Dumb money questions

We don\'t have any bank accounts in the UK.  Can I use my debit/check card from my bank (we have Wachovia and Bank of America) at stores and just swipe it like I would in the US?  Like, say I go to buy groceries in the UK and use my BOA check card.  Will it work?  Do they charge fees like withdrawing at an ATM does?

Also I plan on calling my bank to find out, but what is the average ATM withdrawal limit?  Is it cheaper to just withdraw money every day (until we get British bank accounts) to have cash and make an initial deposit into an account?  Or would it be cheaper to use something like PayPal/Western Union, etc.?

It might be different with your bank but mine I made big cash withdrawls each time because I think every time I went to the cash machine I was charged abotu $5.00 by my US bank.

You can use your card most places, despite what the cashiers say. You just need to tell them to swipe it. Over here we use a chip & pin system where you put your card into this reader thingy and enter your pin and the cashier doesnt touch your card at all.  But, if you say they need to swipe it, it shouldnt be a problem. I used mine like this for about a year and although it was a pain for me and I got some looks from the cashiers, it worked perfectly fine. Although, I do think that I was also charged a fee for using the card like this from my US bank, so if it wasnt a large amount, I would usually pay cash. Does your card have a visa/mastercard logo?

It does have a Visa logo.  I also have a US credit card through CITI that has a Visa logo.  So it sounds like I should be fine to use my US cards until I can get UK ones?

Check card will work fine, just have the clerk swipe it. I still use mine all the time with no problems. With ATM's my bank only charges me $.75 per withdrawl from the machines only.

Everever, since you have a Bank of America check card, your cheapest option would be to withdraw your money at Barclays ATMs.  Neither Barclays or BofA charge you.  Everytime you use the card elsewhere you will be charged by BofA for both using the card and another charge for the exchange rate.  You will need to contact your bank to see what your daily withdrawal limit is.

If you do the withdrawal everyday from a Barclays ATM, that would be cheaper than a bank transfer.  But I don't know how much money you are talking about here...if it is more than a week's worth of withdrawals, it might just be easier to do a one time transfer.  Sometimes, convenience and time are more valuable than the money!

The American banks do charge for withdrawing cash from the cash machine and I would go with the one that has the biggest limit on it and try and get the money for the week or more so you do not keep getting charged, any bank here will not charge you (there cash point machines) its your bank in the US.

Indy

If you are going to use your card - like at Barclays which Karrit suggested and which is what we frequently did visiting there - make sure you call Bank of Maerica to wanr them so they don't freeze your account for weird or excessive overseas use. We've had that happen to us and it was a pain in the arsse to say the least.

Before we moved here I called my credit union and asked several questions, pretty much the ones you are asking:  what is my daily maximum amount I can withdrawal from an atm and what is the maximum amount I can charge to my debit and will it be the same amount times two (cause dh and I have a card each). I also asked what is the charge for using my debit card at the atm and at stores.
Also, definitely make sure to tell your banks that you are coming over here and that you will be using, even if you don't plan to use one of them. 
Using your debit card will be no problem.  What I usually do (sometimes I still have to do this because my Barclays debit card messes up), I tell them that this is an American card.  So they know they have to swipe it.  I can't put it into the hand held thingy where you put your British debit card. 

Also, just like you said, I would withdrawal money using my American debit card and then turned around and deposited it to my new Barclays account.  Finally I called my credit union to see if they did money transfers and how much it would be.  For me the $8 my credit union charges is worth it rather than having to go to the atm machine to take out money. 
And one more thing, I liked that w/the Barclays debit card we could change our pin code.  They gave us an initial pin code of course but then we could easily change it by going to a machine.  So that way you can choose a number that you are already used to, if that is what you would like to do.