yes - BofA = Bank of America (BofA has agreements w/ some other banks includinh Barclay's in the UK so there are no fees to use the ATMs)

what if you have an ATM card from a bank like HSBC or Norfork? does anybody have any experience with either of those two?

Use your ATM upon arrival at Heathrow. Couldn't be easier. That said, I do also always have a few hundred USD tucked away somewhere, that I could exchange in an emergency.

my bank, Norfork, said that they would be charging $2 per ATM withdrawal but that they didn't know if there would be a charge from the UK side. has it been your experiences that the only charge is from the bank the ATM is issued from or is there an additional charge in the UK? they also told me that i couldn't "preauthorize" use of the card in the UK and that it should be fine but... that made me a little concerned.