they can cause difficulties to transfer bank accounts...