Two companies working in international removals have names that are easy to confuse: International Removals Companies and International Removals Ltd. They are separate businesses. They share no ownership, no staff and no operational relationship, and a quote from one is not a quote from the other.

That matters more than it sounds. If you raise a complaint, chase a shipment or check an accreditation with the wrong one, you get nowhere, and the time you lose is time your belongings spend sitting in someone’s warehouse.

How to tell which company you are dealing with

The name on a website is the weakest form of identification there is. Anyone can register a trading name close to an established one, and nobody stops them. What cannot be copied is the company number, so that is the thing to check.

Every UK company has to display its registered name, registered office address and company number. Look in the site footer, on the terms page, or on the quote itself. If none of the three appears anywhere, that is your answer already.

Then put the number into the Companies House register, which is free and takes about a minute. It will tell you when the company was incorporated, who the directors are, whether accounts have been filed on time, and whether anyone has tried to strike it off.

International Removals Companies, for example, is operated by DATACONTEXT (UK) LTD, registered in England and Wales under company number 07425576 and incorporated in 2010. International Removals Ltd is a different legal entity with a different number. One search settles it.

Check the accreditation yourself

The trade bodies that carry weight for an overseas move are BAR Overseas, FIDI FAIM and IAM. All three publish member lists that anyone can search.

Search them. A logo on a website is an image file; membership is a record held by somebody else. If a company turns up on the list under a name or number that does not match the one on its own site, ask about that gap before you book, not after.

Know whether you are hiring a mover or a matching service

These look alike from the outside and are not the same thing.

A removals company owns the vans, employs the crew and carries the liability for your belongings. A matching service takes your details and passes them to a mover, and its responsibility usually ends at the handover. Both are legitimate. Which one you are talking to decides who is accountable when a crate arrives broken, so it is worth settling in the first conversation rather than the last.

International Removals Companies is the second kind. It routes an enquiry to one accredited mover that already works the destination, rather than operating vehicles itself, and sets out how that works in its transparency statement.

Three questions to ask first

Which legal entity am I contracting with, and what is its company number? The answer should be immediate and it should match what the register says.

Who physically handles the shipment at each end? Nearly every international move is a handover between two firms. Ask who receives it, and whether they have worked that route before.

What does the insurance cover, what does it exclude, and who do I call on the day? Marine cover and full replacement cover are different products at different prices, and the difference only becomes visible when something is already damaged.

A company that answers those three plainly has thought about them before you asked. One that talks around them has also told you something.