Close

Let Us Help You Find Movers

123Movers connects people looking to move with qualified movers in their area. To get free moving estimates, please fill out the form below, or call us at .

What You Need To Know About Finding a Reliable Mover

123Movers can help you find a licensed and insured moving company. Instead of spending your time contacting each individual mover, we can help put you in touch with multiple movers who are qualified to perform your move. Fill out our quick quote moving form anywhere on our site and we will match you with movers in your area who are available to move you. Every mover we work with has been pre-screened to ensure that they have the proper local and/or long distance licenses and insurance. 123Movers can help you find a mover for any type of move - Local, Long Distance, Auto, or International.
Anyone who makes a long distance (interstate) move has certain rights. Knowing these rights can help protect you from unscrupulous and careless movers. Protectyourmove.gov (brought to you by the FMCSA) has a comprehensive list of all your Rights and Responsibilities, but here is a quick overview to help you get started:
  • Movers and Brokers should tell you if they are one or the other and should be registered with the FMCSA.
  • Know the different types of moving estimates: Binding vs. Non-Binding.
  • Know what your mover is liable for and the types of insurance available to you.
  • Know what paperwork a mover needs to provide you with.
  • Know how the billing process works and your responsibilities to pay the moving charges.
  • Make sure to thoroughly discuss the pickup and delivery details with your mover.
  • Learn about the proper way to resolve disputes with your mover.
Every mover on 123Movers has been prescreened to ensure that they have the proper licensing and insurance. It is very important that whatever mover you choose, you validate their credentials to make sure they are qualified to legally move you. Use these resources to help you with your research - 123Movers Local Movers Guide and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration for Long Distance Movers. Another way to judge a mover's credentials is checking their affiliations and reviews. Who a company is associated with can be an important measure in how you judge that company. For Movers, AMSA (American Moving & Storage Association) is the largest association they can be a part of, and they hold their members to a high standard of ethics in order to help protect your rights (AMSA gives a "ProMover" credential to their most trusted group of moving companies). You should also check how your mover ranks on other popular websites such as BBB and Yelp.
A Broker is a company that acts as a middle man between you and the moving company that moves you. When you deal with a Broker, you do not personally chose the mover - they do. Typical problems associated with a Broker are; They may book you with a mover who is not licensed. They may give you one cost estimate and the actual mover gives you another that is completely different from the first. They may not actually find you a mover and let you think that one was booked. In order to protect you from this, 123Movers does not work with any Brokers. Learn more about the differences between Brokers and Movers.
One of the first pieces of information a mover will try to give you is their estimate for your move. There are different types of estimates (Binding vs. Non-Binding) and it is important to know the differences between the 2. It's also important to scrutinize the estimate if it appears too high or too low. Too high and maybe they are trying to rip you off. Too low and maybe they are setting you up to raise the price on the day of the move. When you use 123Movers to find a mover, each mover will try to give you the best deal possible because they know they are competing with other moving companies for your business.
One concern everyone has when hiring a mover is, "What if they break my stuff?" Well, the good news is that you have options to protect your belongings. When it comes to moving insurance there are 3 options you can choose from. The cheapest (it's free) and most basic option that comes with every move is "Released Value" insurance which is issued by your mover. Here, your mover will be responsible for 60 cents on every pound they move for you. For example, if they break a $1,000 flat screen TV that weighs 30 lbs., they would pay you $18. This is by far the least protective of the 3 options. The 2nd option, and more expensive option, is "Full Value" insurance which is also issued by your mover. As its name implies, this insurance covers the full value of your belongings. Your 3rd option is "Third-Party" insurance which is purchased from a specialized moving insurance company. They can offer you various levels of additional coverage, as high as the total value of your shipment. To learn more about the different types of moving insurance, visit our Moving Insurance Guide.

Moving Tips of The Day

Do not sign off on a move until you are positive that your belongings arrived in satisfactory condition.
Know the difference between basic moving coverage ($0.60 per pound) and more comprehensive moving coverage (full value).
Don’t get dressed up for moving day. Only wear clothes that you don’t mind soiling and are comfortable.
Knowing the differences between a Local move and a Long Distance move is an important step in the moving process. Make sure to read up on this topic.
img
Is My Mover "Legitimate"?
By:      08/06/2015

I am often asked the question, "How do I know if my mover is legitimate?" The essence of this question needs to be extracted a little further. Do you want to know if your mover is a good, reliable, and dependable mover, or do you want to know if your mover actually exists (not a scam)? Knowing if your mover is the former takes more than a little analysis. The main issue here is that your definition of "good, reliable, and dependable" could vary from person to person - you might read 1 negative review and 1 positive review on a particular mover, each person having a different experience based on their personal expectations. So for the sake of simplicity, in this article we are going to focus on the latter question - "How do I know if my mover exists and is not a purely imaginative moving company solely existing to scam me?" The big caveat here is that even if a moving company exists, they still may partake is "scammy" business practices. So we'll distill this question down to the pure base facts - "Does this mover exist"?

The first and main thing you can do is verify and validate the license of your mover. A Long Distance mover (a mover who performs moves between at least 2 states), needs to hold a license issued by the FMCSA (Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration). A Local mover (a mover who performs moves within 1 state), needs to hold a license issued by the state they operate out of. If your mover holds the proper license, there is a good chance (but not guaranteed) they exist (a real moving company that performs moves). Though having a license is not a be all end all in knowing if you have a real mover, it is the first step in the research process. If the mover does not have a license, you can just forget about that mover at the outset.

If you manage to track down and verify a mover's license, there are a few other things you can do to verify their existence. Sites like BBB, Yelp, and Angie's List are a great way to get another level of verification to see not only the mover's ratings and reviews, but also personal information about the company (such as how long they have been operating for). You can also perform a simple Google search to see if anything suspicious about the particular mover shows up (such as heavy complaints on Rip Off Report).

So while knowing the reliability of a mover is difficult to achieve, simply seeing if they are a real moving company is something you can easily research on your own.