Well, gonna keep this short. i will be moving to London for my post grad inshallah . i see that quite a few of you here are from the uk. it will be great if you guys can help me out a little. well, I wanted to know a costimate for a calendar month. From my utilities to transportation.
My universities will be near kings cross and the Liverpool street station.
I would want to have a place that is somewhere in between the two locations. So, how much can I secure an apartment for (sharing and non sharing) in central London. Any idea guys? I have been to London in the past and I love the public transportation. Thankfully it is not crazy as New Yorks phewww I would have died otherwise. I am kinda concerned about the monthly passes thou. The daily tickets that I would purchase during my stay there were kinda pricey…so how much are the monthly passes for ?Also, the transportation - I believe is split into zones. How much and how far will I be able to travel on a pass?
Next, well how easy is it to find a part time job and what is the average minimum wage like?
Okay I’m done. Those were all my questions .. Well for now I will appreciate your input and help.
PM me what you are studying and at what institution. If you are only here for 1 year, by far the best option would be to secure University accommodation, if the institution has it. If you have accepted your place well before the deadline and applied for accommodation, you will most likely get it. If the institution does not have their own halls of residence or if you can’t get a place, it will have to be private halls of residence that are usually £200+ / week. Halls of residence are hassle free, you don’t have bills on top, you will be fairly central. If you share with people it generally ends up being the same per month for the room+bills+extra transport costs if you’re not so central. Yea, you could save £100-200 a month if you share in a not so nice place that is central.. but if you can afford the extra why would you want to.
In terms of where to live, you don’t necessarily want to be geographically in the middle of those two locations but rather where there are good transport links to both.
Actually, most universities have answers to all your questions on their websites but I can help you out if you can provide some more info.
You can get a student oyster card which gives you 1/3 off weekly and monthly travel cards. London is divided into 6 zones. Buy your travel card depending on what zones you’ll actually need.
TFL website would be useful to look at for prices, zones, journey planner etc.
Yeh like uzzy said you can get a student oyster card (oyster card is required for travel in london) providing your University is on the list of eligible institutions and you are studying above the minimum required hours. You have to fill in the form in online and pay for the card and it takes about a week to get it. You can only do this after you are officially enrolled in the University so you will need to perhaps buy a full rate weekly ticket before that. Transport for London have also radically changed the way they charge starting this year so whereas previously it may have been cheaper to buy a weekly student travelcard (for example), now, depending on your hours and mode of transport it may be cheaper to just pay-as-you-go on the Oyster.
Also, this:
“You must have an 18+ Student Oyster photocard to get 30% off 7 Day, Monthly and longer period Travelcards. You can get a 34% discount on off-peak pay as you go fares and off-peak daily caps on Tube, DLR and London Overground if you get a 16-25 National Railcard and add the discount entitlement to your 18+ Student Oyster photocard.
You need an 18+ Student Oyster photocard or an Oyster card to use pay as you go and benefit from daily capping. You do not need an 18+ Student Oyster photocard to pay cash single fares or to buy Day Travelcards.”
Also, depending on where you live, you may be able to easily take the bus and therefore buy a weekly bus pass (much cheaper) and then only need to pay single fares if/when you use the tube.
We regularly have family acquaintances coming over to study in London and I was in postgrad for a long time where a lot of my friends were international students, so I’m pretty well acquainted with all the issues.
I will appreciate your input and help.
thank you