Ok, I Need advice from those who have done it already!

I just made this move and had about the same issues, this past August. I used Allied Pickfords moving company, and to move all of my furniture, even some brand new things, all my cookware, toys and more toys, and other odds and ends that I just couldn't part with, for them to come in and pack it up and move it out, then bring it in, assemble it and unpack everything, AND remove all boxes etc, it cost me a little over $3,000. Which for the amount i had I thought was a crackin deal.
Stuff I wish I had thought to pack was Mt Dew, oreo cookies, pickles, mac n cheese, lol mainly food items, and cooking spices.
If you can get past converting the £ vs $ in your head when shopping, I find that there's really no difference, some things are more expensive yes, but then some things aren't, and there's always deals.
As far as bedding, they have "duvets" over here, NOTHIN like a comforter in my opinion....so if you aren't bringing your own furniture, don't do the bedding either.
Good luck with the move

why ship a car ?

Hijacking this thread momentarily 

I didn't plan on bringing my car; it pretty much happened because a week before I was to move, the buyer changed his mind. He was a dealer so I think his plan must have been to settle on a price, then get me in a position I couldn't refuse a rethink of price on his part.

Regardless, that was a door easily pushed on. You see, that car was my baby. A Mazda Miata (MX5) I had since new. It was the car I'd always wanted and when I finally got rid of that joker of an ex husband, I bought it. My little triumph of independant accomplishment.

It was almost all paid off when I made the decision to move to the UK. It didn't make sense to have the car here because of the driving on the opposite side and all that. But my hand was forced by the sale falling through and, like I said, I really didn't want to let her go. I had her seven additional years here and don't regret a thing. She was a car worth about £13,000, and I only paid less than a tenth of that to bring her.

The car, BTW, needed very little maintenance. Passed MOTs each year no probs (after some very small initial modifications, as in headlamps adjusting and fog lamps addition). It's definitely a car to bring. Nothing like narrow twisty roads on a summer day with the top down...ahhh. She was lovely.

So lovely that when I sold her I replaced her with the same type, only the British version.

Love my Miata MX5 Nevada.

Back to the thread...

Cascode, I'm guessing everyone's terms of "expensive" is all relative. I'm saying $5k to ship a car and contents of a 3br house was reasonable, and aachoo writing 'a little over $3k' for the service she got was well worth it, and we both used Pickfords, then we feel we were happy with that rate.

If you found a moving company that charged half that and you were happy with the service, please share your find!
(Also, do note we both used the dollar sign...those amounts were in US dollars.)

If you found a moving company that charged half that and you were happy with the service, please share your find!
(Also, do note we both used the dollar sign...those amounts were in US dollars.)

I think expensive is one moving company's price in comparison to another.
We found a moving company who quoted half what Pickfords quoted. As I posted earlier:

Covan was good for us.

This is possibly because because the branch of Pickfords was in UK and Covan was in US.

And always remember...... less expensive or "cheap" may not always be what you really want. We recently moved from Paris to Clermont-Ferrand. I used a UK Broker to find us a mover. We had quotes coming in around 4,000 Euros! Yes, 4,000 EU to move 4 hours from Paris! Hubby's boss was not willing to foot that kind of bill and waited till we found a low ball quote around 2,000EU. Well, my mother always told me, "you get what you pay for". As a result of the "cheaper" mover (that I had no choice in taking), I now have broken pottery and china I cannot replace! Hrumph!

$3,000 is a FANTASTIC price!
$5,000 is more then reasonable!

at least in my experience...... which includes FAR TOO many moves. 
PitterPat

PS: For future reference.... I used ET Brokers http://www.etbrokers-removals.com/
Basically, they'll find you the cheapest quote from over 2000 removal firms in the EU. Not sure if this includes moving from the states, but I would think it does.

$3,000 is a FANTASTIC price!
$5,000 is more then reasonable!

$1600 is better. In my opinion.

no disrespect intended pitterpat but i dont see  the relevance of your reply, this person is moving to the uk not france, so many things on your list would not apply to here.........love susie xx

Which reply?   

I think the information is relevent to anyone moving from the US to the UK. The point I was attempting to make is I find the quotes quite reasonable, in light of the fact it can cost almost as much to move "locally" (in any country), as opposed to moving globally. Yes?

I also included ET Brokers (IN the UK), because they were most helpful in finding movers "for" us, instead of me making legions of phone calls. They're also VERY keen on keeping tabs on the movers they send my way.... in regards to scheduling, moving issues, insurance, breakage, etc, etc.

Also, I know there are A LOT of Brits moving to France. They may find some information about using UK movers (to move to France) a bit helpful.

PitterPat

Well, because of the posts on this thread we've contacted a number of moving companies (including Baron's) and we've gotten a couple of quotes. The cheapest so far is $3000, but that is for the entire contents of our house. We still don't know whether or not we'll bring our furniture,as we dont' know where we will be living. Once my husband finds us a flat (he's going to London December 13th for that very purpose) we'll have a better idea of what we need, and more importantly, what will fit.

and don't forget...... it takes "weeks" for your furniture to arrive. Usually, 4-6 weeks. Then, your things have to clear customs. So far, I've not heard of anyone having to wait more then 4 weeks. You'll need to pack what you think you'll need to get by with, in you baggage going over, unless you plan to wait till your things arrive and are set up for you.

Please keep us posted
PitterPat