My London experience

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Money Matters

After dealing with jobs job quest page, you have to talk about money. All I can say about this topic is here, including the Leonardo grant, advices about bank accounts and usual amounts in the London life.

Usual amounts

To beginning, the tip to calculate a price in Euros is to multiply the amount in pounds by 1.5, or add one half of the price to the price itself. Indeed, 1 pound is equal to 1.4984544 euro.

One frequent paycheck in London for beginners like us is 200 £ per week. Here you are a table in order to show you how I spent my money week after week.

It is possible to spend less in the food and entertainment section, I was not always raisonable in these subjects. Furthermore, some jobs pay more than mine (web developer), especially in the food domain because of extra hours...

My conclusion for this table is that the London experience offered by Efrei is not so expensive as said. Indeed, a lot of people came back each year with quite lot of money.

Leonardo Grant

Thanks to Europe, you may know that students who travel abroad in order to work can apply to the Leonardo Grant. There are two main things to respect in order to obtain it: you have to work a minimum of 12 weeks and you have to work in a job related to your study courses. For Efrei students, a job related to IT is required.

The only thing to pay attention is the length of your trip. If you want to work 12 weeks and if you respect the Efrei period, you have to find a job before arrive... By why not come several weeks before?

The amount of the grant depends on how much you are paid for you work. If you are pay a lot, don't wait for a lot from Europa, if you are not well-paid, the amount can reach around 100 £.

Bank accounts

The first thing to do dealing with bank accounts is to check which services are provided by your usual bank. For example, when I asked to my bank (BNP Paribas) to provide me pounds a few days before the departure, they told me than I can take off some money from Barclay's cashpoint for free. Barclay is one of the first banks in Great Britain, find a barclay is not more hard than find a post office in a great city in France.
Furthermore, It was possible for me use my Visa Credit Card with a quit low commission.

Thanks to that, I have been able to use my money. But the second goal of a bank account it to collect paychecks! Thanks to my boss, it was not a problem for me because they paid me in cash that I could spend every day. But if your boss does not want to do that, you will need to have an English bank account.

The simplest way to do that is to open an account at HSBC, a bank open in a lot of countries, included France and Great Britain.
It isn't easy to open a bank account abroad when you stay only several weeks and you have not a great job. That is why HSBC can help you by opening a bank account in France in order to have a reference when you will open a new one in Great Britain.