- ADD Updated Information Here for CME 05-06 -
New CME Students --> as you look around for bank accounts, post your findings here so others can benefit from your knowledge.
- Cost of Living -
One word: Expensive. This is mainly due to the high exchange rates. For the 2004 - 2005
school year, the exchange rate steadily climbed from 1.85 to 1.95 US dollars per British pound.
But even if the exchange rate is good relatively speaking, living in Cambridge will still almost
certainly be more expensive than living in Boston. As a rule of thumb, you can expect to see the
same numerical price for things in both places, but in Cambridge, those prices are in pounds,
whereas in Boston they're in dollars. Because a pound is worth more than a dollar, things are
more expensive in Cambridge than in Boston. You can expect to spend £5 - £10 for lunch and
£10 - £20 for dinner at a restaurant. A normal sized box of cereal can cost anywhere between £1
(for store brand) to £3 (for Coco Puffs). - Getting Money in the UK -
It probably goes without saying, but still: you're going to need money in Cambridge. As
Cambridge restricts how much students are allowed to work while they are "in term" at the
University, you will have to find a way to get at your money from the US. (For more about
working in Cambridge, see section 6.1.) There are a multiple ways that you can control your
cash flow in the UK.
Bring cash: To have immediate access to money (other than using an ATM or credit card—see
below for details on those), you can bring it with you from the US. You can either (a) bring US
dollars and exchange them in the UK for pounds, (b) bring British pounds that you got in the US,
or (c) bring traveler's checks. Of these options, ordering British pounds from your bank in the
US and bringing them with you to the UK will probably give you the best exchange rate. If you
do have US dollars that you want to exchange to British pounds in the UK, there are many
different places to do it. Marks & Spencer has an exchange counter where you can get some of
the best exchange rates around and they do not charge commission. Bureau de Change also is
commission-free for students. Traveler's checks offer the perk of security (if you lose unsigned
traveler's checks, you can get the money back), but you will have to pay a fee up front when you
get them.
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Use ATMs and cards: You can also get by in Cambridge with just a debit and/or credit card.
With a debit or ATM card, you can get cash from ATMs, which are all over the city Banks in
the UK do not charge fees at their ATMs for non-bank cards. That is to say, if you have an
account with HSBC, you can use a Barclay's ATM just as well as an HSBC one and you will not
be charged a fee. However, if you use your ATM card from home, your bank in the US will
probably charge you either a non-bank transaction fee or an international transaction fee of
around $5, or both (the MIT Federal Credit Union doesn't charge a fee for using your debit card
in Europe, and if you have a bank account with Bank of America, withdrawals from Barclays are
free of charge.). Having a credit card can be very useful. First, you don't have to deal with
getting or carrying cash around; second, everybody takes Visa and MasterCard; and third, you'll
get a bank-to-bank exchange rate (which is the best exchange rate on any given day) and you
won't get charged a fee, thus saving some money in two ways. If you go for this option, in the
rare situations when you need check (if you're working at a May Ball, for example, you'll need a
security check), you can find a friend to write one for you and just pay them back.
Open a bank account: Another option for having access to money is opening a bank account in
Cambridge. You'll need a letter from your College to open an account, and some colleges are
associated with particular banks, so you might want to ask them to suggest a bank. The
advantage of having an account in Cambridge is that you will be able to write checks (if it's a
checking account). This is important if you play a sport or are in a society, as they will request
you to write a check to pay your membership fees. Also, you will need to pay your College bills,
and cash or check might be the only accepted methods of payment. If you have an account, you
will also have quick, easy, and free access to British pounds (however many you put into the
account, that is). But of course, you have to get money into the account in the first place and
there might be a fee to exchange it from dollars to pounds over that first transaction.
To get money into your account, you can do a few things:
(a) have the money wired, which might cost a bunch, but will be very quick
(b) write yourself a US check, for which transaction fees might be significant ($20), but
actually receiving the cash takes ages (~4 weeks) as the bank needs to send it back to the
US for clearance or
(c) bring cash with you when you first come from the US (which was discussed above).
Two banks which were popular with students are HSBC and Barclays. Some banks, like Natwest
and Barclays, need proof of significant amounts of pounds (£5000 and £2000 respectively) for
your International Student checking account not to incur a monthly charge (sometimes this
means you can simply show them a bank statement of your parents, instead of having to put the
funds directly into your account). Other banks, such as Nationwide and Halifax, don't need any
pounds, but you might not be able to receive checks or a debit card to use outside of the bank. If
you want to set up a bank account, going to the bank should be one of the first things you do
after arriving at Cambridge. When the rest of the freshers arrive, you'll find that there will be
huge waiting lists to get an appointment (particularly true at HSBC which offered free Student
RailCards during 2004-2005), meaning you won't get an account for several weeks after term
starts. Go early to avoid the queues.
Below are websites and locations of most banks in Cambridge:
Abbey National plc http://www.abbeynational.co.uk/
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60 St Andrew's Street
Tel: 0845 765 4321
Alliance & Leicester plc http://www.alliance-leicester.co.uk/
36 Fitzroy Street
Tel: (01223) 355473
49 Sidney Street
Tel: (01223) 362362
Barclays Bank plc http://www.barclays.co.uk/
Addenbrookes Hospital
15 Bene't Street
28 Chesterton Road
7 Clifton Court, Cherry Hinton Road
High Street, Histon
30 Market Hill
76 Newmarket Road
35 Sidney Street
Tel: (01223) 542000 (all branches)
Bradford & Bingley http://www.marketplace.co.uk/
9 Trinity Street
Tel: 01223 359745
Cheltenham and Gloucester plc
(Part of Lloyds TSB) http://www.cheltglos.co.uk/
4 Peas Hill
Tel: (01223) 366233
Fax: (01223) 368816
Co-operative Bank plc http://www.co-operativebank.co.uk/
75 Burleigh Street
Tel: 08457 212212
First Direct (24-hr Telephone Banking)
(A division of HSBC) http://www.firstdirect.com/
Tel: 0800 24 24 24
Halifax plc http://www.halifax.co.uk/home/index.shtml
30a Fitzroy Street
32-33 Petty Cury
Tel: 0845 605 0410 (all branches)
HFC Bank plc http://www.hfcbank.co.uk/
75 Regent Street
Tel: 01223 314822
HSBC Bank plc http://www.hsbc.co.uk/
62 Cherry Hinton Road
58 Chesterton Road
62 Hills Road
32 Market Hill
52 St Andrew's Street
Tel: 08457 404404 (all branches)
Royal Bank of Scotland plc http://www.rbs.co.uk/
82-88 Hills Road
Tel: (01223) 464424
Lloyds TSB Bank plc http://www.lloydstsb.com/
78 Cherry Hinton Road
Chesterton Road
90a Mill Road
95-97 Regent Street
3 Sidney Street
6 St Andrews Street
Tel: 0845 072 3333 (all branches)
National Westminster Bank plc http://www.natwest.co.uk/
10 Bene't Street
37 Fitzroy Street
High Street, Histon
High Street, Sawston
56 St. Andrew's Street
Customers tel: 0845 601 3366
General Enquiries: 0870 240 33 11
Nationwide Building Society http://www.nationwide.co.uk/default.htm
67 St Andrews Street
Tel: (01223) 542600
Fax: (01223) 542606
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Northern Rock plc http://www.northernrock.co.uk/index.asp
26-27 Sidney Street
Tel: (01223) 367638
Woolwich plc
(Part of Barclays Bank) http://www.woolwich.co.uk/
57-58 St Andrews Street
Tel: 0845 071 8155
Yorkshire Bank plc http://www.ybonline.co.uk/
6 Jesus Lane
Tel: (01223) 312929
2.4: Communications - Phones -
Landlines: The phone in your room (if there is one) will not automatically be connected; you
have to set up an account with a phone service. A landline will cost at least £10 a month and
more for additional services (like voice mail). You get free calls within Cambridge, but there are
charges for calling long distance numbers and mobile phones. A special internet phone service is
offered through some colleges which enables you to make really cheap calls but requires an
internet telephone. The initial setup is quite high (~£80), so over all, the service may not be
economical over the course of one single year in Cambridge.
Mobile/Cell Phones: The majority of people in Cambridge have mobile phones. Mobiles may
be a bit confusing at first, but nothing you can't figure out. If your US phone comes with a sim
card, you might be able to use it in the UK; check with your US provider to find out more about
this. It will more likely be the case that you'll need to purchase a new phone once in England. To
start, you purchase a phone, which may come with a specific service or provider (Orange, O2,
Vodafone, and BTCellnet are the most common), or if you buy it from a generic phone store
(Phones4U, The Carphone Warehouse) you'll be able to choose your provider. There are two
kinds of plans you can get: monthly charge or "pay-as-you-go". Monthly charge plans are like
those in the US, while for pay-as-you-go, you put money on the phone (kind of like a phone
card) and you only pay for the time you spend on calls you make (not on calls you receive- those
are free). If you spend a lot of time on your phone, the monthly charge plans tend to work out to
better per-minute rates than the pay-as-you-go plans, but remember that you'll be leaving before
the contract expires, meaning you'll end up paying for up to three months of bills when you
aren't using the phone. Most CME students choose the pay-as-you-go plan.
It costs different amounts to call landlines (least expensive), other mobiles of the same service
(cost varies), and mobiles of different services (most expensive). It also matters what time you
are calling (peak, off-peak, or weekends). As it is cheaper to call people who have the same
mobile phone service, when you're going to purchase a phone you should ask your friends what
service they use so maybe you can use the same one. (Many past CME students have used the
Orange and Virgin networks; of course, offers are bound to have changed, so check before you
buy.) In addition to receiving calls free, you also receive text messages (called SMS—Simple
Messaging Service) for free. The cost to send a text message varies, but is typically around 10p,
or there are some websites you can use to send free text messages (a good one is: http://www.cbfsms.comImage Removed).
Your best bet to choose a good plan is to check around at the various phone providers in
Cambridge to see what each has to offer. T-mobile and O2 are both by Lion's Yard, while
Phones4You, The Carphone Warehouse, and Orange are all on Market Street.
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UK mobile phones won't work back in the US (because they use different frequencies), so you
probably don't want to spend too much on one. Regarding the issue of taking your phone
outside of the UK, your plan might have something called "roaming," which means you can use
it in Europe, but it will cost a lot if you do (and it will no longer be free to receive calls). If
you're planning on calling the US frequently, you may want to invest in a landline, because
international calls on a mobile phone will be much more expensive than from a landline. If you
talk to your parents a lot and you have a mobile in Cambridge, you should convince them to call
you because it will be free for you on your mobile. From the US, there are different services
they can use to call you. One that has been known to give very good rates for calling UK
mobiles from the US is 10-10-987 (30 cents for the first minute and 3 cents for each minute after
that). If you want to call the US you need to dial 00 (the international prefix) +1 (US country
code), and then the area code and number. To call Britain from the US, you dial 001144 then
your number without the first zero. (For example if your Cambridge number is 01223 123456,
someone from the US should dial 001144 1223 123456.)
You may also be able to use Internet phone services that allow you to place and receive calls
with your computer. People who plan to call home frequently should investigate this option. The
most popular service is probably Skype (http://www.skype.comImage Removed), which offers a free download.
Computer-to-computer calls are free; additionally, you can set up an account and use your
computer to call the US, mobiles in the UK, or anyone else, for very low rates (usually about
$0.03 a minute). The clarity of the calls is very high, and all you'll need is a microphone (many
computers have these built-in) and speakers. Some colleges, though, put a limit on the amount of
bandwidth you're allowed to use, and that may limit your ability to take full advantage of Skype. - E-mail -
You will be given a Cambridge e-mail address, which will be your initials and then a number,
followed by '.cam.ac.uk' (ex: ab123@cam.ac.uk). All Colleges have computer rooms, which
can only be accessed by members of that College. For more about computing in Cambridge, see
section 2.5 below. Your Cambridge email can be checked through Cambridge webmail at https://webmail.hermes.cam.ac.uk/Image Removed or you can set up Eudora, Outlook, Mulberry or another mail
program on your computer. One important thing to realize: email has a different role at
Cambridge than it does at MIT. That is to say, it is not as widely or frequently used, so don't be
surprised if people are slow replying to your emails. - Post -
Your address, along with that of anyone else in your College, will just be the name of your
College, maybe the street name, then "Cambridge", and then the postcode, which varies
throughout Cambridge. You can find the exact address on your College website if you want to let
people know before you leave or if you want to mail anything to your College administration.
Example:
Stephen Hawking
Gonville and Caius College
Cambridge, England
CB2 1TA
When mail comes into the College, the porters sort it into peoples' pigeonholes or mailboxes.
This is where you'll also get announcements and flyers about events and other things going on in
Cambridge.
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The Cambridge University mail system (UMS) is free and operates during term, similar to MIT's
interdepartmental mail. Simply write the name and department/college of the recipient, and drop
it in the UMS box (located in your department and in colleges - ask your porters). If you want to
mail something nationally or internationally, you have to go to one of the many Post Offices. The
most convenient branches are (a) across from Trinity on Trinity St, (b) across from the
Engineering Department on Trumpington Rd, and (c) St. Andrew's street near Lionyard and
across from Bradwells Court. Mailing internationally is rather expensive, with the prices
depending on the weight of what you're sending. Visit the Post Office website for rates and
other information: http://www.postoffice.co.uk/portal/poImage Removed. Postcards to the US are 47p.
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