This has been my experience too. For my American friends: all "checking" in the UK is free. All ATM use for normal ATMs (those you find at banks, not the shady

This has been my experience too. For my American friends: all "checking" in the UK is free. All ATM use for normal ATMs (those you find at banks, not the shady ones at the convenience store) are free, even if that bank isn't yours. This is obviously only a day-to-day thing, but I think most people have expressed feelings of ambivalence about banking in the comments here: it's somewhere to store money. In the general case, the UK banks do that better. I do not have any experience with anything advanced like mortgages or loans.