Banking

There's an interesting paradox here. In order to open a bank account, one needs some sort of reference (usually in the form of a utility bill in your name). But in order to get such a utility bill, you obviously need a residence. To get a residence, you simply choose a place to rent or buy, put a deposit on it and..oh, wait...how do you put a deposit on a residence if you don't have a bank account?!?

Fortunately, the company provides a reference letter and helps with contacting the bank, so the above isn't as much of an issue as I'd expected. But there's another problem. We have money in our US bank account (though not much :)) which we will use to deposit into our UK bank account. But how do we deposit funds in one currency into an account which expects another? I suppose we could bring a suitcase full of cash (or, in our case, more like a small shaving kit) with us and change it at the Thomas Cook in the airport, but then there's the obvious problems associated with walking around with a wad of money. Hmm.