I have lived in Hong Kong, Singapore and Delhi, so when I decided to move to London for an MBA at London Business School, I thought settling in would be a cinch. Not so. Everyone had told me it would take six months to get set up in London. “Just six months,” they all said, “then you’ll never want to leave.” Interestingly, this is exactly what happened. I’ve now been in London for more than a year and, well, I really do not ever want to leave. After four flats, three plumbers and numerous phone calls to the internet company, I am, I confess, in love with London.

Like the many UK companies and celebrities who misunderstand the American market (Cheryl Cole springs to mind), many English-speaking expats misunderstand the challenges of moving to the UK. Despite the common language, London is indeed a very different place from New York, Sydney, Johannesburg or Mumbai. As globalization grows increasingly profound, international citizens somehow seem to become more desensitized to cultural differences. You can get Coca Cola in Bhutan so how hard can it be to get internet in London?

There are most essential component to a successful move to London is to understand what we at MOVE Guides call the “Vicious Circle.” With the exception of selected premier services and accounts with additional fees, people moving to London need a local address to open a bank account and a bank account to sign a lease (and get a local address) or get a mobile phone contract. To make matters worse, real estate brokers and mobile phone companies often require “local” credit history to sign leases or contracts without large deposits.

“I have a bank account and a credit card, so what exactly constitutes local credit history, “ I once asked the man at Vodafone. “Well, you have not put enough ON your credit card,” he said. “You could buy a bed at IKEA and pay in instalments to build up UK credit.” Explaining that the UK was recovering from a credit crises and that buying a bed I could not afford to pay for outright was perhaps not a prudent use of credit did not get me any farther.

Don’t despair though avoiding the Vicious Cycle is entirely possible. UK mobile operators offer pay-as-you go phones that you can get without a local address. Customers can keep them indefinitely (or while they build up credit with IKEA purchases). For a small monthly fee, HSBC offers Passport Accounts, which can be opened without a permanent local address. For a larger fee or larger maintenance balance, HSBC Premier allows customers to open accounts from abroad before arriving in London. The MOVE LDN iPhone app provides advice on numerous other ways to successfully confront the Vicious Circle.

MOVE Guides is working on many other ways to cut the settling-in period from six months to six days or less. And once you get acclimated, convenience is certainly king. From mini cabs (check out UbiCabs) to online grocery delivery to free museums, London is made for busy jetsetters just like you.

Brynne Herbert is the Founder and CEO of MOVE Guides, a start-up tech platform for global relocation currently in BETA. MOVE Guides produces mobile apps and manages THE MOVEMENT, a location-based Q&A community. Follow us on Twitter at @moveguides and on Facebook. Brynne is a candidate for an MBA at London Business School and holds a B.A. in history from Yale University.  Previously she worked in investment banking and real estate private equity in Asia.