Advice on International Removals

keith16

Does anyone have any experience with removals companies?

I'm moving to Switzerland and would love to hear of peoples experience with moving all their stuff.

I don't have huge amounts of furniture (no beds, sofas, large appliances), but will still have a considerable amount to move.

So far have spoken with Careline, but no-one else. Any recommendations?

All input welcomed!

zweton

sorry i cant help you out. what part you heading for, have you a job lined up?

triggermortis

Just done this myself and it wasn't as bad as we were expecting, but not cheap.
A few companies called out to the house to appraise what volume we needed and sent us quotes based on that, plus any packing we needed done etc.
We got a part-load deal, where there are two or more loads on the same truck, to it can take longer to move, but be cheaper.
We packed all our own stuff - the movers parcelled up the sofas etc and did all the loading at the house and a week later it all arrived in Zurich - in one piece!!
Insurance was an extra on the bill and soon adds up if the value is over 20K, so we went with that. That's a personal thing as yours will depend on what you're moving.
We were lucky in that no-one called out from the firm we picked, as their quote was lowest - but they did try and look for more money afterwards. Didn't happen.
If you're already here with a permit more than 2 years old, you will get stung for VAT on your possessions (!!) and we almost fell into that as my permit is older, but my wife was moving over so she qualified us as new arrivals on that front.
You'll have to make an inventory of everything (all of it!) and also price it for the insurance and at this point you'll realise you have more stuff than you thought, and so this will be a good time for spring cleaning.
If you've no major items, you could be ok price-wise. We moved 120 cubic metres of stuff and got pocket change out of 5K (euro)

I was lucky to get out of work when the lads arrived here - and lucky I did as they'd still be moving stuff now if i'd left them to it, so I helped the move.

Also, most accomodation here is apartments, so there are stairs / lifts involved, which movers love...

DenisOakley

We did it ourself when we moved to the far east.

Had a container delivered to our house and then packed and stuffed all ourselves. Then it was collected and taken to Felixstowe. We used a freight forwarding agent that we knew and the container was then shipped to Malaysia. Then we did the customs clearance and had this huge container arrive at our flat.

We figure that we made a cost saving of about 70%. EUR200 trucking charges in the UK and EUR600 for the container shipping of 15 tonnes 10,000km. (10 years ago).

All depends on how much you are willing to pay to remove the hassle

123qwerty

There are loads of transportation going on between Poland, Latvia, Czech, etc side. These people move up and down so the service and price would be ok. I guess everyone has friends from east of europe but if you stuck I will give a good one, just email me priv.

Calina

triggermortis wrote: »

Just done this myself and it wasn't as bad as we were expecting, but not cheap.
A few companies called out to the house to appraise what volume we needed and sent us quotes based on that, plus any packing we needed done etc.
We got a part-load deal, where there are two or more loads on the same truck, to it can take longer to move, but be cheaper.
We packed all our own stuff - the movers parcelled up the sofas etc and did all the loading at the house and a week later it all arrived in Zurich - in one piece!!
Insurance was an extra on the bill and soon adds up if the value is over 20K, so we went with that. That's a personal thing as yours will depend on what you're moving.
We were lucky in that no-one called out from the firm we picked, as their quote was lowest - but they did try and look for more money afterwards. Didn't happen.
If you're already here with a permit more than 2 years old, you will get stung for VAT on your possessions (!!) and we almost fell into that as my permit is older, but my wife was moving over so she qualified us as new arrivals on that front.
You'll have to make an inventory of everything (all of it!) and also price it for the insurance and at this point you'll realise you have more stuff than you thought, and so this will be a good time for spring cleaning.
If you've no major items, you could be ok price-wise. We moved 120 cubic metres of stuff and got pocket change out of 5K (euro)

I was lucky to get out of work when the lads arrived here - and lucky I did as they'd still be moving stuff now if i'd left them to it, so I helped the move.

Also, most accomodation here is apartments, so there are stairs / lifts involved, which movers love...

Can I just confirm: 120 cubic meters came to ca 5K for Switzerland?

It's just I may be looking to ship my life to Belgium or Luxembourg sometime in the next year and was trying to get an indicative feel for what the shipping would cost.

Thanks.

CountingClocks

I used Anyvan. Put up the details of what you want to move on the site and you'll get quotes from couriers, shipping companies, etc.

I used them recently, went with a Polish transport company and the service was excellent.