American Healthcare

I'm not even going to try to start to explain that.

Oh all right then, but not much. It's very complicated. You have to pay, but no one knows how much. Not even the doctor or the dentist seems to know how much until several days after you've left, when you either get a demand for more money, or a check because you overpaid. Or sometimes both. On the same day.

You'll have health insurance (probably). That means that they'll pay for some doctors (in network), and they'll pay less for other doctors (out of network) and they won't pay some doctors. Your health insurance will cost you, or more likely your employer, a lot

Holidays / Vacations in the US

A holiday isn't a time off work - it's a special day. Mother's Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving, etc are all holidays. Even if you go to work.

Mother's day isn't the same day as the UK, but you'll have problems missing it.

Halloween is big on trick or treating (obviously). When it comes to halloween, the rule is that if you have your porch light on, you'll be expected to give out candy. If you're after candy, go to the houses which have their porch lights on. People dress up at halloween, but you are allowed to dress up as anything you like - it doesn't need to be halloween related, as long as you are dressed up. People often dress up at work, again, it doesn't matter what you dress up as.

Thanksgiving is a big thing - it's a 2 day event, making 4 days of festivity. People traditionally go home to their families, causing all kinds of travel chaos around that time. Avoid going on any road trips, or airports, around that weekend. The nice thing about thanksgiving is that no one needs to worry about 'the real meaning of thanksgiving'. The real meaning of thanksgiving is to sit around, eat, drink and (possibly) watch (American) football on the TV. Which leads to ..

Christmas is a much smaller thing than in the UK. My theory is that this is partly because of thanksgiving. You've just had a holiday which involves sitting around eating, drinking and seeing family, so it feels strange to have another devoted to the same thing - particularly when there is more religious belief amongst christians (who might need to worry about the true meaning of Christmas) and more non-Christians, who don't worry about Christmas. Boxing Day doesn't exist, and it's not a holiday. You go back to work on the 26th. Places don't close much at Christmas - you can go to the movies, lifeguards work at the beaches (I know this, because we were admonished by a lifeguard for being on the beach after dark, when it was supposed to be closed.)

As in the UK, there are a few other days scattered around where you don't go to work. The complication is that some of these are 'federal' holidays, which anyone who works for the government gets off - that means no post, no school, etc, on those days. But everyone else has to go to work.

Here's a list:

1st Jan: New Year's Day.

3rd Monday in January: Martin Luther King day (Federal holiday)

3rd Monday in February: President's Day (Federal, I think)

Last monday in May: Memorial Day

First monday in September: Labor Day

2nd Monday in October: Columbus Day (Federal)

November 11th: Veteran's Day (Federal)

4th Thursday in November: Thanksgiving

25th December: Christmas day

American Language

We speak the same language, in theory, but we use a lot of different words. You can read about these in books, or look them up on web pages (like this one) , so I won't bother to list them. You will, however, forget, when you are put on the spot. So try to be prepared. Before buying petrol, remember that it's called gas. The one to really watch out for is chips. Chips are crisps, if you want chips, you need to ask for fries. You can know this, but it will take at least one disappointment before you remember for good.

Swearing

You should obvious be as careful (or careless) about offending people as you would be in the UK, but there is a little variation. The word piss, or pissed, especially to mean annoyed, is not as offensive as in the UK. The word twat is more offensive.

Getting a Credit History in the US

A problem I have already alluded to is your credit history. Without a credit history, there is a lot you can't do. But it's hard to get a credit history, because you can't do stuff to get one. Some providers will give you a really rubbish credit card, where you are required to put money into an account, and then they will let you spend it on your credit card. But it gives you the beginning of a credit history.

There is quite an art to getting your credit score higher. Having credit cards, or loans (which you pay back) or bank accounts helps. And the longer you have them, the better. Having credit cards that have lots of clear balance on them helps too - the more spare balance on your card, the better. BUT you have to use the card a bit, to show that you can use it and pay it back. The ideal (I read somewhere) is to use 35% of your credit limit each month, and then pay it back.

But, don't apply for credit cards to try to get a better score, because every time you apply for a card, they run a credit check on you. And every time they run a credit check, it hurts your credit score a little. I have an American Express card, and I realised that my credit score was hurting because I was using it each month (it was a 1% cashback one), so I applied for a higher credit limit. I'd had the card for 6 months, and had religiously paid the balance every month - in fact, I was so scared of a black mark that I paid it almost weekly. When I applied for a higher limit, they didn't take this into account, they ran my credit score, which came back saying that my balances were too close to the limit on my credit card, so they wouldn't give me a higher limit. (But I wanted a higher limit...)

Then I applied for a mortgage, and found that the credit check American Express had run had knocked my credit score just enough that I couldn't get the mortgage I applied for (and because I'd applied, that was another hit against my credit score. Aaaghhh!)

In theory you can get your credit score once per year from the credit agencies, Experian, Equifax and TransUnion. They don't make it especially easy though. I now keep track of my credit with TrueCredit, which costs $15/month, but lets me keep an eye on it.

Insurance companies and prospective employers might also run a credit check, to see what kind of person you are.

Pets in the USA

Again, my knowledge is of Los Angeles / California. I don't know how true this is of other places (if you know, tell me). Vets are expensive. Some pet stores will offer some vet services, such as vaccinations, for much cheaper on specific days - like Sunday mornings.

Dogs

Lots pf people have dogs. But where you can take those dogs, and what you can do with them is pretty restricted. You cannot let your dog off the leash (lead) in parks, or in open countryside, or in national parks, unless it's specifically allowed - which means you're in a dog park.

Dogs need to be licenced - if you're old enough to remember dog licences costing 37 1/2 pence from the post office, you're in for a shock. They are around $70.

Cats

Cats are common, but tend to be kept indoors more - partly because of the range of exotic fauna that wants to eat or at least injure your cat (think coyotes, rattlesnakes, racceoons).

Shops

Lots of chains don't have branches in every state - it's a big country, after all. Here are some of the obvious ones.

Walmart

I don't need to tell you about Walmart. Lots of cheap crap, made in China. Very limited food selection, nothing fresh. (Don't try to buy olive oil, they'll stare at you blankly). Occasionally useful when you want something cheap and semi-disposable.

Target

Like Walmart, but classier. Sells lots of stuff, and some food. SuperTargets have fresh food, but not much.

CostCo

You need to pay to be a member of CostCo, which costs (I think) $80/year. It's worth it.

They sell food and household stuff in bulk, for the most part. They also sell other stuff - electronics, furniture, garden things. They tend to be on the cheap side. But they are also good. They have one of the best return policies (I forget what it is, but you have a long time, and no questions asked). They also do good food - their apple pies and birthday cakes (for example) are often rated amongst the best. They are one of the only stores to test mince meat (grounds, as it's called) for E Coli, so some suppliers refuse to deal with them.

They don't sell cheap wine, so don't try to buy that here. There clothes aren't super cheap either.

Home Depot

Home Depot is B&Q. It's big and it sells lots of stuff. Unlike the UK, there don't seem to be builder's merchants where proper tradespeople go - everyone goes to Home Depot.

People looking for casual work tend to congregate in Home Depot car parks (they're called Day Laborers, and wave at you when you drive in). People with pick up trucks hang around outside, offering a delivery service.

Trader Joe's

Everyone likes Trader Joe's. It's a bizarre food store. It sells mostly healthy stuff (almost no hydrogenated fats, quite a lot of organic stuff). The stores are usually small, and they tend to change their lines around fairly frequently. Home of the famous 'Two Buck Chuck' - bottles of wine for $2, which (at least according to my unsophisticated palette) is not bad. Mostly in California and the west.

Friendlier staff than any other supermarket.

Fresh and Easy

I've never been in a Fresh and Easy, but it's Tesco. Well, it's owned by them.

Buying Stuff in America

This being America, there are a lot of opportunities to buy stuff. When you arrive, for things you need, you will find Craigslist useful. Also, check out the local thrift shops - charity shops, as we know them. Unlike charity shops in the UK, they also sell electrical stuff, so are a good source for things like TVs, toasters, etc. (But not kettles, because these are rare in the US.)

Supermarkets are enormously variable, and more localised than in the UK, so there's not much advice to give. They vary a lot, so try different ones. One thing to note is that the staff seem more knowledgeable than in the UK - I've yet to find a person working in a supermarket, no matter how large, who can't direct me or take me straight to anything I've asked for.

At the checkout, they will expect to put the stuff in bags for you. Don't be surprised to see people stand there while they bag your shopping - and they will use very large numbers of bags. They will put a large container of milk in a bag,. and because it's heavy and the bag might split, they will put that in another bag. And the milk has a handle already.

Shops are usually called stores, and when people talk about 'the market' they're talking about the supermarket.

Driving and Transport in America

Driving

(This section is based on my experience and knowledge of Caifornia. It might not be true everywhere.

Driving is different. For a start, they drive on the other side of the road here. That's not the hard bit - you just follow everyone else.

Freeways often have a lower speed limit than in the UK, but they can get very, very crowded, and continue at almost the same speed with small gaps in between cars. You need to get used to muscling in to gaps when you want to change lane - particularly when exiting.

Speed limits are very ambiguous. Officially in California they are 25 in urban/residential areas, and 35 on bigger streets, but there doesn't seem to be a clear distinction, so it's hard to know what the speed limit is.

There are lots of traffic lights, and very few roundabouts. Traffic lights go from green to yellow to red, but if it has only just turned yellow, don't stop. After I arrived I heard screeching tyres (tires) behind me more than once, because someone wasn't expecting me to stop.

When the lights go green, there is no intermediate yellow - they go from red to green. You then have about a quarter second to move, before someone beeps their horn behind you. People beep their horns a lot more than in the UK - it's unnerving to start with.

Pedestrians always have right of way at corners, whether there is a crossing or not. If you are standing on the corner, and look like you are going to cross, cars will stop. However, if you're driving, you need to be aware that people will step out with no warning.

On the freeways, you need to be aggressive and get into gaps. At crossroads and corners, it's the opposite - you need to be calm and relaxed. The most difficult one (I thought) to get used to is when turning left, without a filter - you wait for a big enough gap and then shoot through it. And then you see the pedestrians, who have right of way and weren't worrying about you. Similarly, when approaching junctions to turn right, you need to slow almost to a stop, to make sure that there aren't any pedestrians around. On the freeway, one almost has to be aggressive (compared with the UK), off the freeway, one has to be much more relaxed.

Before you can do a lot of driving, you will need to take your driving test. These vary from state to state, and you can find stuff out on the web about them. Driving tests are considerably easier than in the UK.

Petrol

Buying petrol, or gas, as you have to learn to call it, varies from state to state, so what I say here won't necessarily be true wherever you are.

First rule, don't forget to call it gas.

Second, some gas stations will have two sets of pumps, one is self service, the other is served. At the served one people will climb over your car cleaning the windows, and offering other services. You pay more for this gas. I'm not sure if you are supposed to tip the people who do it. (In some states, there are no self service gas stations.)

In most, but not all, states, you need to pay in advance. There is usually a cash point type machine at the pump (or sometimes shared between a number of pumps). I find this slightly nerve wracking, as I'm never convinced that I've entered the correct number or let the machine know I've finished. I have visions of the person behind with the enormous SUV putting hundreds of dollars worth of gas in their vehicle and it getting charged to my card. You can also pay in cash in advance at the till - if you pay too much, you get change.

Distance

People think less of driving a long way to do stuff. That's partly (I think) because gas is cheap, and partly because it is a long way to places. Someone asked if we wanted to go to a park and see some wild flowers with them - we'd spend an hour or two there, and then come home. We agreed, before we knew it was 90 miles away.

Trains

Rumour has it that they exist. I've never really managed to use one.

Buses

Buses vary from city to city. In Los Angeles, they are cheap (usually 75c) but and reasonably plentiful, but they are stuck in traffic, the same as all of the cars. They also don't have a huge number of routes, which means you'll often need to change bus, making even relatively short journeys pretty arduous.

I've heard that they are better in other places.

Subways

LA has a subway, which famously goes from where no one lives to where no one works. I've never been on it.

Eating out and Food

Eating Out

Restaurants are cheap, and eating out is very common. (Of course, expensive restaurants are expensive, but they are less expensive than the UK. Cheap restaurants are cheap). Things to note:
Food is (or can be) cheap. Drinks aren't. You can add a surprising amount to your bill by having a few drinks.
Tip. You have to tip. You will be frowned upon by all and sundry if you don't. At least 15% of the bill, or more if the service was good - tipping 15% is the same as tipping nothing in the UK. (It's sometimes a bit tricky to know who to tip - it's OK, this confuses Americans too, so ask around). (There was a recent case of a group who refused to tip, on the grounds that the service was so poor - the restaurant called the police. The police came. The police arrested the non-tippers. They weren't charged in the end.)
Sandwiches

If you buy a sandwich from a delicatessen, you'll be asked what sort of bread you want. They won't tell you what the options are, and it's sometimes hard to see where they're written down. The usual choices are white, wheat (which means wholewheat), sourdough and rye. You'll also be offered cheese - every sandwich comes with cheese. The standard options are American (bland), pepperjack (bland American cheese, with chilis in), cheddar (slightly less bland, and orange) and swiss (slightly less bland, with holes in). If you just want a cheese sandwich, they might act as if you are missing something. Cheese in a sandwich will always be sliced.
Restaurants (and I guess people at home) don't put butter in sandwiches. They have mayonnaise (which, naturally they call mayo) and/or mustard. When you buy a sandwich you'll be asked which you want - don't say neither, assuming that there will also be butter (or margarine), 'cos there won't be and it will be a little dry.

Drinks

Lots of smaller cheaper restaurants - pizza joints, and the like, will have only fountain drinks - there won't be any fruit juices. The only diet drink that's usually found is Diet Coke.
Eggs
If you order fried egg(s), you'll be asked how they should be done. Sunny side up means that they are not flipped, over-easy means flipped briefly, over medium means flipped for a longer time. (I'm not sure what comes after over easy).
Pizza
Pizza is very variable. People from New York, or the east coast generally, get very upset about pizza on the west coast, because it isn't as good. But on the west coast the Sushi is better. The default pizza is pepperoni. If a place sells only one kind of pizza, it will almost certainly be pepperoni.
Avocado
You get avocados all over the place. It's an option in Subway for your sandwich, it's an option for your burger in bars, and it's often an option in your omelet. It's also frequently available as a side dish. I like avocado, so this is good.

Some Strange Foods

It might be me, but here are some things I'd never heard of before I came here:
Lox: Los is very thin sliced cured (not strictly smoked) salmon. It's also a good word to play in scrabble.
Arugula: It's rocket.
Jicama (pron hicama): A mexican vegetable, fairly tasteless, the consistency of a turnip, and the taste of tasteless lettuce. It sounds unpleasant from that description, but it's not, it's crisp and crunchy, and interesting enough if you dip it in something.

Tamale: Like a Mexican pasty, cheese or vegetables or meat, wrapped in ground corn, then wrapped in a corn leaf and steamed.
Quesadilla: A Mexican grilled cheese sandwich, a tortilla (flat bread) filled with cheese, and other stuff, and grilled.
Jack: If you see jack on a menu, it's cheese (bland, American cheese).
Don't forget that chips are fries, and crisps are chips.

Food and Cooking

Grills
What we call a grill, an american will call a broiler, and will not use very often (as far as I can tell - when I arrived, I asked a colleague what a broiler was, because our stove had a switch on it that said broiler - he didn't know). A grill cooks from underneath, and can be a griddle - like a very large frying pan, or can be like a barbecue - a barbecue is a grill, but you can also get electric grills for your house. When something is advertised as grilled, that means it's fried, although usually with little fat.
One American standard is the grilled cheese sandwich - this is a cheese sandwich that is fried (with some oil, but not as much as, say, fried bread). For many Americans grilled cheese sandwiches have a special emotional resonance, it was what their mother made as comfort food.
Stoves
The cooker is a stove. They are basically the same as ours, but often wider, and sometimes have a griddle in the middle. I've never seen one with an eye level grill (broiler).
Bread

Bread is relatively expensive, and to the British palette often unpleasantly sweet. Look out for those that say 'sweetened with honey' or 'sweetened with molasses' or anything similar, and avoid them. Supermarkets don't tend to bake their own bread, so it's never super-fresh and delicious. In Los Angeles at least, many of the supermarkets get their fresh bread from the same place (the La Brea Bakery) so you don't get posher bread by going to a posher shop, you just pay more. People from the east coast say that the bread is better there.

Baked Potatoes
Almost never seen them. There's a store called Spudnuts. You'd think that would sell baked potatoes, but it doesn't, it sells doughnuts. (Or donuts, if you want me to hate you forever.)

Sugar
Americans like sugar.  It's hard to find diet soda when you're out, apart from Diet Coke, I've never seen Diet Sprite, or anything like that, in a restaurant or cafe.  Canned fruit is almost always in sugar, rarely in juice - and when it is in juice it's 'lightly sweetened' juice.  I bought some frozen raspberries from a supermarket the other day, which had added sugar.

American Housing

Renting

In the UK, if a letting agency asked you to pay to look at their listings, you should run away. In the US, that's not the case - they charge the renters, not the landlords, and that's how they make their money. By not charging landlords, they ensure that they have a more comprehensive list. Most listings will also appear on Craigslist, . (If Craigslist covers the city).

When you find a house you like, you will probably need to pay an application fee. Again, this sounds like a rip-off, but it means that the landlord does a credit check to make sure you're not bankrupt and haven't been evicted. However, because you've only just arrived, you have no credit history, so make sure that you can explain that to your landlord, and make sure that they at least sympathise. I met some landlords who said that they could do an international credit check for a higher fee (I never looked into this to see if it was true) and others who said "Don't worry, the agency will sort it out". However, I had spoken to the agency, and they weren't going to sort it out. I felt that applying for that house would have been a waste of money, so I didn't.

Buying a House

If you're buying a house, you're going to want to consult something a whole lot more definitive than me. However, here are the big differences:

1) (Almost) all mortgages are 30 year, fixed rate. You can refinance to get a lower rate any time you like, but there are a lot of fees involved.

2) If you're buying a house, you have a realtor to help you. If you're selling a house you have a realtor to help you. Both of these realtors get 3% (usually, but for expensive houses sometimes less). The seller pays. Which makes selling expensive.

3) Estate agents don't have shops. In the old days, your realtor did the searching for you, and presented you with houses you might have liked. Nowadays you do it yourself on the internet. There are lots of sites out there, my favorite is redfin.

American Phones

Landline Phones

Phones work pretty much the same as in the UK. Remember (when following instructions) that the hash sign is the pound sign. Numbers always have 3 digit area codes, and then 7 digits. In some areas, codes overlap - so 310 and 424 cover the same area. If you live in one of these areas, you need to dial the full number, including the code, every time. In our area (and I don't know if that's true everywhere), you also need to add a 1 - the country code for the USA, if you're using a landline, but not if you're using a cellphone.

Landline phones often attract enormous numbers of calls from marketers and scammers, who will say that there is an urgent matter regarding something or other and you need to call them back. Don't. They are trying to scam you in some way. I've heard of people being called 15-20 times per day by these people, and we (used to) get called about 5 times per day - which is enough to stop you bothering to answer the phone.

There are a couple of things you can do about this - first, get either a phone or a provider which allows you to block calls. (AT&T charge us $5 / month for this, it's well worth it). Second, if you get a phone where the number appears, type the first 3 digits into Google, and it will show you where the caller is. If someone is calling from Utah, and you don't know anyone in Utah, there's no need to pick it up.

(We have also acquired a rather natty Panasonic phone, which reads the name of the person calling if it knows it, and the number if it doesn't, while it rings. This saves you getting up from the sofa.)

Mobile Phones (Cellphones)

Mobile phones are (usually) called cellphones, although sometimes they're called mobile phones, and if you hear someone refer to wireless it's not a very old person talking about the radio, it's someone talking about a cellphone (e.g. Verizon Wireless). Pay-as-you-go contracts are much rarer here in the US than in the UK - although they are available (I used to have a Virgin phone which was just about the cheapest way to have a cellphone if you weren't going to use it much).

You can't tell if someone's number is a cellphone from the number - cellphones have the same area code as regular phones, and they cost the same to ring. The big difference is that on your cell phone, receiving calls costs just as much as making calls. That is, if you have 100 minutes on your phone, you can talk for 100 minutes - it doesn't matter who called whom.

People like market researchers are (theoretically) not allowed to call cellphones, and they usually don't.

Politics

American politics, to our eyes, is a strange thing. First, because Americans seem to have a general distrust, and a general dislike of government. Remember Ronald Reagan saying something like "The scariest phrase in the English language is 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help'"? Well, maybe you don't, but he did. And Americans liked him. In the movie 2012, the governor (of California, I think) comes on the radio to tell people not to panic, and the hero says "That's exactly when you should panic". The American government system seems to be set up to make sure that the government is usually incapable of doing anything - in the senate, for example, a 40% minority can filibuster, and stop any bill getting anywhere. And then it's got to pass congress, and then the president can veto it. A lot of people can say no.

In addition, a lot of people get elected (depending on the state) - sheriffs and judges and school district coordinators and state attorneys and all sorts of other people are elected, and in some states, propositions can be proposed, and these can be directly voted on by the electorate.

Not that this matters to you very much, because you won't be able to vote.

If the government does something, it's often seen as suspicious. There are laws about wearing seatbelts, but these are not obeyed to a surprising (to my UK senses) amount - reading traffic accident reports, people seem to usually not be wearing a seatbelt. (Although that's a biased sample, because they are more likely to die, and if you don't die, you don't make the papers.) Red light cameras are widely seen as a way by the government to raise money and intrude into our lives - I've seen emails sent to large groups of people, asking if they know of ways to avoid your number plate being detected by the cameras - this is seen as an acceptable thing to do. If you suggest that they don't drive through red lights, and that they therefore might not have an accident, they get cross (again, that's in my experience).

Jaywalking

Jaywalking is something that, in the UK, we've usually heard about, but don't quite understand. In a city, you should only cross the road at a corner, or a pedestrian crossing. To do otherwise is to jaywalk.

Crossing at a corner comes as something of an anathema to those of us who grew up with the Green Cross Code, where a corner was not a safe place to cross. However, drivers expect pedestrians at corners (see driving) and so will stop.

In theory, you can be fined ('ticketed') for crossing elsewhere. In practice, this varies enormously from place to place.

American Churches

Lots of Americans go to church on a regular basis. It's far more common than in the UK. However, churches are much more than places of worship, a lot of social life revolves around the church. You'll meet people (well, probably) who met their spouses or partners, because they went to the same church.

An implication of this is not to say anything rude or jovial about religion, or religious people. You're much more likely to offend someone (even someone you really weren't expecting to offend).

There's an interesting section in the book The Audacity of Hope (see further reading at the end) where the author describes his reasons for his baptism into his church. It wasn't about wanting to be saved, it was more about wanting to hang out and be a part of that group of people.

American Cash and Money

This isn't financial advice, I don't do that. It's about the stuff you carry in your pocket.

Notes

US notes are all the same size. This means that when you get to the till (which is called the register), and have to pay, you will find yourself extracting one note at a time, inspecting it, and replacing it. The solution is to put your notes in order. Big ones on one side, small ones on the other.

Coins

In the UK, we are spoiled for choice when it comes to coins - what with having 1p, 2p, 5p, 10p, 20p, 50p, £1, £2, and the odd £5. In the US, there are 4 - 1 (penny) 5 (nickel) 10 (dime) 25 (quarter), and there has been talk of getting rid of the pennies. (Interesting fact: no US coin has a number on it, telling you what it's worth). This means that if you want to buy stuff from vending machines, you need a lot of coins - the worst is coin operated launderettes: to pay for washing and drying you need sacks of quarters. You'll also need them for parking meters (often in large quantities) and vending machines. When you have driven through the desert, and find a vending machine outside a closed tourist information centre (as we did in Palm Springs) you'll be pleased you had a sackful of quarters in your car for parking.

There's a movement to get rid of the 1 cent coin (penny), on the grounds that it's not worth anything (and it costs more to produce than it's worth). Shops and cafes often have a little bowl of pennies by the till, if your bill comes to (say) $8.01, you can take a penny. If it comes to $7.99, you can drop the penny in the bowl.

American Income Tax (for Brits)

Tax, as you'd expect, is complicated. Usual disclaimers apply - this is based on my experience, and might be completely wrong. If you follow my advice, and go to prison, that's not my fault.

There are two kinds of income tax, federal tax, and there's state tax - although not all states have state taxes.

When you start working, you make an approximation as to how much tax you are going to need to pay, and you pay that much. The tax year runs (rather sensibly) from January 1st to December 31st, so sometime after December 31st, and before January 15th, you need to sort out your tax, and either get a refund (hurrah!) or pay some extra (boo).

You might think that the obvious thing to do is to pay no tax, and then pay it all at the end of the year - if you do this, the IRS will be cross, and you'll get fined something extra. Most people get a refund.

You'll need a professional to sort out your tax for you - however, this is much cheaper than in the UK. The first year we were here, we went to H&R Block where we paid a nice person to explain everything to us. This cost about $150 (for federal and state tax).

This year, I used an online service - TurboTax, which cost about $60, and was relatively stress free. However, we couldn't use TurboTax the first year, as my wife and children did not have working visas, and so didn't have social security numbers - they had to apply for a Taxpayer Identification Number (even though they don't pay tax), and to do that, we couldn't file online.

Deductibles

Lots of stuff is tax deductible. Whenever you donate money to charity, that's tax deductible, and you can claim the tax back on that. When you give stuff to charity, you do the same thing. When you take stuff to the thrift shop (charity shop) they will offer you a receipt. They will write what you gave them on the receipt, but they won't estimate what it was worth - that's for you to do, and then claim it back on your tax.

Anything you buy for work is tax deductible (I claim books), and if you work at home, a proportion of your housing costs are tax deductible too.

Childcare is tax deductible, as is private schooling.

The biggest deductible for many people is their mortgage interest, and their property tax (yes, that's right, your tax is tax deductible). Meaning that the larger and more expensive the house you buy, the less tax you pay.

Usage Tax

If you live in a state where there is sales tax, and you buy stuff from out of state, you are supposed to declare that on your (state) tax return, and pay the tax for the city that you live in. No one (as far as I can tell) actually does, and some people seem surprised when you tell them.

Sales Tax

If you are in an area where sales tax applies, you don't know how much anything costs, because the sales tax (VAT) is added after. And the precise sales tax depends on the city that you are in - in Los Angeles, it's (I think) 8.5%, in Santa Monica it's 8.75%. And you could walk from one to the other without noticing. Don't try to get the exact money ready.

Banks

Banks are, well, they are like banks. But there are also credit unions, which are a little like building societies - credit unions are smaller, and owned by the account holders. They tend to give friendlier service, but have fewer bells and whistles - they don't open late, for example.

Credit unions have slightly restrictive membership - for example, I'm a member of the Premier America Credit Union, which has some theoretical membership restrictions, but they are so loose as to be pretty much non-existent. I have an account there, because there is a branch at work - if I forget my ATM card, they'll give me money based on my work ID badge (I suspect they'd give me money because they would recognize me). I can't imagine a bank doing that.

Moving money around electronically is more difficult than in the UK. There is no (as far as I can tell) BACS, for people to pay you, or you to pay them. Companies frequently send checks as refunds for things, which I find very boring.

Electrical Stuff

Electricity varies from the UK (and Europe) in two ways. First, it is lower voltage - 110v, versus 220v, and second, it's got more hertz (60 versus 50).

Will this matter?

Depends. The smaller, the newer, and the more electronic the item, the more likely it is to work without adjustment. Some things say on them what voltages they will work with. If they say they will work, chances are they will. If they don't say, they still might. The subwoofer (Harman/Kardon) that came with my Dell PC says 240v on it, but it worked. One PC had a switch on the back to change it from 220 to 110 volts, the other just didn't work. Two monitors (one LCD, one CRT) both worked.

My stereo and CD player didn't work.

Things which are larger, and more mechanical will work, just slowly. Hairdryers, for example, will work but will go slowly and won't get very hot. There might be very good reasons not to use them.

Transformers

Fixing the volts is easy, you get a step up transformer. You can buy these in lots of places (including Amazon , but I haven't found one that I liked yet, so I'm not going to make a recommendation. The thing about transformers is that you need to make sure that they can produce enough power, and the more power you need, the more the transformer is going to cost. You should only consider getting a transformer if the thing you have is expensive, and doesn't draw much power. A new vacuum cleaner is possibly going to be cheaper than a transformer to run your vacuum cleaner. You also need to read about the Hertz, below. We run our 4-slice Dualit toaster on a transformer which cost about $100.

Power Adaptors

For small electrical things, which have a power adaptor, you can get a new power adaptor. I've used this one.

Hertz

The number of Hertz is the frequency of the alternations in alternating current. Even if you have a step up transformer, Hertz might matter. Hertz are used to determine the speed that some things go at. Some clocks keep time by counting alternations (these are pretty rare nowadays), and some motors use the Hertz to set their spin speed. If you get a step up transformer, you might find that the motor goes 20% too fast - which might not matter, but we never tried it. This will affect things like food processors, vacuum cleaners, electric drills.

Things to Get

You need to get, as soon as possible:

Social Security Number: All kinds of people want your social security number. You need one as soon as you can. It's no effort - go to the social security office with your passport, which has your visa in it, wait a while, fill out a form and it comes in a couple of weeks. Your social security number is also how you prove who you are. Don't tell people who don't need to know, and don't write it down on pieces of paper that you leave lying around.

Driving license: People will assume you have a driving licence, for all kinds of things. They might not take a cheque (or check) from you without a driving licence. To do this you need to take a driving test (of which more later). However, if you can't drive, you can still get a driving licence, which doesn't allow you to drive - effectively it functions as an identity card, when you want to prove your name to people.

Introduction

When I decided to move to America from England, I read a few books about living and working in the USA. They were all useless. They didn't tell me what I wanted to know. They said things like "When men greet one another, they shake hands. Grasp the other man's hand firmly, and move it up and down two or three times. Never kiss other men in a business situation." However, I couldn't do much better, and I certainly couldn't write a whole book on it. I was also inspired by the Moving from the US to the UK page. And there doesn't seem to be a reverse version.

However, that said, stuff that I say may or may not be true. It might be based on what I've been led to believe, which might not be true. It might be biased by the part of the USA that I live in (West Los Angeles, Southern California) or it might just be nonsense.

In some ways, a FAQ (frequently asked questions) isn't necessarily the right name for this. The problem that I had (and still have, to a large extent) is not knowing what questions to ask, apart from the very general "What should I do / not do?" or "What do I need to know?" I'd not been here long when I started to write this, which means that there's a lot I don't know, but the books that I read were written by people who were either American, or had lived here for a long time. Hence, it seemed to me, that they had forgotten what it was that they didn't know when they came (if they came).

If you are vaguely like me, then you will find this much more useful. And by vaguely like me, I mean employed (that's why I moved here), with an insurer that sorts of lots of things, like pays your health insurance. If you're retired or a student or an illegal immigrant, then there are lots of things that probably affect you that I don't know about.

I'm not going to bother with straight information on X, where X is some fact or other, for two reasons. First, if you want to know X, you can probably Google it. And second, if it's a fact of any importance (like How much tax should I pay? Can I get arrested for ...?) then you are better off asking someone who has more chance of knowing. Like a lawyer or an accountant or a doctor.

Finally, if there's something here that you think I might be able to address, or want to comment on, just add it in the comments, or send me an email.