First I'd like to thank everyone on this board who offered up their advice back in November and December. My family and I have successfully moved in and after a month are settling in pretty well.
I put together a list of tips relevant to my situation that I hope will be of value to the other members of the board. I should point out that all of this is for a family of four:
1 - COLA - My company offered me a package that basically converted my US comp package to Sterling. This is proving to be adequate and we have more or less the same standard of living as we did in the US.
2 - Relocation Bonus - We got $5K grossed up and really could have used $10K.
3 - Mobile Phones - Tried desperately to get one before we moved over but couldn't. Eventually got one through 02 but had to put down a 150GBP deposit.
4 - Bank Account - We literally went to the bank the day we arrived and are glad we did. In many ways you can't function here until you get a bank account. Also, the sooner you can get your UK account set up the sooner you'll stop paying fees on our US debit/credit cards. We use HSBC...they seem fine. PS, I tried the Citibank Global Executive thing and it isn't worth it. Instead, I have a contact at my local bank in the US who will wire money when requested (via email). It works well and is significantly cheaper than Citibank.
5 - Relocation Agent - I suppose I should have put this at the top of my list. We used Dovetail Relocation Services out of London. I can't even begin to describe how much easier they made it for us. They helped us find a place, find schools, set up utilities, get our furniture moved in and even did a few days of orientation after we arrived. It was costly (probably $10K) but well worth it particularly if you can get your company to pay for it.
6 - Wimbledon - We settled in Wimbledon. Good transport links. A nice blend of suburb and city with good schools. I can't speak for any other areas but we like it here.
7 - Housing Expense - We pay 4,600GBP a month for rent for a 5BR, 2BA detached house in Wimbledon. Admittedly it's an insane amount but it's pretty middle of the road (at least from what we saw) for London.
8 - Phone/Cable/Broadband - We opted for one of the SKY packages. I can't remember what it's called but it's 70GBP a month which covers all the channels SKY has, broadband and unlimited local calls AND calls to the US. I think you can probably do it cheaper with separate providers but for us this was the most convenient option.
9 - Council Tax - When negotiating your expat package make sure you factor this into costs. For us it's over $5,000 a year.
10 - US Mail - We kept our house in the US but had our email forwarded to a local Mailboxes, Etc. The owner of the place will FedEx mail to us here every two weeks or sooner if I request. It costs me about $35 each time depending on the amount of mail. The system works well but is entirely reliant on the owner of the place.
11 - Schooling - Our boys are 6 and 7 and we chose to put them in a private, British school. Because of their age we felt there was a pretty low risk of curriculum rejection and while there were a few rough days early on, they are settling in well. It is worth pointing out that they were slightly behind the other students but the school is doing a nice job in catching them up. As an example, the Year 1 students here read chapter books and are learning multiplication. These were not things my youngest son was being taught in his US kindergarten class.
12 - General - In general our experience has been positive thus far. The weather isn't as bad as advertised, the food is great and the people we have met are nice, helpful and willing to engage. Culturally, London is another universe compared to where we moved from and we feel confident that our entire family will be enriched by the experience.
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