Citibank vs. NatWest

Advice needed, please...I have accepted an assignment to work in the UK for the next couple of years.  I will be paid by the British firm into a UK account.  The firm I'm working with has relationships with Citibank and Natwest.  Could any of you please provide any recommendations you may have regarding banking with these institutions.  I expect to be commuting quite a bit for the first 12-18 months as my family remains in the U.S.  Therefore, I will be transferring money from the UK back to US pretty consistently as I maintain my household in the U.S. and a flat in the UK.  On the website, it looked like Citibank had a facility for doing this in a convenient, cost efficient manner.

I use Citibank.  The school I work for also works closely with Citibank.  We were able to start opening up an account early using our school's address as our main address...thus expediting the proceedure (it still takes quite a while to open up the account compared to the US).  I haven't had a problem with them.  The only 'issue' is that they only have a few actual branches, so if you have to talk to someone in person, and don't live/work near a branch, it's a pain.  Natwest has more branches.

As for US dollars.  You could open up a US dollar account there to pay for anything in the US.  Like all banks, it's expensive to transfer money regardless to another bank.

Sorry I don't have much info for you.   

If you're wanting to move money around, it would probably be best to go with Citibank and open a US account with them too.  Also, look into their offshore accounts, as that might be a good way for you to make payments back and forth as well.