Living in London, I knew it would not be easy to set up life in a new country all on my own, I even thought I was prepared for this, thousands of Australians do it all the time and I had been planning to do it since I was 18, but I am going to share with you the biggest tip to moving to London and let you learn from my mistakes.

Overseas Working Hoilday – (OWH)

Let me first explain what the company do, Overseas Working Holiday is a company that works with residents of Australia, New Zealand and South Africa looking to work and live in the UK. For a certain sum of money they promise to help you find a job, accommodation, help arriving, visa services and other such “ultra helpful” items you just “can not do without” You are basically paying for piece of mind. The truth of the matter is, you DO NOT need this service!!!

The company have many packages for assistance in the UK and other countries. Services such as; Visa assistance and arrival packs that “help get you set up” or “guarantee no mistakes in your visa application” These are still unnecessary expenses and to be honest they do not give you any information or help you cant google yourself or ask a hostel about on arrival.

They also offer employment services such as live in pub and nanny job guarantees. These jobs are advertised all over the UK, the difference being OWH claim to guarantee a job… im still a little unsure of how they can when on my first week in the hostel I met a girl who had purchased the live in pub job but never got the job. I would suggest not to rely or pay any money for this sort of service, simply try your luck whilst your here, or even contact perspective employers beforehand.

I bought the Premium package which consist of;

• 3 free nights hostel stay in Fulham
• Tier 5 UK visa service (excluding the British Consulates fee, of course)
• Job guarentee program
• £30 a day Job guarantee insurance
• Accommodation program
• Arrival pack
• basically I was sucker that paid for the whole thing

3 Nights in the hostel:

I was told  “someone will greet you and check you in to our modern hostel where you can stay for 3 nights for free, helping to save you money so you dont have to spend your hard earned travel savings” When I arrived, tired, jetlagged, scared and confused (Their building is not very self explanatory and I obviously cannot use my phone) I waited outside in the cold for over half an hour before someone greeted me to check me in, later I was told that the wait was because mr staff member who was meant to check me in was way too drunk to address me and I had to be checked in by a friend of his (point one for OWH very professional and reassuring)

I was a little bit worried about the program when I first landed as any correspondence with the company just seemed full of misunderstandings, confusion and lack of communication throughout the company.

My first night was a shock to the system, I was in the communal kitchen having dinner and was basically told from the beginning how terrible and what a let down the program is, I was hearing everyone’s stories about the horrible pay and jobs they did and the terrible houses they had been shown.

I had met one girl who had come to check in to the hostel but it had been overbooked, the company had no idea about her although her money had been paid. She had to be moved to a different hostel. I tried to keep an open mind but as everyone had the same stories and opinions it made it very hard to keep positive.

“Clearly, my miss understanding”

What I figured would happen is I spend 3 days in this hostel, close to their office either working or being shown houses and in 3 days I would be out of there because this company was super organised and already had houses and shifts of work lined up. I got this impression from their marketing and emphasis on how much time and money joining the program would save me. 2 days in the hostel and I wasn’t working nor was I scheduled for training, I was not visiting houses, I was told they had none suitable for me yet, I was basically playing the waiting game, which to me seemed a waste of time and money, quite the opposite to what their marketing material claims.

Arrival pack:

The arrival pack consisted of,

• Assistance setting up a bank & free money transfer
• London information pack
• 30% discount London  sightseeing
• 24/7 emergency contact details
• UK sim card

We were told it was very hard to get a UK bank account without having an address so it would be wise to take up this arrival pack. Yes you do need an address before getting a bank account, but the same rule applied with their program so I dont understand what they did any different. It was a quick enough process, find an address, choose a bank. Once again their assistance is unnecessary.

Plus having this program meant the bank was chosen for me rather then me getting to comapre the difference. Going with this company caused more hassle then help, their bank was in Fulham, I had found a house in east end, so to get my bank set up I had to travel to fulham numerous times.Doing it myself I would of walked into the nearest bank and saved time, everything would of been easier. I never once used the free bank transfer or the sight seeing discounts, and how about those 24/7 emergency contacts? would that be the same person who “checked me into my hostel” in the beginning?

The sim card was the worst and final straw for me. It never worked!!! every time I topped up credit it would take my pounds and never top up, noone has ever heard of Nomi, the provider they use. although my top ups were meant to allow me a certain amount of internet usage It never let me get onine. This made moving to London difficult, I could never use the internet to find my way around and was always struggling to get in contact with perspective employees. Had I of just done everything on my own I would of gone with a simple, well known provider and not had any of the drama, which I did in the end, so still nothing they have done has helped.

The London information pack, which claims to help you with things such a getting an NI number and other “must knows” are simply things I could of easily googled or researched myself. I have included a PDF of the information pack on my tips page so you can see for yourself. They also claim to help get you an NI number, their help was basically they gave me a number to call… when I asked if I could use their phone to call the NI service since their sim card never worked I was told no. What help?!

The job:

Oh but Rebecca, didnt you mention a job guarentee… that cant be too bad right? As I mentioned the job training had to be done first (basically a big waste of an unpaid day) It took me a couple of days before I could even do the training and once the training is done they give you a “trial shift” this trial shift is counted as your first day so either way they have fulfilled their promise to find you a job.

I would speak to people I worked with about the lack of shifts they were getting, this went for the hospitality work I was doing and the fitting jobs advertised. People were basically living from their savings as the pay was the minimum wage and their are not enough shifts to go around, meaning most people (myself included had to find another job themselves) there was no way to survive and certainly no chance to “save money”

Hospitality work was not for me and I soon found this out. I was not ready to apply for design work as I knew I would be doing a lot of traveling, so I fell back on my office work experience and got a really good job paying enough to help me survive and save. This was all done within weeks and with a simple matter of applying through job agencies and being proactive. No need to pay for a guarentee job that I would not enjoy or make enough money.

The accommodation:

No really maybe I should give these guys a break I mean they do a great job… at failing! So im taken into a one on one meeting to discuss accommodation, not very hopeful that im going to get the kind of treatment I had hoped for as so far everything I was told in the kitchen on the first day was correct.

Through the brochure I was given I was under the impression I could find shared accomadation (room share) between 65-85 pounds a week, fair enough, glad I have somewhere to aim for. I had told the lady in the interview I was happy to share a room as I am a single traveler and on a budget, but I want a good location and something clean and well… liveable. I was sent on the tube to a place pretty far away, when I arrived to the house, the real estate agent was an hour late and I sat outside waiting in the cold and rain for him. He showed me a room with a double bed that was suitable for 2 people, now obviously (this confuses me how the mistake happened but maybe its just me) I had said I am a single person, and on a budget… not I am a couple and happy to pay for a huge double bed room about 120 pounds per week. waste of time, money, trip = fail, I am still and will probably be for a while trying to make sense of the situation and trying to figure out the logic of sending me there.

The house was sharing with an old man who made me feel very confortable and the house was not livable and an absolute mess! I was then offered to look at a house in leytonstone (an hour away and zone 3, I do remember saying location was important.. fail # 2) I was then told in about a week a room in the company house was available for 90 pounds a week…. sorry but I did mention 85 as budget… am I speaking to myself?

Doing it on my own:

I knew I wouldnt be happy waiting tables for 6 pounds an hour and I knew I wouldnt be happy waiting 5 months to get a house a million miles away from central London and I knew I needed the internet and a simcard that worked, and I started to see that OWH was a big fat fail! Getting all of this and really setting up in London was much easier then I thought it would be. The shit hit the fan so to speak and I snapped. The next day I contacted about a million different house share adveritsments and within a week I had found a fantastic house in Zone 2 for cheaper then anything OWH had offered.

Once I had moved in, within the space of a week I registered with 7 different job agencies and spent my time going to see them and chase them up for work, The next Monday I had a job paying much more then OWH could of ever offered. lastly I simply walked into an O2 shop and got a new sim card. Things were much easier then I thought.

My advice, check out websites like

• tnt magazine – A free magazine and informative website targeting Australians, New Zealanders and South Africans living in London. It includes club listings, travel deals, information from back home and advice on how to get settled.
• gumtree – a free adveritsing website, comes in handy for everything from finding a job to finsing a house
• reed.com – job finding website
• Spare room – good place to find a house to stay in
• Egoli-sucks – A hilarious and informative website writen by people who get screwed over by Egoli and OWH
• Monster – another job finding website

stay away from websites like

• OWH – A big fat scam!

Yes sure piece of mind, but that was a lot of money for piece of mind I didnt really need. The problem with joining this program apart from all of the above, is that once it all turns to crap you feel stupid for ever purching the program. Not a nice feeling on top of all the drama of setterling in.

In the end, alls well that ends well. I having been in London for 7 months, done some travel and am pretty content with life, work and house but I certainly did not need to purchase any program or help and would advise anyone to reconsider before doing so.