Can housing be obtained without UK credit

I will be moving to the UK at the end of next year and I wanted to know if it was possible to get housing without having credit.  I am a UK citizen living in the US but I left when I was 5 yrs old.  I am currently in grad school and plan on moving at the end of May or if needs be in December 2012.  

My problem is I will not have any UK credit and am not sure if I will be able to get housing without it.  (I guess I will need credit for my cell phone among other things as well).  Anyway, I welcome all responses.  Thanks

Until you hear from someone else I'll give my two cents worth.
On the housing I believe you are thinking of renting right? The biggest obstacle is references because that seems to be the big thing in the UK. If you are going into a student area maybe the references will not be as necessary other than that they require a significant amount of money up front and in a FEW cases 6 months rent.
Think references! I don't know how we get references in the US.
Next money!

Hi Cheers,

Yes I am thinking about renting.  I think this is going to be one of my biggest obstacles.  I'll think about references and hope that maybe I can get one from my job (in UK).  Exactly what kind of references are they looking for?

I've only rented with private landlords, but it hasn't been an issue. (That said, I already had a job when I started hunting for flats.) They wanted references from work (basically stating that I'm employed/not likely to get fired anytime soon) and previous landlords. My current landlord also wanted previous bank statements because I didn't have a guarantor (i.e. co-signor) for my lease agreement. I sent those over, showing that I could pay for several months' rent even without a job, and she was fine with it.

I've heard of folks having to pay rent up front since they don't have credit and/or jobs, but so far (knock on wood) I haven't run into that.

Until you hear from someone else I'll give my two cents worth.
On the housing I believe you are thinking of renting right? The biggest obstacle is references because that seems to be the big thing in the UK. If you are going into a student area maybe the references will not be as necessary other than that they require a significant amount of money up front and in a FEW cases 6 months rent.
Think references! I don't know how we get references in the US.
Next money!

My BIL rents privately and last year had to move due to his flat being sold.  He's a UKC and worked and rented in this country for many years.  He had loads of references.  However, because he had just recently started a new job and was considered a temp for the first six months, he had to pay for 6 months upfront on his new flat.

I've only rented with private landlords, but it hasn't been an issue. (That said, I already had a job when I started hunting for flats.) They wanted references from work (basically stating that I'm employed/not likely to get fired anytime soon) and previous landlords. My current landlord also wanted previous bank statements because I didn't have a guarantor (i.e. co-signor) for my lease agreement. I sent those over, showing that I could pay for several months' rent even without a job, and she was fine with it.

I've heard of folks having to pay rent up front since they don't have credit and/or jobs, but so far (knock on wood) I haven't run into that.

How do you go about finding private landlords?  Were you able to open a bank account upon arrival to the UK without references?

My BIL rents privately and last year had to move due to his flat being sold.  He's a UKC and worked and rented in this country for many years.  He had loads of references.  However, because he had just recently started a new job and was considered a temp for the first six months, he had to pay for 6 months upfront on his new flat.

Wow having to pay 6 months in advance is steep. My hope is to find employment before I leave the US and hopefully that will alleviate  the need for 6 months upfront

It really depends where you're going to be. The 6 month thing seems to be much more the norm in southeast England than rural Scotland, for example. I think you said you'll be in London, so you may face that. Your best bet may to be look for a short term share on Gumtree or something so that you have a place to start out, and that will provide you with a reference for the next place.

How do you go about finding private landlords?  Were you able to open a bank account upon arrival to the UK without references?

I found my current place on Gumtree, my previous two places (searching for flatshares) were on spareroom.co.uk.

Lloyds TSB gave me a current account with overdraft when I was here visiting prior to moving (so: no job, no permanent address yet). This was in 2009, though, and I was a dual citizen (though they claimed they would have been able to use my US passport rather than my UK one).

My wife (UKC) has UK credit - a Barclaycard for 20 years in good standing as well as a Barclays current account and savings account- and we had to provide 6 months rent up front. The letting agent's main concern was my lack of employment in the UK, even though I've been employed by HSBC for 7 years in the US and will be transferring.

We've never had trouble renting, but maybe that's due to location. We've rented one place in Newcastle, and two places in Worcestershire. DH (UKC) moved to Germany right after university and lived there for 3 years before we met and then moved to the UK and tried renting. Any potential credit he had would've come from his student days 3 years before, when he didn't have many financial commitments and wasn't all that responsible with money. I'd also opened a student bank account in the UK years before but besides that had no credit.

At all three places we've only ever had to pay the standard 1 or 1.5 months rent as a deposit and then just paid rent monthly in advance. We'd actually moved to Newcastle for a job offer, so DH had been at his job less than a month when we started that lease. The other two leases we got when DH was self-employed and had really erratic income and I was only working part-time, but neither landlord seemed to mind.

I found the reference thing a bit strange. They did want a reference from our last landlord. Our second landlord was incredibly slow and would only reply to things by post, so instead of that reference our current landlord accepted a copy of our last tenancy agreement and 6 months worth of bank statements to prove that we paid our rent on time. The other references they all wanted were two character references for each of us. One of my character references was my mom's best friend in America who's known me almost my whole life, and the other was a British co-worker of my MIL who I'd met a few times in the UK.

If you do run into trouble with not having enough credit I agree with the idea of living in a houseshare until you find a place to rent. That way you'll have time to find a landlord who is okay with your circumstances (or if that's really difficult you can start building up your credit by maybe opening a bank account, starting a job, etc), and you'll also get to visit the places in person before deciding.

I don't think you'll have a problem with either opening a bank account or getting a mobile phone contract. From personal experience we haven't ever had problems with either of those. There are threads on here about opening bank accounts and which banks are more difficult than others, and if you are having trouble you can always open a low-risk account for the bank that doesn't have an overdraft or reserve. With mobile phones if you have trouble getting a contract there are also plenty of Pay as You Go (PAYG) deals where I don't think they'd care about your credit rating.

My British DH had never rented in the UK before but we were able to get a flat with a private landlord for just one month's rent up front and the equivalent as a deposit.  They did a credit check on us and we had to give our employers as references, but that was it.  I was really surprised by how easy it was.  However, I had been in the UK for a year by that time, and had been working for six months.  This is in Dorset (southwest).

Thanks everyone for the response.  I will take a look at the recommended websites and consider a houseshare if I have difficulty.  My plan is to live in London, however I am open to other areas as well.

It's good to know that I probably will not have problems opening a bank account or a mobile account.  I think the difficult for renting will be trying to do it from the US before I make the move.  By the way, what does DH mean?  I see it being used here  quite frequently and I'm assuming it means husband or significant other, but not quite sure.  Thanks

It's good to know that I probably will not have problems opening a bank account or a mobile account.

You will likely have difficulties getting a mobile contract (standard response is "must have 3 years' residency", though I've gotten on a 12-month contract recently with only 1 year's residency). You can do PAYG, though, which is still quite cheap (especially if people call you ).

By the way, what does DH mean?  I see it being used here  quite frequently and I'm assuming it means husband or significant other, but not quite sure.  Thanks

It stands for "dear husband".

When I moved 3.5 years ago, it was just me all alone, I rented with a private landlord, found through a letting agency- I had a letter from my employer saying what my salary was gonna be and I just paid a deposit and that was it.  So I think it all depends.