When you open a bank account - Bank of Scotland not RBS!! I went with RBS when I first moved to Scotland and it was a nightmare. It took more than 3 weeks to get a debit card, and that was with UK citizenship not a visa.
Actually though, every other part of my move to Scotland was pretty seamless ... and it is great here! Friendly people, wonderful historical cities. Also a lot of phone companies such as TalkTalk have it set up that you can pay £5 for unlimited calls to the US for up to 60 minutes per call. If you call often, it works out cheaper than Skype.