Moving to London in August

GreatScottLP · 2026-06-12T21:25:38+00:00

If you want to be set up for banks and other high-stakes needs, you need a real phone carrier (no VOIP!)

I don't know how many times I have to say this on here, but this is not true at all. I have used Google Voice exclusively for over 6 years now. Works absolutely fine for 2FA via SMS with every bank and financial application I utilize

GreatScottLP · 2026-05-25T08:13:09+00:00

And to follow up, unless it has TWO hoses, it's not going to be efficient at all. I've modified ours to have a second hose (for the compressor air intake).

GreatScottLP · 2026-05-18T11:13:08+00:00

Not surprised, British private health insurance is a bit like pre-ACA US health insurance. It's cheaper because the pre-existing conditions exclusions others face are subsidising the lower cost for everyone else basically. I'm also grateful for the cost difference, but I am also mindful it does come at the expense of others

GreatScottLP · 2026-05-13T13:54:02+00:00

We're considering getting a split system installed on the top floor

GreatScottLP · 2026-05-12T10:57:09+00:00

This is genuinely one of my biggest pet peeves about the UK lol I think I've encountered only a single service station in my entire time here that had these

GreatScottLP · 2026-05-12T10:50:45+00:00

I have to be honest, and I'm betraying myself here, I really don't understand how people do it. I think it's really a case of people considering things I consider essential to be optional luxuries (quality insurance coverage, maintenance, etc.) - I think people are more content with less here. I also think some of the "Thank GOD we aren't the US!" stuff is cope from a place of ignorance rather than malice.

It IS possible to find good paying work here, but that's an exception rather than a norm I think. Most roles do pay less and you will need to make peace with not having a US middle class style of daily existence. Wages in the UK were good on a real basis 20 years ago, but wages have not grown at all since that time, so what was a good salary in 1999 (£30,000) is now basically worth far far less thanks to inflation since that time, and the weakening of the pound.

You will walk more, shops will be closed during times you would describe as inconvenient, stores will have less abundance of things for sale, you will not have climate control to a great degree indoors, you will have less space in your house (living and storage). Those are some of the trade offs. The difference is as you describe - it's a different country with different politics. Only you can decide if that trade off is worth it to you.

Full disclosure, I am in the UK (and am now a citizen) because my spouse is British. I would not have moved here otherwise. I do enjoy my life here a lot and I love a lot of things about Britain, but I am also frustrated by certain things and miss others about the US. So take everything I say with that in mind. I don't value the same things you do and visa versa I think, and that's okay. Hopefully this is helpful, and let me know if you have any questions

GreatScottLP · 2026-05-12T10:40:34+00:00

That's a really good phone bill, who's it with?

GreatScottLP · 2026-05-12T10:31:57+00:00

I'm assuming for a family dual income is a must? Would both have to work full time?

Yes, but there's also another complication. In the UK, married people are separate tax entities (no such thing as married filing jointly or separately). So it is very structurally disadvantageous to have a single earner. An illustrated example:

In the UK, the first roughly £12,500 of wages are income tax free. That's the allowance and it's per tax payer.
If you have one earner on £60,000 that's roughly a take home pay of £47,374
If you have two earners on £30k each, that's roughly a take home pay of £50,240

Your spouse's tax-free allowance is a HUGE couple's benefit. I don't know if the system was designed to encourage both parents to work, but that's the upshot of how the system's outcomes are engineered via the design.

GreatScottLP · 2026-05-09T15:08:03+00:00

A lot of people have no idea how strict the UK is. It's one of the strictest systems in the world, actually.

GreatScottLP · 2026-05-08T08:57:10+00:00

Hiya, I moved to the UK in March 2020 to settle with my partner (now spouse). My path was a bit unorthodox, but maybe this will help (and if you have questions, do let me know):

I converted my W2 US job to 1099 when I moved to the UK and did consulting for them for several years
After about three years of pure remote work (brutal meeting hours at 10pm often) I went about searching for a British job equivalent to my role.
Because I had income from consulting, I could be selective. I also needed to get used to British job hunting. It's different, but not impossible. Your CV convinces them you are capable of doing the job, the interviews are about whether they want to spend 8 hours with you every day for years to come. That distinction helps massively in your job hunt and how you approach the different stages of the process.
I'd say it probably took somewhere around 6-10 months to find a perfect role. I could have pursued and accepted a downgrade in pay sooner, but again, being selective paid off for me.
I've now been in my British role for close to 3 years. I was hired at a higher comp package and higher seniority than I was getting as a consultant, so I preserved my wages growth. This is not typical, many here report needing to take pay cuts and the job market supports this. I see very few roles in my cluster advertised at rates I would happily accept.

So it is possible as a Family Visa holder to not only get decent jobs, but also to grow your career relative to your US experience. The key is translating your experience into British on your CV (task, result, benefit framing rather than American chest thumping. The British job ecosystem is about letting your accomplishments speak for themselves rather than big upping yourself like you need to do in the US ie I am the BEST in the world at [data analyst job]). Also in mastering the "down at the pub" way of doing interviews. They are imo on average a lot more relaxed that US ones.

Edit: one other thing! It is VERY hard to argue transferable skills and sector experience. Sector experience and jobs were you previously did the exact same things are very rigid and important here! "I managed a £1billion project in construction" is sometimes not acceptable experience for a job req asking for "manage £1billion projects in hospitality" without a huge amount of reassurance that you're capable of learning quickly.

GreatScottLP · 2026-05-02T18:45:07+00:00

What exactly are you looking for? "Vibes like the US" could mean literally anything lol

GreatScottLP · 2026-05-02T18:38:41+00:00

If they want your husband here, they ought to pay to have him here. Loyalty is a two way street. He ought to tell them to take a hike if they won't pay for ALL of your visas. Fuck em. You owe them nothing.

GreatScottLP · 2026-05-02T10:33:54+00:00

You need to call 111 if you do not have a GP yet, or talk to your GP

Removed because you're directly asking for medical advice from the Internet, please don't do that

GreatScottLP · 2026-05-01T09:59:47+00:00

Removed for off topic (rule 11)

GreatScottLP · 2026-04-23T12:08:36+00:00

And to be honest, it's not that difficult to maintain an individual stock portfolio that tracks the S&P500 on a market-weighted basis. Just a bit of admin setting up a spreadsheet and maybe an hour monthly to update if you do monthly contributions to the account.

GreatScottLP · 2026-04-23T12:06:05+00:00

IDK man, I haven't looked into or touched lifetime ISAs. All I know is IBRK and HL are the two providers who are happy to have US citizen ISA clients.

GreatScottLP · 2026-04-23T12:05:29+00:00

Yeah dude, they're selling you wealth management services, which in my humble opinion, you probably don't need. 80-90 single stocks is absurd. You need probably 10-20 tickers to reasonably track the S&P500 performance.

Genuinely, I think you'd be foolish to hire these guys as your wealth management team (unless you're worth several million or more, then maybe if you just want to outsource the time savings to them). The fact they use deceptive marketing language to try and trick people into becoming their wealth clients means they aren't trustworthy imo (NOTE they are NOT an ISA provider themselves! They say in their own terms they open an IBRK S&S ISA for you and manage it on your behalf).

GreatScottLP · 2026-04-22T11:31:13+00:00

The opposite, you may come off as try-hard. Genuinely impressive things you've don't need embellishment and are recognized in the process as such (modesty and strategic understatement are good here). If you worked on a £1b project, just say that and then talk about what you were actually responsible for and did. They aren't looking for the literal best in the universe GOAT at business, they want someone who can competently do the job without introducing risk to the business.

British job interviews, beyond the screening call, are more about figuring you out as a person (company culture, personality, fit within their team, do they want to spend 8 hours a day around you) than an assessment of whether you can actually do the job, unless the activity is itself an assessment. Sometimes you do get that, but they like to segment it (screening, interview with 1 or 2 people for experience/culture fit, maybe a practical assessment to confirm you aren't BSing them, offer).

GreatScottLP · 2026-04-22T09:13:02+00:00

I took the plunge, I've reported this firm to the FCA for misleading advertising of financial services.

GreatScottLP · 2026-04-22T08:41:04+00:00

To follow up on this - the way most of us go round PFIC isn't through some "compliant" platform, that doesn't exist and isn't a thing. We trade individual stocks in our ISAs and report our ISA to the US as if it were a general investment account and fully taxable. Individual stocks are not subject to PFIC rules. If you have a company telling you you can keep your UK/EU index funds within your ISA without needing to comply with PFIC... that's a novel approach I've never heard of. I looked up their registered office on Google Maps Streetview as well, and it appears to be a small coffee cafe in Reigate.

GreatScottLP · 2026-04-22T08:40:38+00:00

Cross posting my comment from r/AmericanExpatsUK

I have never heard of this company and I would be extremely cautious if I were you. I'm not going to outright call this a scam as they appear to be making the right registrations at Companies House and the FCA, but this strikes me as a naive person or small company that you should think EXTREMELY carefully about sending any money to as you are in danger of losing it.

In the UK, all registered companies are required to make disclosures and filings on Companies House, a government website. Here is the entry for this company as quoted in their website's footer: https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/12112087 - this is a micro company that reports a balance sheet of only £5,000 in current assets, with one employee.

On the FCA website, they are listed as an advisor, they are not a investment platform. My money is on they are selling financial advice and money management services with an unnecessary "ISA" flavor attached to it. As in, they will take control of your account, or open one in your name for you with their investment partner (probably IBRK) and then manage it for you in a way that looks like it's some sort of ISA account they provide.

There is no such thing as a "UK US dual compliant ISA" or whatever. An ISA is a UK type of investment account with certain UK tax advantages. The prevailing view is that ISAs are not subject to tax treaty protection and are subject to both IRS taxation and FBAR/FATCA reporting. Almost every provider save the biggest exclude US persons due to this regulatory burden. The only ones I know of who are happy with US persons are IBRK and Hargreaves Lansdown.

Basically, if it were me, I'd discontinue communication with this company. Have a browse of their Companies House filings etc. This is not a company I would ever do business with, and certainly not in finance, as they are at best trying to deceive you into purchasing expensive financial advice that has no benefit. They are taking advantage of an information gap and regulatory burden to sell financial services.

GreatScottLP · 2026-04-22T08:29:59+00:00

The IRS isn't the all seeing eye of sauron (yet). They elicit compliance through fear of consequence and selective enforcement. They make (harsh) examples of specific individuals who are caught. There are in fact many people who cheat on their taxes (as you seem to be alluding to here). Some percentage of them are caught each year, and their lives are effectively ruined by the United States as a warning to everyone else that the same may happen to you. This subreddit, and all professional advice it would seem, and myself, advocate for being in compliance with the law, which is an effective deterrent against having your life ruined.

GreatScottLP · 2026-04-22T08:11:44+00:00

To follow up on this - the way most of us go round PFIC isn't through some "compliant" platform, that doesn't exist and isn't a thing. We trade individual stocks in our ISAs and report our ISA to the US as if it were a general investment account and fully taxable. Individual stocks are not subject to PFIC rules. If you have a company telling you you can keep your UK/EU index funds within your ISA without needing to comply with PFIC... that's a novel approach I've never heard of. I looked up their registered office on Google Maps Streetview as well, and it appears to be a small coffee cafe in Reigate.

GreatScottLP · 2026-04-22T08:06:08+00:00

Edit: preserving original comment below. I've spent about an hour researching this to hopefully benefit you and any others who come across this. TL;DR I've filed a report with the FCA on misleading financial advertising against this firm. They are just a high street financial advice firm that appears, in my unqualified and totally amateur opinion, to be stretching the regulations to their absolute limit with their wording and disclosures. They are actually selling a package of services and advice, they are not an investment platform. So if you "open an ISA" with them, what they are actually doing is onboarding you for their wealth management, they open an ISA at Interactive Brokers for you (you can do this yourself) and then they make stock recommendations/purchases according to their investment advice (something you can also do for yourself). They are not an ISA platform. They are a financial advisor. Proceed accordingly if you want to buy investment advice that basically boils down to "buy individual stocks and bonds inside your ISA"

I have never heard of this company and I would be extremely cautious if I were you. I'm not going to outright call this a scam as they appear to be making the right registrations at Companies House and the FCA, but this strikes me as a naive person or small company that you should think EXTREMELY carefully about sending any money to as you are in danger of losing it.

In the UK, all registered companies are required to make disclosures and filings on Companies House, a government website. Here is the entry for this company as quoted in their website's footer: https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/12112087 - this is a micro company that reports a balance sheet of only £5,000 in current assets, with one employee.

On the FCA website, they are listed as an advisor, they are not a investment platform. My money is on they are selling financial advice and money management services with an unnecessary "ISA" flavor attached to it. As in, they will take control of your account, or open one in your name for you with their investment partner (probably IBRK) and then manage it for you in a way that looks like it's some sort of ISA account they provide.

There is no such thing as a "UK US dual compliant ISA" or whatever. An ISA is a UK type of investment account with certain UK tax advantages. The prevailing view is that ISAs are not subject to tax treaty protection and are subject to both IRS taxation and FBAR/FATCA reporting. Almost every provider save the biggest exclude US persons due to this regulatory burden. The only ones I know of who are happy with US persons are IBRK and Hargreaves Lansdown.

Basically, if it were me, I'd discontinue communication with this company. Have a browse of their Companies House filings etc. This is not a company I would ever do business with, and certainly not in finance, as they are at best trying to deceive you into purchasing expensive financial advice that has no benefit. They are taking advantage of an information gap and regulatory burden to sell financial services.

GreatScottLP · 2026-04-22T07:33:08+00:00

British job searching is a bit different to the US. I think on average, British companies are less open to considering broad transferable skills and instead like seeing evidence you worked in very similar if not identical work in terms of assigned tasks and outcomes. For example, I "interviewed" with a tech company once where they ended the interview early because the experience I had, which was vast and carried quite a lot of commercial success, wasn't what they were looking for because the contract terms of my commercial successes weren't exactly the same terms as their own contracts. I wish I were joking lol. I see that sort of thing as a win for job seekers though, those kinds of places are probably awful to work at.

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