First day in Reading

Where am I? was the first thought in my mind when I woke first time today. The bad is different and the pillows are hard, but I slept actually quite well and I decided just lay in the bed for some time. Charging my batteries and all that. I got up around ten, ate breakfast, updated the blog and then I decided to find a bank. Nice and easy day, or that's what I thought in the morning. It has been a very warm day so I decided to walk to the center, much easier and it was nice to look around, find new places and routes.

So I got on my way after twelve and it took around twenty five minutes for me to walk to the centre, I was walking so slowly. The first bank that I visited was called Barcalays and it was located on Broad St. It looked like a nice bank, I walked inside, waited for a little while and then a woman came to me and asked who she can help me. I told that I would like to open a bank account. Then she said that I need to have a identification and a proof of residence. I thought it was okay, because I had my passport and tenancy agreement. But it wasn't because the tenancy agreement wasn't enough. I should have had a letter, for example a bill or a letter from my employer, sent to the address where I live. It would have taken to next next that I would have gotten the account opened so I decided to find another bank.

On the same street was a bank called Lloyds. Again I went inside, said that I wanted to open a bank account and this time she only asked for my passport. I thought that this time it would be easier. Then she said that there are no available times until the next Tuesday. I could not believe my luck. I thanked the lady and walked away. One block away, there was third bank and it was called HSBC. I had read before moving to UK, that it was quite hard to open an account there if you were a foreigner. I still decided to try, give it a chance. I should have not done that. They asked for identification, proof of address and national insurance number. I just thanked the person and continued the search.

The next bank that I found, was called NatWest. I had read about it and people said it would be easy to open an account there and I could have succeeded if my landlady would have not been private. That was the only problem with my tenancy agreement. At that point I was starting to get annoyed and little bit tired. But the person who I talked with said that I should try Metro Bank on Oxford Rd.

I started my journey there, but just before I was there, I noticed this other bank called TSB, just across the Metro Bank. I walked inside and said to teller that I want to open an account and he directed me to a person who hopefully could help me with it. There I said the problem and after some time, it first looked like that I could not open an account there without the National Insurance Number. Then she called to somebody and asked about it and they told that I could open the account just with my passport. I was so happy about it. The opening took around 30 minutes and after opening the account, I went to Tesco, bought some food, walked home and unpacked my bags and then decided to take it easy for the rest of the evening. The next things I should take care of is getting a sim card, national insurance number and a bus card. But that is for another day.

Feeling like home

Bags are unpacked

Blue sky and no rain