In reply to Peter Stansky's post, there is a way to avoid the L10 charge
on the initial deposit. I found that if you get traveler's cheques drawn
on the bank in which you are opening a new account, the bank doesn't
charge a fee. Therefore, we opened an account at Barclays because we
could get travelers cheques in sterling drawn on Barclays at our bank
here in the States. In the end then, we pay nothing for our account in
the UK and even get a little interest - I wish someone with clout in US
banking took lessons from the UK!
John Dwyer
University of Colorado, Boulder