What is a National Insurance Number?

It’s the British equivalent to a social security number.  You must apply for one if you have the right to work in the UK.  It ensures that you pay taxes to the British government. You can also use it if you are claiming benefits or tax credits. 

You can apply for a National Insurance (NI) number by going to an interview at a local JobCentre.  In the interview you will have to prove your identity and that you are working, will start working or are looking for work. Interviews can be set up by calling the National Insurance Allocation service hotline, 0845 600 0643.

After the interview, you will get a card in the mail with your NI Number.  Like your social security number, you want to keep this secret.

Now you’re probably wondering why you should even bother getting a NI Number?  Most jobs will require that you provide one when they are putting you the company payroll.  If you don’t have one, you will be given a temporary number and will be put on an emergency tax rate which can be as high as 35%.  Trust me, there is nothing worse than seeing a large portion of your check taken out because you failed to get a National Insurance Number.  So be sure to get one.

You can find out more here.

Finding a Place to Live

Unlike many parts of the US, there are not huge apartment complexes here in the UK that you can just walk into a rental office, view an apartment and get in. Correction: There are apartment-like complexes littering Londontown. But those ladies and gentlemen are government housing aka the ghetto or as the Brits put it council estate.

Most rentals are privately owned and advertised either through an estate agent or through a website like Gumtree.com. You can find an estate agent on your local main street or high street in Brit-speak. They also tend to have website. So a simple Google search of “estate agent + London” should bring up plenty of hits.

Be leary of estate agents that ask for cash if you call about an amazing property that they advertised on their website. They don’t actually have that property. They just want you to pay to find other properties that may look like the one they advertised. Unless you are super busy, you really don’t need them to do this for you. An agent should show you a property free of charge and if they ask for money, just throw an American fit and tell them to go fuck themselves.

Of course Gumtree.com also has its scams. One in particular will advertise an amazing place in central London that’s pretty dirt cheap. A flat in Marylebone for only 500 GBP a month!!!!! They’ll write you and say that they only want serious viewers and ask that you agree to bring a deposit just in case you like the property. Now if you want to be robbed. Go right ahead and show up with a few hundred pounds to meet a stranger person in a strange home. Fingers crossed, you won’t be robbed. Or fingers crossed, they actually own or have a right to rent out the property! Illegal sublets to happen so be careful.

That being said like any other large city, the rental market is also very, very competitive. So if you see a property that you may want, I highly recommend taking it at the first chance that you get. Some landlords will want a deposit and the first month’s rent in hand before they sign a lease over to you. So when you view a property be sure that you have the funds to move in right away and try to sign the lease ASAP.

Something else to consider is that properties in London are advertised with a weekly rental price and not their monthly price. So to get an idea of what you’ll pay monthly for rent you can take a trip back to grade school math and use the following formula:

Monthly rent = (weekly rent x 52) /12

Now again, I’m not sure why properties are advertised in this way. In fact most landlords will insist that you stay for a minimum of 6 months. So you’d think that they’d at least advertise the monthly rent for their property, right? Wrong!

Also remember that London is a pricey city so be sure to take into account your utility bills as well as two taxes that are alien to Americans, TV and council tax. TV tax is the tax that you pay to have a TV. Sounds crazy right? But it’s used to pay for the free BBC shows. So instead of having those annoying telethons on your local PBS station, everyone has to chip in. It costs 142.50 GBP per year. Back in the day, they used to come door to door and check your property if you didn’t pay your TV tax. I don’t own a TV and did receive a letter saying that someone would come by. However, I called the TV Licensing people and let them know that I’m broke and don’t have to TV and was never harassed by them again.

Council tax on the other hand, is the tax that you pay for local services such as trash collection, library up-keep, etc. This is paid to the local council and your monthly costs depend on which council you live in, the type of flat that you live in as well as whether or not you are the sole occupant of the flat or if you have flatmates. The most expensive council tax is in Richmond while the least expensive is in Wandsworth. If you live in a basement flat your council tax may be more that in you lived in the top floor of the same building. It all depends on how the property is zoned. Also if you live on your own, you can get a discount on your council tax. Confused? Perplexed? You can enter the post code of the property you want to rent and get an idea of the council tax here. Or you could always just ask your landlord.