Relocation costs

Hi All,

I am working on relocation with my job and yesterday was told they would only be able to offer $10,000 to cover relocation costs.
So now I have to decide if that is enough or if I should withdraw from the position.

I am curious how much I would need to come out of pocket.
I know there are the following expenses and I could be missing some:
Immigration
Flights
Hotels
Movers
Deposits for apartment
School sign up
Car rental

Do you all think I could make it work with $10k and not have to come too much more out of pocket?

How many people are you moving?  Are you planning on moving your belongings or just yourselves?

Total of 4 people. 2 adults and 2 kids

We would be moving at least half of our house hold. The big items would be kitchen table and chairs, bedroom set, and two sets of mattress. The rest would be in boxes.

Is this a long or short term move?

Unless you're planning on making this a very long term move, you may want to skip sending over your furniture if you want to keep costs down. If you go back to the US, you may need to pay for your belongings to be returned (if possible, negotiate this in your contract, but keep in mind you may not be working for the company by the time you'd return, or they'd only pay if you return within a specific amount of time such as 1 or 2 years). Don't ship over furniture that you love and would want to take back to the US unless you're coming for a period of more than 4 or 5 years.

Keep in mind, also, that room sizes (and flats/houses overall) are smaller than in the US, and bed sizes are different, so finding bedding for your American mattress will be more difficult.

Flats here frequently come furnished, so you'd have that to consider as well, when bringing your things along.

That all being said, I'd think it was doable. But I don't think they should be charging you for getting you and the family a visa, that should be a business expense and not related to your personal relocation expenses.

Visas are going to be £400/person so that's about $2500.  Without any UK credit be prepared to pay 6 month's rent up front on top of a 6 week deposit.  I think you will be covering a significant portion out of your own pocket.

That $10k will easily cover your flights and shipping, maybe the car hire and initial transport costs to get you to wherever you'll be living. So technically, it will cover your relocation costs.

However with that figure I'd definitely expect to come out of pocket for housing, depending where you are going. Obvs London is far more expensive than other cities, and it could take you a while to find a place. Maybe your company can cover your first two weeks of temporary housing until you find a place as a compromise?

Thanks guys. I think it is a lot to think about. It might something that I should wait on for another year.

It would be a long term move. At least beyond 3 years as is a permanent position and not a contracted one.

From reading other posts, I believe we can pull our American credit for letting agents and also our American express can help get us some uk credit. I would hate to have to pay so much advance rent with all the issues people seem to be having.

Also we would be going to the Portsmouth/Chichester area which I have heard is slightly expensive but less so then London.

You might be able to get a UK American Express card because you have a US American Express card and that will certainly help you start establishing credit in the UK.  However, your US credit will carry no weight with UK landlords. 

We paid $7k in 2005 to move our belongings in a 20' container.  Our family consists of 2 adults and 2 children.  It was door to door and they packed everything.  I'll be honest, I didn't do a lot of research in finding the cheapest company. 
 Can't help you with the deposit as my husband had kept his accounts active (he lived in the States for 13 years) in the UK so we did not have to pay any deposit.  He may have shown them his employment contract as well, I can't remember. 
No one was interested in our US credit, however our car insurer did note that we had been accident/claim free in the States. 

It's definitely not likely you will have to put down six months of rent in advance, particularly if you are coming over for a job.

A year ago we also had to pay 6 months rent in advance at out first place back in the uk , despite both haveing jobs.

Again, it's not a definite thing.  Some people have to do it, some don't.

Right. i can only comment on my experience and the only other person i know who moved back to the uk who was also asked for a few months rent though not 6.
If you have a private landlord directly rather than an agency/estate agent thing i would think it is far less likely. It is something that can happen and if that's what they ask there is nothing you can do about it.

Of course while it is a big initial expense then you don't have to pay rent for the first 6 months so in the long run its not really an out of pocket expense in that sense